Fifty Weeks Until

The 2009 Colorado Championships

 Next Year #1

State Cross Country Championships

The Maulin' in Fort Collins

The Cougars tore into and ripped apart the competition, to run away with third place at the State Championships

Overlooked and underrated the entire season; the Cougars shocked the Colorado High School running community with a third place finish in the Boys 5A championship race.  Even the Coronado coaches were surprised at the storybook journey the Cougars encountered the final four weeks of the season and how the final chapter unfolded.  It seems to have all started at the Centerra Classic where the Cougars were nipped by one point for the team title.  The team left that meet surprised to have finished so high (2nd), but disappointed that they may have squandered a golden opportunity.  On that weekend, they discovered themselves and came to believe that they (as a team) could run with almost anyone in the state.  From that point forward, they would not be denied.

Their final  race was the consummate "team effort".  The Cougars' big three, Dusty Solis, Andrew Hugill and Jesse Mathews ran gutsy, determined races to plant the foundation for a great team result.  Coronado's fourth, fifth and sixth runners ran PRs to seal the deal.  It was a perfectly awesome occasion and proved to be great timing in running their personal bests.  Everything came together on this one beautiful afternoon to lead to the the perfect team result and an incredible finish to an already gnarly season.

Dusty Solis led the team with a hard fought seventh place finish (check out the photos to see a shot of Dusty on the awards stand).  Andrew Hugill wrapped up his final season at Coronado with the performance of his high school career, running with reckless abandon and determination to grab fifteenth place.  Sophomore, Jesse Mathews boldly moved up to thirteenth place at one point in the race but the pace was fast and furious.  He was totally spent by the three mile mark but managed to hold on to twenty-fourth place.  Take note...of the twenty-three finishers ahead of Jesse, only two were not upperclassmen.

Only one other school,Cherry Creek, the ultimate winner had three runners in the top twenty-five finishers.

When your team has runners like Dusty, Andrew and Jesse, a great deal of pressure is placed on your fourth and fifth runners to keep the team in contention.  Dylan Witte and Ben Vaske came through with flying colors running smart and focused races.  Dylan brought his time down by another nine seconds running a 17:21 on a tough and dusty course.  The key to his race was a smart start, a strong surge in the middle mile and a nice finish to grab 68th place.  Ben Vaske wisely keyed off of Dylan, which led him a personal best of his own.  Ben lowered his personal best by twelve seconds to a 17:38 and earn 93rd place for key points in the team race.  Chuck Voss and Ryan Logan ran 6th and 7th for the Cougars.  Chuck was also able to secure a PR, sneaking under the magical eighteen minute mark.

Colorado Region 5 Cross Country Championship

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  At one moment, the Coronado faithful were ecstatic; thirty minutes later, they were stunned.   The Boys’ team was a surprise meet winner and qualified to compete next week at the State Championships.  The girls struggled through one of those “off days” and came up short of making the trip to Fort Collins.   

The roller coaster of emotions continued as the “open” runners ripped off their sweats and gathered at the starting line for their last race of the season.  For the most part, the emotions ran high during the two open races.  Read on to find out more about Thursday’s activities.

Boys

Over achievers!  Three weeks ago, we had the boys’ team pegged for a fourth place finish at the Regional meet.  Fourth place would be no disgrace when three of the teams in your region are ranked among the top ten in the State and one of those teams is ranked #1.  But things started to change on a Saturday morning in Loveland.  A one point loss to Fort Collins for the team title at the Centerra Classic may have awoken a sleeping giant.  The next week the Cougars found themselves in the thick of things at the Metro League meet.  Rampart won the meet with fifty points and Coronado finished in second place, ahead of rival Palmer and just a mere six points out of first.  Fast forward one week… the Cougars enter the Regional meet with thoughts of upsetting Rampart and moving up one notch.  Beating Durango, the top team in the state, was thought to be out of the question.  Besides, just five weeks earlier, Durango had put an old fashion whoopin’ on both Palmer and Coronado, beating Coronado by nearly sixty points at the Cougar Classic.  But who could have known about the struggles and health issues that Durango had gone through just prior to the Regional meet.  The Cougars weren’t shy and jumped on this golden (actually Red and Yellow) opportunity.  The final results showed Coronado winning the Region 5 Championship with 65 points, followed closely by Palmer and Rampart at 70 points and Durango a distant fourth (107 points).  Pine Creek was the fifth and final team to qualify for the State Meet.

