The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Racing in Gunnison this Saturday
by Than Acuff
Despite a 5 a.m. departure and a three-hour bus ride to the race, the Crested Butte Titans cross-country team jumped into their latest competition with more than 300 runners in the girls’ race and over 400 in the boys’ race to lay down some of their fastest times proving their workouts are starting to pay off.
“Looking at times on the course from last year, it looks like our training is really good so far,” says head coach Bart Spedden.
The Joe I. Vigil Invitational Meet in Alamosa is quite the show for high school athletes. For starters, it’s on a golf course, much like typical cross-country courses. Secondly, it’s paired with a college race as well, so kids get to see the world of collegiate racing front and center. Not only that but with Titans graduate Cody Pleak attending Colorado Mesa University and still competing, he was at the race on Saturday, September 12 and joined the Titans prior to their race.
“We rolled right up in time to cheer him on in the collegiate 8K, and Cody returned the favor by stepping in to lead the boys’ team in a classic pre-race huddle at the start line,” says coach Bart Spedden.
Finally, the race in Alamosa is massive amongst the high schoolers with 354 runners in the girls’ race and 436 in the boys’ race, quite the jump from typical numbers the Titans see at events. As a result, Spedden had one overriding piece of strategy for his athletes.
“We told them to focus on the things we have control over like our pacing and our fueling,” says Spedden. “We also talked about drafting. We told them tuck in until you have enough reserves to surge and pass with authority.”
The girls’ race kicked off first with Betsy McMahon, Dari Spedden and Ali Johnson representing the Titans among the massive field. McMahon had a great breakout performance in her first high school race two weeks earlier and learned from it to take another step forward in Alamosa finishing 25th out of 346 runners.
“The plan was to go out at a more even pace and she fixed that and boom,” says Spedden. “She also got her fueling more dialed in and had a great race.”
Dari Spedden was next for the Titans and while her result on the scoresheet may not seem impressive, she came on strong as a freshman last year as a 2A powerhouse and continues to gain additional pace this year shaving 21 seconds off her time last season.
“She’ll keep on keeping on and we’re just looking for that next big breakthrough,” says Bart.
Meanwhile, Johnson is slowly but surely returning from a knee injury and was tasked with pacing herself to avoid causing more harm but push the final mile if she was feeling good and she did just that.”
On the boys’ side Jayden Beyer returned to action for his first race of the season after nursing a knee injury and appears to be on track dropping 23 seconds from his time last year.
“He had a great week of training leading up to it, so we gave him the reins to race his own race,” says Spedden.
Micah Hansen was tasked with staying with Beyer and using Beyer to push his own pace and Hansen hung with him until the final 600 meters to remain on his trajectory for the season. Meanwhile, Eero Stai and Eli Hansen set new personal record times without flinching at the size and strength of the competition.
“They were surrounded by athletes that could just pummel them, and they didn’t let it bother them,” says Spedden. “The Titans handled the chaos like seasoned pros.”
The Titans will have their only race of the season in the valley this Saturday, September 19 when they toe the line for the Cowboy Invitational behind the Gunnison Middle School with the boys’ race starting at 11:15 a.m. and the girls hitting the course at 11:45 a.m.
