In Centennial’s DeKoevend Park, at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational, Coronado’s women’s cross country team pushed their way past 18 teams, through two creek crossings and in 80-something-degree heat to complete a 33 point blowout in the women’s field.

Cross country’s victory on 9/2 came just a single week after the Cougars’ victory at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede, where Coronado not only won by 24 points but notched three top-ten finishes in the the performances of Layla Roebke, 10, Madeline Morland, 10, and Taylor Dutton, 11.

On this week’s race, cross country coach Mr. Hugill said, “I was very proud of their efforts.  They were tired and hot but pushed through.”

The women’s team moved in packs for much of Arapahoe Warrior Invitational, Taylor Dutton, Maddie Morland, and Chloe Cassens, 11, in the first, and freshman Grace Abernethy, sophomores Faith Roth and Layla Roebke, and junior Hannah Besse in the second. Coronado’s strategy succeeded, Coronado scores greatly benefitting; Dutton finishing first for the Cougars at 20:35 and 17th place overall, and followed within four seconds by Morland and Cassens. Fourth for the Cougars and in 29th place was Abernethy, followed by Roth in 38th overall, Roebke in 45th overall, and Besse in 66th overall.

“As a team we competed great, it was a pretty competitive meet with a lot of respected teams and we did a great job of staying together as a pack considering we all finished within two minutes of each other,” said Taylor Dutton.

The women’s team edged out nearest competitor Arapahoe for first by a margin of 33 points, 117-150.

The Coronado men’s team was lead by junior-senior duo Conor Strizitch and Clay Rahaman, who after a race ran largely together, finished in 25th and 36th place, with respective times of 17:42 and 18:05. The Cougars finished in 8th place overall in the boys varsity race, beating out D11 rival Doherty by 18 pts.

In the open races, Coronado was represented well by upperclassmen Rebecca Bieda and Jackie Godec, who placed 6th and 11th in the the Girls Junior/Senior open race with finishing times of 23:27 and 24:00.

Catch Coronado cross country at the St. Vrain Cross Country Invitational on 9/10 at Lyons High School in Lyons, Colorado. Keep it up Cougars!