For the second time in as many weeks, Coronado’s own, Dusty Solis brought home the gold medal in the race for individual honors, running a personal best 16:08 for 5K.  Andrew Hugill had another sensational race finishing third overall in a personal best of 16:16 and Jesse Mathews finished fifth in 16:33.  It was an amazing site to see these three Cougars leading the pack through the first two miles before finally allowing Andrew Goodman (Palmer) and Brendan Jarvis (Rampart) to sandwich into the second and fourth spots.  Dylan Witte continues to come through for the Cougars, running another PR (17:29) and finishing 24^th overall.  Ben Vaske, gradually returning to form after an injury layoff, completed the scoring for the Cougars coming across the line in (a PR) 17:50 for 32^nd place.  Chuck Voss and Ryan Logan (once again) ran in the 6^th and 7^th positions for Coronado.

It’s become customary (over the past couple of years) for a Coronado runner to win the Open races.  This year the Cougars have counted on Ryan Mott to uphold this tradition, but Ryan was suffering from the flu on Thursday and the Cougars without their normal ringer.  But Mile Roth rose to the occasion, stepping in to fill the void left by Ryan’s absence.  Miles, hurt or ill most of the season found his stride just in time to save his season and used a strong finishing kick to run to victory in the boys’ open race.  In the process, Miles lowered his personal best from last season’s 18:44 to 18:26.  Others to perform exceptionally well in the open race and set personal bests in the process include; Justin Hays (19:35), Glenn Albright (19:57), Quin Ralston (20:18) Tim O’Connell (22:22), Branden Trujillo (23:20) and Nick Pauley (23:59).

Girls

The Durango boys’ team demonstrated how fickle cross country can be; not every meet can be your best meet and you never know when things might unravel.  Well, for Coronado’s girls team, their unraveling came on Thursday.  Only Bailey Gearhart and Lauren Young had running legs for the Regional meet.  Bailey went on to run a PR (20:30) and finish 19^th overall.  Lauren was running slightly ahead of Bailey with only 500 meters remaining and was well on her way to a her own personal best but suffered a disabling cramp over the final stretch and fell back to 34^th place and a time of 21:10; a time she would have been very happy with just four weeks ago.  Hannah Green ran third for the Cougars in 36^th place with Rosie Bradley and Kaitlin Burrell wrapping up the team scoring.  The Cougars landed in eighth place with 191 points and will be redirecting their energies towards cheering on the boys’ team next Saturday.

The girls fared considerably better in the open race with twelve personal records (PRs) and five season bests.  Bri Waldorf once again led the open runners with a third place finish in a PR of  21:49.  Bri was followed closely by  Kaeli Vandersluis only five seconds behind and Jess Stauffer only another second back.  Only eighteen seconds eclipsed before the next two Cougars (Rileigh Darby-McClure and Hailey Hauser) crossed the finish line.  Then,  just another fourteen seconds back came a sea of red which included Macayla Sparks, Alexis Work, Megan Trujillo, Kaitlin Mayle and Christy Garrett (many ran PRs or were vary close to their best).  The next eleven Cougars (Emily Martin, Insa Uhlenkamp, Emily Asay, Lyuba Georgios, Melinda Marino, Lyia Scott, Corrie Baker, Erika Barton, Hannah Voss, Ashlyn Duffy, and Molly Rayer)  all ran either personal bests or season best.  And finally, one other runner, Jenna Humble ran a personal best of 28:14.

