In the midst of a cool fall breeze and the fallen leaves of downtown Colorado Springs, the Coronado cross country team kicked up the dust at the Colorado 5A Region 5 Cross Country Championships. To qualify for the state championships on Saturday, 10/28, both teams required standout performances that would place them in the top four as a team or the top fifteen for individuals.

The boys team, who have battled with injury and sickness for much of this season, took to the course with high hopes, as they missed out on sending any runners to state last year. From the shot of the gun at the start line, the race materialized as one of the toughest Coronado has ever been a part of: Runners were still jostling for position as an unusually immense pack came through the first mile at a blistering fast pace. Junior Ben Swanson especially felt the results of such a competitive and brutal race: midway through the first mile he suffered a tumble into the bushes. “There [were] so many competitive competitive runners, I could barely fit on the trail in the first mile.” One of the most crucial members of Coronado’s team, Swanson still managed to finish the race, although with a few scratches, with a time of 17:16, good for 37th place.

Senior Conor Strizich led the men’s team with a strong effort that yielded a personal best and a 24th place finish, just nine spots out of qualifying individually. Strizich was not the only Cougar to achieve a new personal best, in fact, seven out of Coronado’s nine competing male runners earned a new best time: sophomores Charlie Schroeder, Adam Austin, and Mark Bloomfield, (who finished fourth, sixth, and seventh on the team), as well as senior Tyler Kluzak all ran personal bests on the flat and fast course at Monument Valley Park. The most jaw dropping effort of the day, however, had to come from sophomore Ben Hayes-Lemmon, who smashed his freshmen year record of 18:39 to run a 17:34 5k, good for third on the team.

Despite so many outstanding efforts from the team, the region’s exceptionally strong teams landed the Cougars in eighth place overall. Proving just how strong the region’s teams were this year, eighteen out of the top twenty individuals came from the top four placing teams. Although the Cougars had hoped a bid for state was in their grasp this year, they end their season with hope for next year as their young team will only lose two seniors.

On the girls’ side, the team toed the line alongside nationally ranked Mountain Vista, but with great optimism, as this was their first time fielding the whole returning varsity from the prior season. The Cougars, using the pack mentality that has earned them three team wins this season, produced one of Coronado’s best performances ever: all five scoring members of the team ran under 20:00, which has only happened once before in school history-a year that saw the girls in the top five at State. Achieving a mere 26 seconds separation between their first and last scoring runners, the Cougars were incredibly happy with their effort, which earned them a third place team finish and a spot at state: “Headed into the meet, we were not seeded to make it out of Regionals, but we knew better.  These girls are strong, fast, and determined; they were ready to break out,” said Coach Stoughton of the girls’ potential.

Two ladies earned individual state qualifier positions: sophomore Grace Abernethy, who finished thirteenth with a 33 second personal record (PR), and senior Taylor Dutton, who qualified individually for her second year in a row. Narrowly missing an individual qualifier position were upperclassmen Chloe Cassens and Faith Roth in 18th and 20th. Roth’s performance yielded her a five second personal best. Rounding out the team were juniors Layla Roebke and Shauna Mackay, sophomore Lauren Strizich, and senior Hannah Besse. Important to note was that this race was only Roebke’s second of the season after she was sidelined with an injury that prohibited her from running until the regional meet. Strizich and Mackay both ran to new personal bests, Strizich by over thirty seconds and Mackay by over a minute.

Coronado’s women will hope to claim their third consecutive top-ten performance at state on Saturday, 10/28. Come support the Cougars at 10:40 A.M. at Norris Penrose Event Center!