For the third year in a row for the girls and second for the boys, the Niwot cross country team finished its season with the state Class 4A titles.
No one had a more dramatic finish in Colorado Springs on Saturday then Niwot’s Zane Bergen. The junior was neck and neck with Green Mountain's Grahm Tuohy-Gados when the two got tangled up just 50 feet from the finish line. Bergen fell and finished second, but Tuohy-Gados was disqualified for interfering with Bergen.
So Bergen won the crown and ran off with a 5,000 meter course record of 15 minutes, 19.5 seconds. The previous record holder had been Bergen’s former teammate, Cruz Culpepper. Niwot’s Graydon Rauba finished fourth and Curtis Volf finished seventh.
Niwot freshman, Mia Prok, was the top runner for the girls placing second. She finished just three seconds behind another freshman, the 4A winner from Air Academy, Bethany Michalak. The Cougar girls dominated, with all six student-athletes finishing in the top 35 out of 100 runners.
Junior Cruzie Dudley from Silver Creek finished 23rd, while sophomore Frances Hudson was the top runner for the Mead girls coming in 59th.
Mead senior Keegan Caldwell finished ninth in the boys race.
The Longmont boys sent a squad to the Norris-Penrose Event Center as well, placing 13th. The Longmont boys’ top finisher was junior Connor McCormick at 46th.
Full cross country results are available on the Colorado High School Activities Association website.
Six Colorado boys and girls high school sports have managed to cross the finish line in a fall season like no other. With a 4A boys tennis title already in hand, three of those banners now belong to Niwot.
