LYONS >> No team came close to meeting the standard that Niwot boys cross country set in a race that was filled to the brim with talent.

After crossing the finish line at one, two, three, four, five, six at the St. Vrain Invite at Lyons High School on Saturday morning, the Cougars put the rest of Class 5A on notice. Their new, higher classification — moving up from 4A — will have a battle coming its way when the state meet rolls around in a few weeks.

Their usual leading man, junior Rocco Culpepper, set the pace at 15 minutes, 29.2 seconds, as juniors Robbie Hunter (second, 15:38.0), Gabriel Marshall (third, 15:38.4), senior Keegan Geldean (fourth, 15:46.0), junior Ryder Keeton (fifth, 15:50.6), sophomore Quinn Sullivan (sixth, 15:58.2) and senior Gavin Engtrakul (eighth, 16:05.6) all followed in tow.

“We got a lot in us still, and we’re going to have a pretty crazy season,” Culpepper said. “I think it just shows how strong the coaching is, to show we had a team that can get fifth in nationals (Nike Cross Nationals in 2023) and then build another year from there.”

Culpepper said he believes that his Cougars have improved even more from last year’s NXN and 4A state title run. He credited the team culture as well as the collaborative approach that each runner takes through races, and thinks Niwot will surprise a lot of people in the 5A scene this year.

In a league of her own

From the moment she stepped onto Niwot’s campus, junior Addy Ritzenhein has been a legend by her own making. Earlier this year, she won the prestigious Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Player of the Year award, just a few months after taking home the individual 4A state crown and the NXN crown.

On Saturday morning, she was running back to her old form — winning the race in 17:24.9 — but it cost her more than she expected. Ritzenhein collapsed as soon as she crossed the finish line and had to be helped over to the trainer’s tent for further treatment.

Eaton’s Delaney Reuter, who sat at No. 2 in Colorado with a 16:59.20 prior to the race, was on her tail the entire five kilometers. Ritzenhein beat her out by 7.3 seconds.

“The last hundred meters, I could not keep my legs up. It was so weird,” Ritzenhein explained. “That’s never happened. I might have kept pressing it a little too hard towards the end, and then with a mile to go I was completely lactic. I just really had to push deep on that one to get to the finish.”She believes that performance, however painful, will help prepare her for the 5A spotlight at the Norris Penrose Event Center come Nov. 2.

Not even close

In his first three years with Peak to Peak, senior Jack Cerullo had never taken home a victory at the St. Vrain Invite. This time around, he mastered the hilly course in 16:23.2, a full 17 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Loveland Classical’s Antheney Herre.

It was a pure masterclass, and one that fell just 11 seconds short of his PR at elevation (read: in Colorado), which he hit at the 3A state championships last year for fourth place. The Pumas finished third in the team race at St. Vrain behind Strasburg and Golden View, but Cerullo believes his boys have what it takes to be one of the top teams in the classification in a few weeks.

“I’m just glad I had my team behind me with it,” he said. “We all had some pretty good times as well. I think we’re one of the strongest that we’ve ever been, to be honest. I’m pretty sure a bunch of our guys fit within like at least top 20, top 30. I’m just kind of glad how far we’ve come in the past few years.”

Mining for gold

When Avery Marr left Prospect Ridge Academy to pursue a running career at Oregon State University, one would be excused in believing that there would be a leadership vacuum at the top of the Miners’ ticket.

They proved that theory wrong in spectacular fashion on Saturday.

Senior Emily Jones matched Marr’s third-place mark from a year earlier, herself notching a 21:08.4 time to trail just 17 seconds behind the leader. Her teammates quickly fell in line behind her, starting with sophomore Haley Zuniga (12th, 22:12.4) and freshman Camille White (13th, 22:16.0), and ending with freshman Kinley Exner (16th, 22:22.3) and freshman Kathleen MacGuire (17th, 22:40.0).

Their collective performance won them the 2A/3A team race by a mere 11 points. That helped alleviate Jones’ pre-race nerves in front of a large stage that welcomed 58 teams between the genders and classifications. “My race plan was honestly just to go out aggressive the first mile and then kind of see what happens,” Jones said. “I think I did just that. I’m never at the start of the pack after the first 200 (meters), so that was a really cool experience.”