Metro League Meet – October 9, 2008

Another awesome week for the Cougars as forty-one runners set individual personal bests on this course around Fountain-Fort Carson High School.

Girls

Bailey Gearhart and Lauren Young took charge this week, each running respective personal bests and finding themselves in the top twenty finishers.  The girls’ team finished in fifth place (with 97 points) running against a field which closely mirrors what they will see next week at the Regional championships.  Others contributing to the fifth place score were Hannah Green (14^th), Rosie Bradley (27^th) and Kaitlin Burrell (28^th).   Jill Brinkman running sixth for the Cougars this week set another personal best this week, just sneaking under the 22 minute mark (21:59).  The Cougars run next at Monument Valley Park on Thursday, October 16^th.

Teams scores were not kept for the JV races but (during the awards ceremony) it became obvious who dominated the competition.  The Cougars place Rileigh Darby-McClure, Hailey Hauser, Megan Trujillo, Christy Garrett and Alexis Work (all five) in the top ten and then followed up with an eleventh place finish from Kaitlin Mayle.  Two additional finishes worthy of mention came from Erika Barton and Lindsey King.  Erika ran a great race dropping her (personal best) time by one minute.  Lindsey King concluded a two week blitz in which she’s improved by three minutes. 

Boys

This is the second time in five days that the Cougar’s team finish came down to one point and the second time the Cougars earned the second place position on the podium.  Last week the team lost the Centerra team title by one point (ouch).  But turn about is fair play…this week Coronado finished six points behind Rampart for the team title, but edged rival Palmer by a mere point.  The second place finish was a mild surprise but with one varsity out of the line up due to illness and one runner still recovering from injury, the Cougars demonstrated that they can run with the top ten rated teams; Fort Collins, Loveland, Rampart and Palmer. 

Dusty Solis ran a brilliant race to defend his Metro League title (16:16) and lead the Cougars to their strong showing.  Jesse Mathews also ran strong, finishing in fourth place (16:34).  But, perhaps the best performance of the day was delivered by Dylan Witte, finishing in 16^th place in a personal best time of 17:30.  This is the run that pushed Coronado past Palmer and into second place.  Andrew Hugill (7^th) and Ben Vaske (28^th) rounded out the scoring for the varsity team.  Ryan Logan ran sixth for the varsity team and was supported by Rioux Jordan who ran his first (truly) varsity race.  Rioux came through with flying colors, running a personal best 19:30.

Ryan Mott won the JV race in a time of 18:08 and led the Cougars to an unofficial second place.  Other performances worthy of attention (in the JV race) include; Miles Kelly (19:08), Kris Rhodes (19:36), Travvis Scott (19:26), Jared Rieck (19:30), Eric Rayer (19:57), Andre Young (20:02), Quin Ralston (20:24), Andrew Darress, Alex Salter and Matt Lindstrom in the low 21 minutes.

Centerra Classic - October 4th, 2008

Boys

Fort Collins 89 points, Coronado 90 points...this was an amazingly close competition with Fort Collins just edging a Coronado team which was missing their number three/four runner, Ben Vaske.  As close as the race for the meet title may have been, the Cougars may have been a little disappointed with coming so close to the title, but were extremely happy with a second place finish in a quality meet like the Centerra Classic.  Jesse Mathews led the Cougars this week running a brilliant 16:44.8 and finishing fifth on a slightly slow course.   Only a sophomore, Jesse is already mixing it up with the more elite runners in the State.  And, Jesse wasn't the only Cougar to run a good or great race on Saturday.  Andrew Hugill was just nine seconds back finishing in seventh place.  But, possibly the best run of the day came from Dylan Witte, who tied his personal best (17:52) while finishing in the 23rd spot.  Other finishers helping the Cougars to obtain a spot on the podium were Dusty Solis (17:08 for ninth place), Ryan Logan (18:28 for 46th), Chuck Voss (18:29 for 47th) and Ryan Mott (18:38 for 55th).

