The Manitou Springs cross country team is preparing for its biggest week of the season. After resting a while after its last race at the Vanguard Courser Lightning Invitational, the Mustangs will head back to Monument Valley Park on Friday, Oct. 21, for regional competition.
That’s where both teams, the boys and the girls, will run for a chance to qualify for the state meet. This has been a productive season for the Mustangs; Cody Kelley and Cody Wyman have each run several impressive races, capped by Kelley’s Tri-Peaks championship almost two weeks ago.
The boys team has huge expectations not just for this week, but for what they can accomplish next week at the state meet.
“It comes down to this part of the season, and training is set up for us to have our best races at regionals and the state meet,” coach Andy Sherwood said. “I hope that everyone can start pulling things together and having as complete of an effort that we’ve seen so far.”
The biggest payoff on the girls side could be getting some representation at state.
Gaia Drotar and Ellen Lowe have put together solid seasons and have seen progressive growth throughout the season. Each recorded personal records at the league meet and will look to better those numbers on Friday.
“We’re in a tough region on the girls side,” Sherwood said. “It’s always going to be tough for us to get into the state meet with the way the region is structured. But we’ve built a really strong foundation. Gaia has come so far this season and I think that Ellen has a lot to do with that in pushing her along.”
Heading into regionals, there is no doubt that this has been a very important season for both programs.
The boys lost 2022 graduate Henry Ilyasova, who had been a steady source of success and yet, they’re having arguably a better season as a team than they were a year ago. That’s been a testament to the foundation built in previous years and maintained by a new crop of runners.
The quest now is to build that same foundation for the girls. This year has been a significant sign of building that foundation.
A great payoff would be state representation. But if it doesn’t happen, next year will provide an enlightening measurement of progress.