Cross country: Centaurus boys, Boulder girls shine at Pat Patten

Sep. 30—Through every strong performance that local cross country talent has seen so far in 2023 — and there have been many — few have been as dominant as Centaurus' boys behind front man Jacob Schwarting.

On a sunny Saturday morning at Viele Lake for Boulder High School's Pat Patten Invitational, the Warrior senior once again flexed his muscles as he crossed the finish line second in a race stacked with skill. His run of 15 minutes, 26.3 seconds was only surpassed by Benjamin Anderson of Mountain Vista, who leads the entire state with a top time of 14:48.90 and who won the race with a 15:13.60.

It was the first race that Schwarting hasn't won outright this fall.

"This is our first race with big groups, big competition, lots of people around me, so today was just about staying engaged, realizing that I belong up there and that I've put in the work to get up there," Schwarting said. "I've been really focusing on mental toughness as an aspect of my training."

Schwarting has served as the face for Centaurus XC, at least at the top of the podium, but he's been far from the only Warrior to perform well early in the season. As a whole, the team has won three of its first four competitions.

Jordan Schatz paced his way to ninth place (15:57.40) as Ben Nelson (33rd, 16:46.60), Christian Stein (38th, 16:52.90) and Jacoby Ennis (48th, 17:03.20) rounded out Centaurus' effort at the top. The Warriors' success up to this point has simply been a progression of last year's surprise finish as the Class 5A state runner-up.

That's just a testament to the culture coming out of Lafayette.

"You can feel the energy in workouts," Schwarting said. "You can feel that no matter what happens at these smaller races, we know we can elevate our game at state. We're confident, we're ready and overall, the team has grown closer because of it. We've seen last year we can do a really cool thing and we're trying to replicate that and maybe go above it."

Three's company

Before she stepped onto a course for her senior year, Boulder's Kiki Vaughn was still chasing that elusive gold.

Five meets into the season, she already has three victories in her back pocket and even won one while suffering through food poisoning. Saturday proved no different on her path toward a strong finish in her high school career, as she crossed the finish line in third place with a time of 18:26.30.

"This season, overall, has been really great," Vaughn said. "I've won three races, which is just amazing for me. I haven't won a cross meet before and this season, I've been beating times and beating girls I've never beaten before. It's been really fun improving."

She's had to take an ever-changing approach as the season has worn on, as college visit after college visit has interrupted her sleep and running habits. It doesn't seem to have affected her performances too much, though.

"I go into races with different race strategies," Vaughn said. "Normally, I take the race from the gun, and I tried not to do that this time because I had people around me."

Behind her, the Panthers saw swift times from Malia Chipouras (12th, 19:11.30), Anika Leovy (13th, 19:15.10), Rachel Tilton (25th, 19:42.50) and Abby O'Leary (33rd, 19:59.60).

Holden out for the right moment

The past two times Fairview senior Holden Krizek graced the course that falls in the shadow of his own school, he had his worst races of those seasons. His return on Saturday was much more triumphant.

In a crowded field of 135 competitors, Krizek crushed his own former-best performance at Viele Lake with seventh place and a 15:52.10 mark, beating last year's time by over two minutes. It was just the redemption he had been waiting for.

"I wanted to go out hard and try to stick with the top group. Unfortunately, I kind of fell off on the hill, but I was able to slowly make my way up a little at the end," he said. "Hopefully, I can place pretty high at league and regionals and then, of course, at state. Hopefully our team will be right behind me or ahead of me. Who knows?"

He led a contingent of Knights that followed with Vincent Mangat (10th, 15:58.60), Calvin Brain (12th, 16:05.20), Travis Brown (24th, 16:32.70) and Justin Cady (79th, 18:16.20). As the season begins to wind down toward regionals, Krizek hopes his boys will have what it takes to send the full team to state.

"We're starting to pick up the workouts and do some harder reps, and I think that's starting to work out," he said.

Putting her best foot forward

Krizek wasn't the only Knight to make a breakthrough at the Pat Patten Invitational.

Through an admittedly stressful season, Fairview junior Sierra Wall has been searching for a way to build her confidence, and she leaned on her coaches' advice to help her sail to a ninth-place finish and 18:53.30 time on Saturday.

It was just the boost she needed.

"My coach told me to get one person at a time and not think about anything outside of the race," Wall explained. "For the first mile and a half, I ran with my teammates and that really kept me in the game, and then I just tried to pick off people one-by-one. Since last year, I've felt a lot better. There's a lot of support, so that really does help, and it's just fun to run with my team."

Behind her, Ellie Cartwright claimed 21st (19:25.60), Mila Hagen took 27th (19:51.70), Laurel Brain finished 30th (19:57.80), Helen Carlson ended at 47th (20:44.80) and Tilly Testa rounded it out with 48th (20:47.60).