Girls

Despite missing their top runner, the Cougars managed to pull out a seventh place team finish in the fifteen team field.  Thanks to a hard and fast finish, Lauren Young led the Coronado girls, finishing in 37th place with a time of 21:20.  Rosie Bradley held the distinction of leading the team until the last quarter of a mile where Lauren overtook her.  Rosie's race was probably the best of her life as she tied her PR with a time of 21:23 and finished in 39th place.  Bailey Gearhart was the next Cougar across the finish line in 44th place with a 21:48.  Angela Vitulli and Kaitlin Burrell finished up the scoring finishing in the 55th and 56th places.  Megan Trujillo ran her second best time, running a 23:13 and finishing in 84th place. 

The girls (and guys) go back into action just five days later at the Metro League Meet in Fountain (on Thursday).

Spartan Invitation - October 3rd, 2008

Overview

The Cougars continue to see surprise after surprise.  Friday afternoon was filled with several great performances and more surprises. 

Girls

Girls Rule!  Or at least they did on this day.  The varsity team (comprised of our eighth through fourteenth runners) pulled out a fifth place finish.  All seven of the girls ran super races on a tough course which is about one minute slower than the Monument Valley Course.  Bri Waldorf led the team with an awesome run of 22:48, placing 25th overall.  But Bri wasn't the only runner to perform well on hills of Bear Creek Park.  Seconds behind Bri were Jess Stauffer and Kaeli Vandersluis, both with times under 23 minutes.  And at just over 23 minutes were freshmen Rileigh Darby-McClure (23:08) and Alexis Work (23:31).  Kaitlin Mayle and Hailey Houser ran sixth and seventh for the Cougars, both finishing under twenty-four minutes.  The Cougars pack time for their first five runners was a low 43 seconds and and only 59 seconds for the entire team.

As solid as the varsity team members ran, the fastest time of the day was accomplished in the JV race.  Jill Brinkman was the "flash of the day" running a personal best by an amazing twenty-six seconds (on a totally gnarly course).  Others in the JV race with either good or great races were, Christy Garrett (23:46), Hannah Voss (26:56), Kyran Kolar (27:13) and Lindsey King (28:01).

Boys

Seven runners got the rare chance to run varsity on Friday and took full advantage of this opportunity.  Miles Roth led the boys team with a very solid 19:33 performance.  Following Miles and scoring for the team were Andrew Joynton (19:52), Sam Pressprich (20:28), Miles Kelly (20:34), Travvis Scott (20:48).  Running sixth and seventh were Gleen Albright and Jared Reick.

One of the top improvements of the week came from Rioux Jordan, running a spectacular time of 20:24 in the JV race.  Rioux would have been the number three runner had he been chosen to run in the varsity race (our bad). Not too far behind Rioux were Andre Young (21:04), Eric Rayer (21:06) and Kris Rhodes running the course in 21:12.  Others with a big day included (but not limited to) Quin Ralston, Andrew Darress, Matt Lindstrom, Tate Lagasca, Jason Knox, Ben Rather, Tim O'Connell, Paul Van Bemden and Max Malone. 

Pikes Peak Invitational - September 25, 2008

Overview

What a difference a week makes.  Seven days earlier, the Cougars raced in an extremely competitive field consisting of thirty-seven schools.  This weeks’ meet was a little more laid back with a total of only nine teams, of which only four schools were able to put enough runners on the course to tally a team score.  The PPI had more of a “dual meet flavor” than that of an invitational.  Needless to say, the Cougars dominated the meet.  However, Doherty, St. Mary’s and Canon City did manage to provide competition in spots, especially in the Girls Varsity race.  But the biggest challenge of the day came from the Palmer Park course that proved to be considerably slower than the Monument Valley (MVP) track.  For example, the most physically fit Cougars found it to be about 85 – 90 seconds slower than MVP, while the middle of the pack runners found it to be up two minutes slower.

