The Manitou Springs girls cross country team could have been ready to party like it was 1999. But winning its first regional title in 25 years wasn’t the finish line of their goal, it was merely the third mile.
With one race to go, the Mustangs have a chance to do something no team before it has done. They can finish as a state runner-up or, if the dominos fall the right way, a state champion. These Mustangs are that good. Chloe Bresnahan, Elisa Karr and Keyaira Moore finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, at the Class 3A Region 2 race to lead the Mustangs to a regional win.
They can parlay that performance into the best result in program history when they take on the 5K course at the Norris Penrose Event Center on Saturday. But to maintain the level of focus needed to succeed, they’re trying to approach this weekend as just another race.
“This whole week is about sticking to fundamentals and everything that we’ve learned about visualization and nutrition and rest and putting it all together,” coach Andy Sherwood said. “It’s a more intense environment, but it’s really no different than any other meet.”
That’s the way they approached regionals, and it worked out in the end. Bresnahan was able to cross the finish line in 19 minutes, 24.61 seconds which was just over a second faster than Karr. Moore came in about 24 seconds later, giving the Mustangs three finishers in the top five, which solidified the regional title. This is a group that has achieved heights the program hasn’t seen before, and it comes from an ideal mixture of talent, competitiveness and leadership. And now the focus is replicating it for one more race.
“Right now, I don’t feel like there’s that much pressure,” Karr said. “But as the week goes on, I’ll start to process that we have a chance winning the whole thing. That’s a lot.”
The boys put together a typical performance for them as Yonas Hanson was the lead Mustang, finishing 11th at 17:17.34.
Ethan Traeknle finished 14th Evan Fugate finished 15th and Daniel Parker finished in 22nd. The team effort wasn’t quite good enough to beat out Salida and Alamosa, but it was still strong enough that the boys feel they can put together a solid run at state.
“We all know what we can do,” Traeknle said. “We just need to work with each other and run our best when it matters.”
The boys finished sixth as a team last year, mainly off the strength of Cody Kelley and Cody Wyman each placing in the top 10. The Mustangs may not have those top-line finishers this year, but still believe they can put together a performance that can match that sixth-place effort.
At state in 2023, Fugate finished 88th and Traenkle finished 108th. Those finishes should be greatly improved this year. As a freshman, Karr finished 15th. She could very well be in line for a spot near the top of the podium.
Manitou volleyball nearing season’s end
The Manitou Springs volleyball team dropped its sixth straight match on Oct 20, losing at home to Florence 25-19, 25-20, 25-20.
The loss followed a tough matchup from last Thursday where the Mustangs (2-19 overall, 2-9 Tri-Peaks) lost to Salida 25-9, 25-16, 22-25, 25-6.
Manitou has two matches remaining on the year. They host Thomas MacLaren in the final home game for seniors AJ Jackson and Kloe Roth and then travel to La Junta to conclude the regular season. As of Oct. 30, the Mustangs were No. 58 in the CHSAA Selection and Seeding Index which only takes the top 36 teams into the postseason.
