MS Cross Country Team Competes in State! Cairns Places 2nd !!
by Pat Cade:
The Lake County Middle School cross country team ended its season by traveling down to Littleton for the Colorado Middle School State Cross Country Championship. This year the race was split into two championship races, one containing middle schools that feed into large division high schools and one containing schools feeding into small division high schools for a total of 1603 finishers on the day. This allowed the races to be a much more manageable size as well as giving insight into the future high school state championship races.
Lake County has many reasons for excitement on both the girls and boys side. Matt Cairns lead most of the race and was part of the closest first place finish all day. He was nipped at the line by 1.5sec and finished 2nd place in 12:37. The boys team ran well and earned 13th place out of 24. The rest of the team was lead by Jace Peters in 30th and 13:36, Dakota Hanson in 109th and 15:20, Jaren Peters in 136rd and 15:54, finally Abel Gonzales in 143rd and 16:03. Matt, Jace and Dakota will be moving up to the high school level next year. Jacob Cairns was the sole boys open racer, he finished 33rd in a time of 14:51.
The girls side had a great day. As a team they ran well together and in the score 5 format placed 5th out of 26. The dynamic duo of Adele and Rose Horning lead the way with 10th and 11th place in 14:25 and 14:29 respectively. Next across the line and finalizing the scoring for LCMS were Keira King in 70th and 16:25, Jules Sandoval in 75th and 16:30 and Clara Kirr in 83rd and 16:38. Filling out the championship race were Ella Bullock and Violet Hill in 101st and 109th place in 17:02 and 17:16 respectively. The championship format meant each team could only run 7 athletes, hence an open division was ran so everyone had the opportunity to race. In the girls open race Indigo Olson and Grace Bunch pushed each other to 87th and 89th place in 17:42 and 17:23. Similarly, Amara Olsen and Avery Milne ran well to 158th ad 160th place in 19:38 and 19:43. Rounding out the team was Susie Bullock running strong to 193rd in 20:32. The girls team will be sending Adele Horning up to the high school team next year. Thank you to all the athletes and parents for a great season.
