Cross-country locking in on post season after school break

Four Titans take all-league honors

By Than Acuff 

With four Titans taking all-league honors and the boys’ team finishing third at the league championships in Monte Vista on Friday, October 17, the Crested Butte cross-country team is now setting its sights on the 2A Region 4 Championships in Ignacio on Friday, October 24, the one and only opportunity to qualify for the state championships.

The Titans’ squad was a bit depleted at the league championships as the race fell over the school’s October Break. Nevertheless, 10 Titans were on hand for workouts during the end of the break and nine toed the line on Friday.

“They came to practices, and they came to race,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “Our goal was to compete and pass people and if people pass you, respond.”

The girls’ team was slated to have four runners racing in Monte Vista, but the coaches opted to play it safe with Tazzy Pozner and pulled her from the race. Pozner has been nursing a foot injury all season long and got in a race last week, but with regionals and state championships on the horizon, they decided to save her.

That left Dari Spedden, Ali Johnson and Elise Crisi to carry the Titan colors in the race and Spedden took the pre-race plans to heart. Spedden moved into seventh place after the first mile but was in a bit of no-man’s land with most of the field behind her, the top six in front of her quite a bit and no one around her to work off during the second mile. Spedden remained on task though and slowly but surely started reeling in the sixth-place runner eventually passing her to finish sixth overall and third in the league to earn all-league honors as a freshman.

Johnson had a pre-race goal of finishing top 20 but got caught up in a crowd of runners early in the race. She battled her way in, through and around the pack to start moving up and while she fell one spot shy of her goal coming in 21^st place overall, she finished 28 seconds faster than her league race time last year to take seventh in the league and earn all-league honors as well.“It was great to see Ali run faster than last year,” says Sullivan-Marshall.

Elise Crisi was the final Titan to cross the finish line putting an end to her high school racing experience.

“It was a beautiful day to finish out her high school career,” says Sullivan-Marshall.

The Titan boys showed up with five runners at the league meet and Cody Pleak put an exclamation point on his league efforts over the years. After finishing third place in his first year running at the league championships in 2023 and fourth place last year, Pleak stepped it up in his final appearance at the league championships to win the individual league title, the Titans’ third league champion in a row.

“He earned it,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “He raced really, really well.” 

Flint Hoyt also had a stellar close to his league championship experience as he placed sixth in league to be the fourth Titan named all-league at the race. Jackson Moore was next for Crested Butte and while he has been balancing running cross-country and playing hockey throughout the fall, his inherent instincts led him to a strong finish including an all-out sprint in the final stretch to pass one last opponent.

“He’s just a really smart and fit runner,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “He has natural instincts.”

The Lockman brothers were the fourth and fifth Titans to cross and help propel the Titans team. John and Noah Lockman typically run together but Noah Lockman was struggling with health issues, so John stepped up his pace to put in an effort that helped seal the team’s third place league result.

“John turned it on in the second half and moved up in the field,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “He had a really good league meet for his first one.”

Not only did the Titans have a great showing given their depleted numbers, but they also got some good information for the upcoming regional championships on Friday.

“It was great to walk with four all-league honors and good to see our regional competition,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “It was a good indicator of what this Friday might look like.”

Given what the coaches have seen thus far this season, the team’s health and what they saw at the league meet, there is a hope that both the girls’ and boys’ teams will finish top four at the regional championships this Friday and qualify for the state championships. But it all comes down to one race.

“Things look favorable, but we can’t be complacent,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “I feel like everyone is ready to race. We’re now just working on closing the gaps between each other to improve our overall team score.”