Boys

The highlight of the meet had to be the one-two-three varsity finish provided by Dusty Solis, Andrew Hugill and Jesse Mathews.  In addition, the three man sweep was followed up by a sixth and seventh place finish from Ben Vaske and Dylan Witte leading to a low and winning score of just nineteen points.  What a pleasure it is to see Dusty rolling back into form following several weeks of illness.  Equally exciting was to watch Andrew Hugill run what was most likely his best race ever.  And at first glance it appeared that Jesse Mathews may have had his first off day of the season.  However, following a closer look and a little analysis, Jesse’s race was par for the course.  Also on par was the performance provided Dylan Witte, who ran within ninety seconds of last week’s performance.  But Dylan’s race was another that appeared may have appeared to be a little off…but only because his  performance was simply overshadowed by Ben Vaske’s fantastic effort; finishing in 19:06, only 63 seconds off of his Cougar Classic run.  Ryan Logan and Andrew Joynton both found the medal stand placing 13^th and 20^th (respectively).

The best description of the junior varsity races is a “sea of red”.  Not only did Coronado have forty percent of the entrants; but the Cougars grabbed up half of the awards, including that of the (unofficial) first place team.  The JV boys mimicked the varsity squad, finishing one-two-three and then adding a seventh, eighth and tenth place to squeeze six runners into the top ten spots.  The sweep was produced by Miles Roth, Glenn Albright and Sam Pressprich.  After suffering through six weeks of injury and illness, Miles has rediscovered his running wings and looks to be fully recovered.  It’s great to have him back.  Glenn Albright was one of the meets’ biggest surprises, running only 50 seconds slower than his already fantastic finish in Monument Valley Park.  Keep an eye on this blossoming sophomore.  Travvis Scott, Rioux Jordan and Miles Kelly came through to fill in the seventh, eighth and tenth spots.  Rioux performance borders on the verge of “breakthrough” as he is now running with athletes who have previously broken twenty minutes for 5K. 

Girls

The Cougars captured first place in three of the four races held on Thursday.  The Doherty Spartans (the number three team in the State) relegated Coronado’s girls varsity squad to a second place finish.  But placing second to this Doherty squad is no disgrace.  Doherty has a strong team and scored just twenty-four points as the Cougars finished with 45 and (state ranked in 3A) St. Mary’s followed up with 65 points.  Hannah Green led the girls with a third place individual finish, running the hot, hilly and often times sandy course in 21 minutes and 44 seconds.  Lauren Young, returning from illness, is beginning to show signs of recovery as she ran within a minute of Hannah for the first time this season and finishing in ninth place.  You can expect to see Lauren continue to improve and most likely dip below twenty-one minutes before the end of the season.  Bailey Gearhart ran third for the Cougars finishing just behind Lauren, in tenth place.  This was most likely Baileys’ best race of the season (at least to this point).  Rosie Bradley wasn’t much further back finishing a strong race in 23:01 and earning the 11^th spot.  Angela Vitulli locked up the second place team finish for the Cougars by finishing 12^th.  Megan Trujillo and Kaitlin Burrell finished 19^th and 20^th to also make a trip to the podium for individual medals.

Despite missing three of their top runners, the junior varsity girls ruled!!!  Finishing 1-2-3-4-5-6 the girls left little doubt to who has the toughest and deepest JV squad in Colorado Springs.  Riliegh Darby-McClure surprised a few (and possibly herself) when she took off mid way through the race and led the Cougars to a perfect score of 15 points in the official JV results.  Riliegh’s race was a thing of beauty as she was able to run within 61 seconds of last weeks’ performance.  The Cougars’ JV team went on to place ten runners on the podium (awards to the top twenty).  The six girl sweep was orchestrated by Riliegh, Macayla Sparks, Hailey Houser, Kaitlin Mayle, Emily Martin and Jill Brinkman.  Needless to say, each of these girls ran an outstanding race.  Others to earn awards were Christy Garrett, Alexis Work, Insa Uhlenkamp and Lyuba Georgios.