The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Girls’ team in full effect, finally
It took all season long but the timing couldn’t be better.
For the entire fall of cross-country running, coach Emma Catmur has yet to put her top five girls’ runners in a race at the same time. Junior Monica Konsella missed the first half of the season due to the league eligibility rules attached to transfer student athletes. Sophomore Hannah Smith missed the second half of races due to a nagging injury. And seniors Maddie Garcia and Emma Vosburg missed a race or two for a variety of other reasons.About the only consistent varsity runner all season long has been sophomore Erin Kelly.
Fortunately, with the regionals coming up in Delta on Saturday, October 18, it appears the team is coming together.
“We’ll have the top five girls running for the first time,” says Catmur.
The team headed to compete in the Montrose Relays on Saturday, October 11 as a training run more than anything else.
The relays team two runners together, who trade off running five kilometers each but in one-mile intervals.
Therefore, Catmur’s emphasis for her runners was not so much about winning but more about training.
“You get one more hard workout in before regionals,” says Catmur about the relays. “I paid more attention to their splits and to keep them running even splits. You get a better workout if you run them even.”
It just so happened that while Kelly and Konsella teamed up to work on their splits, they also ended up with first place.
Vosburg and senior Kelli Hargrove were the other Titan girls duo to complete the relay taking 10th place overall.
Smith put together two of her three laps to get her back in race mode without pushing it too hard from the start.
“That was good for Hannah because she got a little workout and it looks like she’ll run at regionals,” says Catmur.
Sophomore Jeffery Hargrove and freshman David Bright each put together shining moments at the Montrose Relays.
Hargrove set a personal record in one of his splits and Bright linked together the most consistent splits of the day.
As for regionals, Catmur expects her five girls runners to place top 15 and thus qualify as individuals for the state meet. In addition, she hopes to see her girls’ team win the regional meet. But they have an unknown regional foe in their way.
“Mancos is our biggest competition and we’ve never raced against them,” says Catmur. “They look like they will be some big competition.”
For the boys, it will take a tremendous, but not impossible, effort from Hargrove and Bright to hit the top 15 and qualify for the state race.
“David and Jeffery will have to run their best races of the season,” says Catmur.
If you’re headed west this weekend, stop by to cheer on the Titans at regionals in Delta on Saturday, October 18. The girls’ race starts at 9 a.m.
