Titans cross-country rallies at regional race

Seven Titans headed to state championships

[ by Than Acuff ]

For the first time since 2014, the Crested Butte Titans cross-country team brought some hardware back from regionals when the boy’s team placed second at the Regional meet in Delta on Friday, October 22. In addition, Connor Williams and Ruby Pendy each won their races and led a total of seven Titans who qualified for the state championship race this weekend in Colorado Springs.

The Titans were primed for a standout performance in Delta with the team very familiar with the course and the weather perfect. Furthermore, the runners were all set both in their fitness and mental state, but the lead up to the regional meet was not without some concerns.

“We were a little anxious about how everyone would perform,” says coach Laura Puckett Daniels. “There were some niggling injuries that were a bit concerning and some circumstances outside of our control.”

Those injuries and circumstances were laid to rest though and the Titans rose to the regional challenge starting with Ruby Pendy in the girls race.

Pendy is the defending regional champion and brought home the title again running to the win in Delta.
“We wanted her to focus on running for place, not time,” says Daniels.

In the end she did a little of both as her time this year was 50 seconds faster than her time at the same race and on the same course last year in her winning effort.

Sophia Komarek fell two places shy of making her break to the big show, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Komarek was in 20th place in the final stretch and made one last push to move up into 17th place missing a state bid by two spots.
“She ran a personal record by 40 seconds which is huge and she moved up in the final straightaway so we’re super proud of her,” says Daniels.

Sam Merck and Lilla Laird put in some quality efforts as well to help push the girls team in the final standings. They came into regionals ranked 10th and the team finished the day in eighth place.

Connor Williams was busy the past couple of weeks on a college tour eventually committing to run for CU Boulder. But the break from races appeared to have little effect on his regional effort as Williams ran the course uncontested to take the win.

Jake Pendy wrapped up his stellar freshman season by punching his ticket to the state championships as he sprinted the final stretch to crack 18 minutes for the second time this season and finish in eighth place. Meanwhile, teammates Cormac Billick and Porter Washburn were busy a little further back in the pack putting in a couple of crucial efforts. Billick finished the day in 23rd place posting a time over two minutes faster than his regional race last year. Washburn crossed in 37th place with those two results pushing the Titans boys team into a second place finish and sending them to the state race.

Giles Billick, Ethan McCombs, Matthew Howe and Ethan Kaufmann gained additional race experience with their regional efforts and two of those four runners may get pulled into the state fold and race in Colorado Springs as teams can line up six runners.

“The boys positivity and coming together as a team over the season brought the team success,” says Daniels.

Williams and Pendy are poised for top results at the state championships based on their prerace rankings and the team is excited about having seven actually compete at the meet.

“We’re excited to get to go,” says Daniels. “The state meet is about celebrating their accomplishments.”