'Runners, you may remove your masks ... set ... go!'

 

It was Mullen’s first home cross country meet in at least a decade and the starter stated one of the sport’s first-ever commands of: “Runners, you may remove your masks … set … go!” before firing his pistol to begin each of the races.

“Welcome to socially distance running,” Mullen head coach Joe Welling said.

Indeed, the fields were smaller, but Saturday’s Mullen Invitational involving Centennial League teams was able to work through some quirks, host a strong field, show off some of the Mustangs campus and, really, allow competitors to feel good about themselves and get back into racing.

Welling said the previous meets hosted by the Mustangs were at local parks and had much higher volume, but Saturday, under the guidelines in place because of the coronavirus (COVID-10), there were heats containing only 24 runners, the race was on a tighter course and masks were worn up until the start of the race and put back on upon completion.

And there was no arguing or complaining.

“This is a beautiful thing, are you kidding me?” Welling responded. “Everyone’s excited to be doing this.”

Even with the relevant smell of smoke in the air because of the Colorado wildfires in drought conditions, each team enjoyed entering six runners.

For Mullen boys, senior Michael Dudzic grabbed fourth place in 16 minutes, 58.42 seconds. The time didn’t thrill him, but, again, there was no reason to whine.

“It wasn’t what I wanted, but I’m happy to be out here, happy for the first race (of the season) and having a Mullen home meet, so I really liked that,” he said. “The race went out there really fast and the wheels fell off toward the second mile, but I was happy to race aggressively.”

It was Dudzic’s first race, he said, in nine months, so having just 24 competitors in his heat was different, especially compared to previously having 150-200.

He led Mullen to a fourth-place finish among teams. The Mustangs totaled 90 points. Tops was Cherokee Trail (47), then Grandview (59) and Cherry Creek (80).

Individually for the Mustangs, Dudzic was followed by Jack Tolbert (ninth, 17:15.04), Aidan Schwarz (18^th, 17:44.06), Jacob Sushinski (27^th, 18:05.50), Owen McCarter (32^nd, 18:13,33) and Diego Taboada-Cross (19:04.99).

The overall winner was Grandview’s Jaden Fox in 16:02.33.

For Mustangs girls, sophomore Amy O’Connell again led the way, taking 15^th in 20:14.43.  

“I could have gone out a little harder at the start,” she said, “but overall it was good.”

She, too, enjoyed running in her first meet on the Mullen campus, saying “I’m so happy about that … I was really bummed that they wouldn’t have a season. It felt so good to do it.”

The Mustangs were fifth (124), trailing Cherry Creek (30), Arapahoe (36), Cherokee Trail (56) and Grandview (123).

Julie Brown was 23^rd (22:50.60) for Mullen, backed in a pack by Kira Van Der Steen (26th, 23:31.86), Octavia Gomez (28^th, 24:11.96), Alicia Muller (32^nd, 24:37.86) and Lizzie McGary (41^st, 26:13.08).

Said Welling: “We were happy to be out here.”

Here’s a link for full results: