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30th Liberty Bell Invitational
Friday, September 14, 2007 Heritage High School, Littleton, CO
by Salomon Gonzales, Southwest Regional Editor
Boys Action
Albuquerque Academy Chargers vs. Wheat Ridge Farmers….Rampart vs. Los Alamos…BenJo vs. K-Will….
All three of these battles were fought out……on paper unfortunately.
Cross Country races are not run on paper. In Littleton, Colorado they are run on pavement, packed dirt trails and downhill. The weather was perfect, the course was fast and the Gatorade was flowing like wine.
Division I
For the fourth time in six years the Albuquerque Academy Boys drove away with the Division I trophy. This year the Chargers accomplished a special feat when they packed all seven of their runners in the top 20!!! Leading the CHARGE was Ben Johnson (BenJo) who finished first and clocked the second fastest time of the day and the third fastest time ever on the course. Johnson was able to defeat Charles White (Cherry Creek) and Dey Tuach (Thorton). It was Tauch who took the early lead. He was clocked at 4:40 through the mile where he was followed by Johnson and White. At the halfway point Tuach had a 5-second lead. That was about 400m from “BenJo’s Tree.” On Thursday Johnson spotted out a tree that was going to be the launching pad for his ‘move.’ On Friday he executed his move at “The Tree” and broke away from White and moved toward Tuach. Upon catching Tuach, Johnson tried pulling away but the task proved to be difficult. It took Johnson half a dozen moves to shake Tauch. When describing Tauch’s effort Johnson stated, “That guy was freakin' tough.” With a mile to go Johnson was free and he proceeded to cruise unchallenged to the finish line. White eventually caught Tauch who finished third.
Division II
The Farmers of Wheat Ridge deliver….bottom line. This top 5 was 15 seconds apart at the half way point and had a 24 second spread at the finish line. This week it was Henry Cowhick’s turn to lead. His 15:46 was good enough for second place while his teammate Scott Fauble finished a second later, in third. The team’s anchor was Micky Nelson who finished sixteenth in 16:09. The Farmers finished 36 points ahead of an impressive Rampart team. Rampart was able to run all seven of their runners in the top 35. Their #5 finished 26. Leading the way for Rampart was Nick Saulnier who finished fourth.
Division III
Kevin Williams (D’Evelyn) is fast!! Faster than Deak…Faster than Goucher…Faster than Johnson. Williams' 14:51.1 broke the previous Liberty Bell course record held by Ryan Deak. Deak had run 14:58.4 which had broken the record that was set by Adam Goucher in 1993. And under the rules of Heavyweight Boxers if you beat the man who beat the man who beat the man KEVIN WILLIAMS IS FASTER THAN BERNARD LEGAT!! Ok so not really but he did run a full 1.4 seconds faster than Ben Johnson. As for the team competition, Regis Jesuit took home the title in Division III with a score of 85. Regis was led by Bobby and Danny Nicolls who finished fourth and eighth respectively.
Comparison
Since the powers that be would not allow all the top runners/teams to race together we are forced to break out our calculators and compare times. If you compare Academy and Wheat Ridge straight up, the Farmers win a duel comparison 23-32. But when these two teams meet in Tempe the gap between Ben Johnson and the Farmer’s #1 should give the Red Army an advantage (stay tuned for more detailed analysis and comparison by Cheyne Heiny). Los Alamos would defeat Rampart by the same figure above (23-32) in a comparison duel. The LA Boys anchor finished in 16:38 while Rampart’s #5 was done in 16:38 as well. In the DIII race, Regis’ #5 man finished in 17:02 which is well behind the top teams' anchors. In a smaller race, Arapahoe beats Cherry Creek but in a larger race ‘the Creek’s’ front two make a difference. The Liberty Bell has stirred up more conversation that can not be silenced until all of these teams and MORE meet in mid-October.
Girls Action
Fort Collins continues their domination……Greeley West proves that they belong in the top 10 and Albuquerque Academy shows their true colors….
Division I
The Real Chargers stood up on Friday. Albuquerque Academy girls pulled off an upset, of sorts, when they joined the Red Army atop the podium. For the second week in a row the Chargers were led by Clara Milne. Clara won her first varsity meet and clocked a PR of 18:41. Last week the Chargers were not at full strength due to illness and team rules (defending 4A NM State Champ Julia Foster had to run on the C-Team because she did not run at the Academy Scrimmage). This week a fully loaded Academy Team took home the hardware. But the two fastest teams were in…..
Division II
The ‘New Look’ Fort Collins Lambkins are not the same old Lambkins. Last year a young Fort Collins team entered meets unsure and timid. This year’s team is confident and focused. The team entered the Liberty Bell meet attempting to have 5 girls break 19:00. Four of the girls accomplished that goal. Lisa Reyna was no where near 19:00. Her time of 17:40 was the fastest time of the day and only 4 seconds off of Megan Kaltenbach’s (Smoky Hill) record. Reyna is running with more confidence this year. She attributes that confidence to an increase in summer mileage. She admitted that last year she started to train on the second day of school. This summer her and her teammates completed, “Long hilly runs twice a week and intervals once a week.”
Greeley West is FOR REAL. Who would have thunk it? Coach Carter of course. Sue Carter can’t stop smiling. Her Spartan’s are running fast and moving up in the rankings even faster. On Friday the top 3 Spartans finished in the top 10. Kendra Gerk led the way with a 17:43, finishing second to Reyna. Greeley West had Fort Collins beat through three girls but their #4 was 45 seconds behind their #3. That gap made the difference.
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Boys Division 1 Team--
1. Albuquerque Academy 57 2. Los Alamos 96 3. Cherry Creek 142 4. Arapahoe 169 5. Fairview 175 6. Smoky HIll 178 7. Rock Springs (WY) 221 8. Cheyenne Central (Wy) 258 9. Eaglecrest 272 10. Chaparral 283 11. Rocky Mountain 288 12. Boulder 303 13. Douglas County 341 14. St. Michael's (NM) 388 15. Lewis Palmer 409 16. Maranatha (CA) 417 17. Palmer 452 18 Overland 455 19. Grandview 510 20. Thorton 519 21. Ponderosa 558 22. Garden City (KS) 659
Boys Division 1 Individual--
1. Ben Johnson, Alb. Academy 14:52.5
2. Charles White, Cherry Creek 15:09.2
3. Dey Tauch, Thorton 15:34.7
4. Gareth Gilna, Los Alamos 15:37.4
5. Walter Schafer, Cherry Creek 15:41.8
6. Andrew McGee, Rocky Mountain 15:48.6
7. Allen Pittman, Los Alamos 15:49.1
8. Pat Zacharis, Alb. Academy 15:49.6
9. Laine Parish, Cheyenne Central 15:52.9
10. Kyle Pittman, Los Alamos 15:53.1
Boys Division 2 Team--
1. Wheat Ridge 49 2. Rampart 85 3. Loveland 127 4. Fort Collins 130 5. Cherokee Trail 216 6. Pomona 216 7. Littleton 227 8.Highlands Ranch 276 9. Monarch 300 10. Greeley West 304 11. Columbine 305 12. Thunderrigdge 311 13. Heritage 318 14. Cheyenne East 321 15. SAnd Creek 341 16. Pine Creek 345 17. Mountain Vista 362 18. Mullen 390 19. Mountain View 502 20. Gateway 687
Boys Division 2 Individual--
1. Clif Campbell, Fort Collins 15:42.3
2. Henry Cowhick, Wheat Ridge 15:46.6
3. Scott Fauble, Wheat Ridge 15:47.3
4. Nick Saulnier 15:49.4
5. Wil Cernanec, Littleton 15:54.9
6. Austin Huff, Cheyenne East 15:56.6
7. Garrett Wilson, Highlands Ranch 15:57.0
8. Scott Ingram, Cherokke Trail 15:58.2
9. Jed Morgan, Loveland 15:59.1
10. Andrew Berberick 16:03.8
Boys Division 3 Individual--
1. Kevin Williams, D'Evelyn 14:51.1 (CR--Previous 14:58.4, Ryan Deak-SMOKY HILL, 2003)
2. Wes Rickman, Falcon 15:16.4
3. Joe Manalafasha, Denver North 15:18.3
4. Bobby Nichols, Rigis 15:20.0
5. Eric Kdikumana, Denver North 16:03.5
Girls Division 1 Team--
1. Albuquerque Academy 65 2. Chaparral 82 3. Cherry Creek 157 4. Rocky Mountain 188 5. Arapahoe 190 6. Boulder 199 7. St. Michael's (NM) 204 8. Fairview 216 9. Palmer 217 10. Smoky Hill 247 11. Los Alamos 253 12. Cheyenne Central 297 13. Rock Springs 330 14. Grandview 390 15. Lewis Palmer 399 16. Maranatha (CA) 400
16. Douglas County 400 17. Thorton 454 18. Ponderosa 495 19. Eagle Crest 508 20. Garden City 666 21. Overland 718
Girls Division 1 Individual--
1. Clara Milne, Alb. Academy 18:41.1
2. Kate Norskog, St. Michael's 18:42.5
3. Lauren Johnson, Cherry Creek 18:53.9
4. Jenny Allais, Rock Springs 18:54.7
5. Claire Gallegher 18:55.2
6. Caroline Hine, Chaparral 19:00.6
7. Julia Hernandez, Fairview 19:02.6
8. Holly Walker, Los Alamos 19:06.1
9. Amanda Throckmorton, Alb. Academy 19:11.5
10. Nicole Peterson, Rock Springs 19:12.0
Girls Division 2 Team--
1. Fort Collins 46 2. Greeley West 61 3. Mullen 125 4.Highlands Ranch 159 5.Thunderridge 163 6.Heritage 179 7.Pine Creek 212 8.Mountain Vista 264 9.Sand Creek 267 10. Loveland 269 11.Wheat Ridge 275 12.Rampart 307 13.Littleton 311 14. Moarch 338 15. Cheyenne East 397 16. Cherokee Trail 397 17. Mountain View 485 18. Columbine 511 19. Pomona 524 20. Gateway 624
Girls Division 2 Individual--
1. Lisa Reyna, Fort Collins 17:40.4
2. Kendra Gerk, Greeley West 17:43.4
3. Jennifer Bremser, Sand Creek 18:07
4. Eleanor Fulton, HIghlands Ranch 18:13.5
5. Camille Logan, Littleton 18:24.7
6. Erica Hincliffe, Greeley West 18:26.1
7. Miranda Benzel, Fort Collins 18:27.9
8. Ryan Russ, Mullen 18:33.2
9. Ashley Smalley, Greeley West 18:45.3
10. Dominique Gerard, Thunderridge 18:48.1
Schedule
3:45--Division 4 Boys
3:48--Division 4 Girls
4:05--Division 3 Boys
4:08--Division 3 Girls
4:25--Division 2 Boys
4:28--Division 2 Girls
4:45--Division 1 Boys
4:48--Division 1 Girls
Preview
I was once told about the Liberty Bell Meet, “When you first see the course you are going to ask yourself ‘Why do teams travel over 8 hours to run a road race?’” The answer is undoubtedly: COMPETITION. Like most years, the Thirtieth annual Liberty Bell Invitational is loaded with some of the best teams from Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. The course may not be ideal Cross Country but the competition is as good as it gets in the Southwest Region.
Boys
The defending champion and SW#1 Albuquerque Academy Chargers will roll into town fresh off their win at the UNM Lobo Invitational. The Chargers have won 3 of the last 5 Liberty Bell meets and will be the pre-race favorites, but don’t count on the Red Army coming in overconfident. Head Coach Adam Kedge will have the team focused on the task at hand. The Chargers toughest competition may be in the Division 2 race. Wheat Ridge is coming off of big wins at Harrison and Cherry Creek. The Colorado Coaches believe that they are the top team in the Centennial Sate but we will have to use comparison times to see if they are the best team in the Southwest Region. Most of the top teams will be in Division 1. Those teams include: Arapahoe, Campbell County, WY, Cherry Creek, Cheyenne Central, WY, Los Alamos, NM, and Rock Springs, WY. Rampart will join Wheat Ridge in Division 2 while Battle Mountain and Laramie, WY will duke it out in Division 3.
As for the individuals, Ben Johnson (Academy), Charles White (Cherry Creek) and Day Tauch (Thornton) will be seen at the front of the pack early and often. BenJo is coming off of an easy win at UNM and Charles White has fought to second in two duels with Evan Appel (Dakota Ridge). Tauch has two early season wins at Horizon and Centaurus.
Girls
The defending champs in the girls division are the Fort Collins Lambkins. Thus far they have dominated their competition and they should make short work of the Division 2 field. Their toughest competition in that race should come from Greeley West who won the Division 2 race at Harrison and defeated Classical Academy head to head at the St. Vrain Invitational. The top teams in the Division 1 race include: Albuquerque Academy, Los Alamos, Campbell County, Cheyenne Central, Cherry Creek and St. Michael’s.
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