The Manitou Springs cross-country team is about to find out if the consistency that the program has been searching for in recent years will be present in 2022. The Mustangs are coming off a year in which a full team made it to the state meet.
In previous years, the hope had been that Henry Ilyasova would qualify as an individual and, hopefully, one or two more runners could get there to keep him company.
The 2021 season felt like a turning point.
The Mustangs had a talented group of runners and a fair number of them will be back this fall. Ilyasova’s loss will be heavily felt, but he helped set the standard for what the program seeks to accomplish each season, and junior Cody Kelley is eager to carry that torch.
“One-hundred percent I feel like it’s on my shoulders,” Kelley said. “(Ilyasova) passed the reins down to me and we have some serious kids that are starting their high school careers.”
The entire season will have a fresh feel as Andy Sherwood takes over as head coach, while Anna Mack steps into an assistant role.
Sherwood has been helping the Mustangs move toward more overall success in recent years and believes that last year is just a taste of what this team will be capable of for the next several seasons.
“It’s been a team effort to establish that consistency,” Sherwood said. “Henry got us to a point and something to shoot for, but I really like how this team is coming together.”
The Manitou boys finished 11th as a team and Kelley is the top returner from last year’s state meet. He finished 27th, crossing the finish line in 17 minutes, 29.9 seconds.
Connor Cassidy and Lairden Rogge each finished in the top 150, but they know that their times have to drop significantly for the Mustangs to climb in those team rankings.
That’s the expectation that’s been set and the overall change in team culture has been a big help in raising those expectations from where they were a few years ago.
“We just have a different attitude about the whole thing,” Kelley said. “There wasn’t a big running community in the high school or middle school. Now that we see awesome success, the popularity is going up.”
Sherwood is really excited about the girls team. Like the boys a few years ago, the girls have had limited success, but the middle school’s feeder program has been on the rise and that effect will start to be felt with the high school team this year.
“The girls won the state championship meet at the middle school,” Sherwood said.
“We have two of those girls that were in the top seven. We expect Ellen Lowe to get close, if not make it, to the state meet as an individual.”
She’ll get her first high school taste of the state course when the Mustangs compete at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede on Sept. 2.
Manitou Springs Cross-country
Head coach: Andy Sherwood
2021 result: Boys finished 11th in state
Key returners: Connor Cassidy, Cody Kelley, Lairden Rogge
First competition: Sept. 2 at Cheyenne Mountain Stampede