Coburn notches personal best at national cross-country race

While most high school students gorge themselves and then catch up on sleep over the Thanksgiving break, athletes from the Crested Butte Community School and Crested Butte Academy battled 300 of the Midwest region’s elite girls and boys cross-country runners at the Foot Locker Midwest Regionals in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Saturday, November 24.

Although community school senior Emma Coburn’s strength lies in track events of shorter distances, she has amassed a prolific resume as a distance runner in her four years of high school cross-country and displayed those talents this past week.

She closed her Colorado state cross-country running career in October taking fourth place at the state meet, earning her another all-state title.

But the Foot Locker Regionals are a much different and far more competitive ball of wax, bringing in the top runners from 14 states.

The start cannon sent 300 runners into the Wisconsin cold on the 5,000-meter course. Within the first mile, a steep climb thinned out the field but Coburn hung on to remain in the top 15 runners. A tight trail through the woods proved troublesome for Coburn as runners pushed and shoved their way through.

By the time Coburn turned to the finish line, her legs were cooked but she managed to hang on to finish in 29th place with a personal record time of 18:41.7.

She was the top finisher of all of the Colorado runners, tying with a girl from a 5A Front Range school and beating the 5A and 4A state cross-country champions.

In the same race, Academy junior Maddison Garcia completed the course in 19:15 in 55th place as the fifth-placed Colorado female. Academy trained athlete senior Joe Bosshard ran the fast time of 15:43, his personal best, to get 27th place in the tough elite male race.

“Everyone ran really well; regardless of missing qualifying,” says Academy coach Trent Sanderson. “I am very impressed by the effort all the athletes have demonstrated.”

Sanderson says, “To finish top 60 in a race of this stature is a great achievement. It is so tough to qualify for Nationals and to get so close is impressive for any athlete.”