The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Porter Washburn headed to state championships
by Than Acuff
All season long the focus has been on improvements week-by-week for the Crested Butte Titans cross country team and reaching their pinnacle by the regional race. It turns out that’s exactly what happened as the Titan runners continued to gain speed in the latter part of the season and all six of the runners who competed at the regional meet finished with their fastest times of the season or new personal records—including Porter Washburn, who put together the race of the season to earn a spot at the 2A state championships.
The regional race always provides an opportunity for runners to step on the gas with a relatively flat course in Delta. Furthermore, temperatures were cooler than usual when the Titans toed the line on Friday, October 18. Given the steps the team had taken leading up to the regional race, the coaches kept the plan fairly simple for their athletes.
“We just wanted all of them to do their best and use people to work off of them and pick people off throughout the race,” says coach Shari Sullivan-Marshall.
The day opened with the girls’ race and the lone Titan female runner, Stella Reinhardt, set the tone for the rest of the team. While temperatures were perfect for the Titans to excel, the wind kicked up a bit, causing some concern among the runners as to whether they could reach their top speed.
Reinhardt put all of that behind her though as she finished her first year as a high school runner, posting a time of 25:30 at regionals for a new personal record (PR) by over a minute and cracked the top 50. Her effort also set the tone for the rest of the Titans in the boys’ race.
“She had a really solid race and was super-impressive,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “She really set the bar for everyone else showing that, even with the wind, PRs can happen.”
The boys’ team of five Titans then lined up ranked ninth in the region only to shatter that by finishing the day seventh as a team.
“They definitely rose to the occasion,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
The Titans’ top runner, Porter Washburn, found himself in a tight battle near the front of the pack. After settling into 18th place halfway through the race, Washburn pushed his way up into 15th place, dropped back to 17th but then put in one last push to edge out a 15th-place finish and qualify for the state championships.
“He set himself up in the perfect position early on and then fought for that state qualifying spot,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
Jude Eaton closed out his high school running career with his best race ever. Eaton came into regionals ranked 43rd but dropped the hammer to finish in 33rd with a new PR time of 20:03.
“He ran the perfect 5k,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “He looked strong the whole way and found a new gear. It was great to have him finish like that as a senior.”
After missing three weeks of critical training time to a concussion, Logan Utz made quick work in his return to action, culminating with a PR time of 21:03 at regionals.
“He raced like he had never missed a day this year,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “It will be fun to see him run next year with a full season of training.”
Yvon Michel had a slow start to his season as well with an illness preventing him from quality training early on. He too stepped up his game, though, in the final race of the year as he raced 39 seconds faster than his previous best time for the season, bringing a solid close to the Titans’ effort at regionals.
“It was the most engaged I’ve seen him in a long time,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “All six runners ran really, really well.”
Washburn now has one more week of preparation before he heads to the state race in Colorado Springs on Saturday, October 26. It will be his second trip to the championships in as many years and Sullivan-Marshall is looking for him to step up higher in the results from his race last year.
“We just want him to race smart and pick people off,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “It would be great to see him finish higher than last year, looking for somewhere between 75th and 50th place.”
