'Stangs not runnin' on empty

 

CENTENNIAL – Colorado’s new Season A continues to deal with the uncertainties, limitations and wave of changes brought by the coronavirus (COVID-19).

In-staters have been forced to adapt.

More of it was on display on a pleasant, but hot late Friday afternoon in the Centennial League Warrior 5k at deKoevend Park, where Mullen cross-country progress grew again, from the high end of its lineups to the younger talent still developing.

Mustangs’ highlights included runner-up showings both individually and as a team for boys. Senior Michael Dudzic won one of the two heats, finishing in 16 minutes, 56 seconds, 1:25.7 off the pace of winner Parker Wolfe of Cherry Creek.

“He ran great,” Mustangs head coach Joe Welling said. “He ran on a hot day and by himself, and he looked like a champ. And I know he had fun in the front.”

Said Dudzic: “I’m happy with it. I don’t think it was a full-race effort. I kind of turned it into a tempo run in the middle there … but I turned up the throttle.”

Adding that he was aware “all of the teams didn’t bring their strongest athletes today,” Dudzic also appreciated being in front.

“It’s so much fun,” he said. “I love it out there … when you don’t hear the cheering behind you, it’s a good feeling.”

Patrick Keeley was 10^th (17:54,7), Jack Tolbert 11^th (same time), Aidan Schwarz 15^th (18:06.6) and Jacob Sushinski 24^th (18:36.9) to account for Mullen’s team total of 62, 22 behind winner Arapahoe.

For girls, Amy O’Connell had an interesting pre-race situation – she said her mother’s car was stolen and arrived at the course about 15 minutes before the start of her heat, which went off first. O’Connell finished 18^th (20:35.8).

“I’m a little disappointed,” she said. “But it felt good to go out and run. It was, like, an OK effort (considering) everything.”

Welling said “Amy having a complete disruption of her routine, which was out of her control, was tough, but she still put down a really great effort, I know she’s not happy with her time.”

Julia Brown (20^th (21:00.3), Kira Van der Steen 23^rd (22:03.8), Kennedy McCanley 28^th (22:59.3) and Octavia Gomez 37^th (25:14.9) totaled 123 for fourth for the Class 4A Mustangs. At the top was Cherry Creek (34), which edged defending 5A Colorado champion Arapahoe (40).

In particular, Welling said, Brown and Van der Steen are experiencing significant improvement on a team that has no seniors.

The Individual winner was the very dominant Riley Stewart of Cherry Creek (17:29.3), who Welling said had the best time nationally (17:18.06) for a couple of weeks after winning last month’s Mullen 5k, the school’s first host meet in at least a decade.

Here's a link for full results: https://coloradoracetiming.com/results/

Mullen will resume race running next weekend at Arapahoe County Fairgrounds for the latest league meet.