For the third time in a row, Manitou Springs has a Tri-Peaks League cross-country champion. Keeping tradition alive after Henry Ilyasova won two straight league titles, Cody Kelley was the first runner across the finish line at Monument Valley Park on Oct. 7.
His time of 16 minutes, 3.93 seconds gave him the league crown and helped the Mustangs finish second as a team, behind only Salida. Nine teams competed.
“This gave me a whole lot of confidence,” Kelley said. “I haven’t run a lot of races and I’ve fallen short of that first position a couple of times. This is the first race this season that I’ve won, and it’s a big one.”
The whole day provided encouragement for both the boys and the girls teams. Cody Wyman (17:00.27) finished in the top 15, which also gave him all-league honors and Bennett Gauvin (17:11.41), Lairden Rogge (18:14.24) and Daniel Parker (19:05.72) all set personal records by at least 35 seconds.
The story was similar for the girls. Gaia Drotar (22:33.08), Ellen Lowe (22:52.18) and Rylynne Murphy Skillen (25:00.2) all broke their PRs by more than a minute.
“The girls had about as close to a complete race as you can get,” coach Andy Sherwood said. “They were firing on all cylinders. I was really happy with what the girls did.”
The Mustangs now get some time to recover and train ahead of regionals, which will also take place at Monument Valley Park.
At this point, the key to their training plan is that there has been a consistent message and plan all season. The competition was less frequent, but the results have been trending in the right direction since the season began.
The hope is that by the time regionals roll around, the Mustangs will be making their best times of the year.
“We’re on pace to hit (our peak) at the right time,” Kelley said. “I don’t think leagues was a true test to see what this team is all about.”
That test should come at regionals and the Mustangs plan on passing that test with flying colors.