Titans’ cross-country rallies over the hills and far away

Leadville course favors Titans ability to suffer

The Lake County Invitational in Leadville takes cross-country running to a whole new level. It’s a notoriously hilly course set at 10,000 feet above sea level, making pain the name of the game. Fortunately, that’s just how the Titan runners like it.
“You either love it or you hate it and every single one of our kids embraced it,” says coach Connie Hayden.
Sophomore Ian Boucher may have embraced it more than any other Titan. Boucher placed second, leading the boys’ team to a first-place finish for their first piece of team hardware since 2003.
Boucher missed out on the season opening race last weekend in Delta due to illness and was fired up to put his hours of training to the test in Leadville.
“He was just chomping at the bit to race,” says Hayden.
Boucher took off from the start line and never looked back as he and one other runner left a pack of six runners in their dust. Boucher timed his final push perfectly and with 100 yards left to go on the five-kilometer course Boucher reeled the first-place runner in.
Unfortunately, just as Boucher pulled even, the course made a hard 90-degree turn and Boucher got pinched off into a tree, leaving him in second place.
“He learned a lesson—never pass on the inside,” says Hayden.
Boucher finished with a time of 17:55, almost a full minute faster than his time on the same course last season.
Senior Matt Galley continues his effort to acclimate. Galley has a personal record time of 16:28 for the five-kilometer distance but that was during his years racing in Indiana. He hopes to return to that mark later this season but for now he is focused on sticking with the lead pack. He managed that better this past weekend than in his first race, posting a time of 18:36 and finishing in sixth place.
“He’s still adjusting to our altitude but he had a great race,” says Hayden.
But the team title would not have been possible had it not been for the efforts of Hayden’s “fabulous sophomore boys,” Forrest Smith, Danny D’Aquila and Kyle Boyle.
All three runners shaved in the neighborhood of two minutes off their times from last year as Smith finished in 11th place, D’Aquila in 24th and Boyle in 35th place.
“It’s so fun to see them improve,” says Hayden. “Their summer miles are totally paying off.”
Freshmen Colt Galley and Jack Duryea got their first taste of a varsity race as well in Leadville, with each one rising to the challenge.
Hayden believes the title in Leadville is a direct result of the new mindset of the boys’ team as a whole.
“It’s because we have some dedicated kids who ran over the summer and want to make the boys’ program a powerhouse,” explains Hayden.
The girls’ team, historically the powerhouse squad of Titans cross-country program, was short a number of runners in Leadville due to the annual dirge of ACT testing.
Fortunately, two of their top runners were on hand to carry the Titan torch—junior Amber Scott and sophomore Mina Moscatelli.
Scott came into Leadville with no particular plan in place other than to work on her technique on hills and continue her training regimen.
But, as the race wore on, coach Shari Sullivan-Marshall put Scott to the test.
As the leaders passed the one-mile mark, Scott was within striking distance of the leader and Sullivan-Marshall challenged Scott to reel her in.
By the time Scott crested the second major hill of the course, she had the lead and was running away with the race.
She ended up posting a time of 21:36, a minute faster than last year, for the win.
“She really pushed herself, which is great,” says Hayden. “She felt strong and looked really strong.”
While Moscatelli dragged in Delta the week before, she had little trouble in Leadville, cutting nine seconds off her Leadville time last year to place 13th with a time of 23:42.
“We just needed to get her up 5,000 feet in elevation and drop the temperature 50 degrees,” quips Hayden. “She just thrived.”
The team will have its only “home” race of the season on Saturday, September 17 as they head 30 miles south for the Gunnison Invitational.
The course is behind the K-8 school with the girls starting at 10 a.m. and the boys at 10:45.
“We’re back to a flat course so we’re looking for speedier times and to continue the momentum,” says Hayden. “The competition should be strong.”