The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Looking to send two teams to state
It’s been a wacky couple of weeks for the Crested Butte Titans cross-country team. It all started two weeks ago as the team prepared for the Chris Severy Invitational in Aspen on October 8.
The team was really looking forward to the race with its relentless hills and true cross-country running feel.
“It’s such a different course from what we’ve been running on,” says coach Shari Sullivan-Marshall. “It really goes back to the roots of cross-country running.”
Unfortunately, illness ran rampant through the Titan runners’ ranks, dropping several from the day of racing.
The Titans boys team was missing three of their top five runners with sophomores Ian Boucher and Danny D’Aquila and senior Matt Galley all out.
The girls team was already missing sophomore Mina Moscatelli to a season-ending injury and lost senior Jessie D’Aquila the day of the race to illness as well.
“It was unfortunate they couldn’t be there but everyone else rose to the occasion,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
Mother Nature threw her best at the runners that day, plus a winter squall blew through Aspen the morning of the race. As race officials scrambled to delay the girls’ race, the course just got slicker and slicker.
“It was a little hectic,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “Once the cannon went off though, they raced super well.”
Junior Amber Scott was the lone Titan girl in the varsity race and after the initial climb straight up from the start line she was sitting in 20th place. Never one to panic, Scott made her way through the throngs of runners spread out on the slick course, making her way into seventh place by the finish line.
“It was the kind of race that she likes and she made some strategic moves,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
The coaches placed the other five Titan girls in the JV race so they wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle of the varsity mayhem and could get a sense of what their upcoming regional race will be like.
Senior Shelby Kopf led the Titans in the JV race, taking 12th place. Sophomore Mara McLoughlin had a stellar showing staying with Kopf and finishing 13th and senior Natalie Barefield finished in 18th.
“Mara’s getting a little more confident and a little stronger,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “She had a breakout performance. They all worked really well together.”
Given the conditions, the smaller team and the competition, the boys battled hard and kept pace with their counterparts all five kilometers.
“All four boys were really reactive to the runners around them,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
The Titans closed out the regular season with the Montrose Relays. Coach Connie Hayden describes the Montrose Relays as the AJ of cross-country running, with teams dressing in a group costume and teaming up to run a series of relay races.
“It’s a perfect race before regionals,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “It’s a great workout and we did well too.”
Galley and Boucher were back in action in Montrose and joined forces to win the boys relay. Smith and D’Aquila took seventh and Scott and Boyle placed fifth among the boy/girl teams.
More important though, the coaches kept track of their runners’ mile times—across the board, everyone had improved dramatically.
“A lot of the kids improved their mile averages by 20 or even 60 seconds,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
The Titans are now gearing up for the regionals in Delta with a couple of goals in mind.
First of all, the top two 2A boys’ teams in the state, Crested Butte and Telluride, will finally get to battle it out.
Second, the girls’ team is looking to return to the state meet with another solid showing at regionals.
“I can’t wait to see it play out,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “Everyone’s feeling good going into regionals.”
If all goes well, both the boys and girls teams should qualify for the state championships for the first time since 2001.
