COLORADO SPRINGS — Class 5A looks good on Centaurus boys cross country.
In their first year after moving up from 4A, the Warriors didn’t just have a strong 5A state championship showing at the Norris Penrose Event Center on Saturday morning. They crushed the expectations when they claimed the runner-up trophy with 170 points, just 15 behind first-place Valor Christian (155) and 14 ahead of third-place Fairview (184).
Senior Max Heins couldn’t believe his ears when he heard the news after finishing 13th individually with a time of 16 minutes, 6.8 seconds.
“It was a shock. We were so psyched,” Heins said. “With the whole rankings and stuff, we weren’t ranked at all. CHSAA even ranked the underdog. We weren’t even the underdog. We were like the nobodies, which I like that. We’re not super known. It really is that just top-five effort. All our top five guys are so close to each other and just ran really well.”
Heins chalked the stunner up to strong team camaraderie both on and off the course, and it showed in the final standings. Jacob Schwarting (21st, 16:16.8), Jordan Schatz (37th, 16:29.5), Christian Stein (53rd, 16:48.7) and Jacoby Ennis (58th, 16:51.5) rounded out the top five scorers for the Warriors to get the job done.
“We’ve been hitting some really good workouts and stuff,” Heins said. “It hasn’t been a particularly different season, lots of good workouts and took it easy. Honestly, a lot of it didn’t change, didn’t train too hard.”
A couple of classifications down proved no less impressive for the Lafayette and Broomfield areas, as Peak to Peak sophomore Jack Cerullo climbed toward the top of the 3A field with fourth place and a 16:12.7 time. Jefferson Academy junior Sean Beasley clocked in at 16:22 to earn ninth place as Prospect Ridge senior Logan Goodman rounded out the top 10 after crossing the finish line at 16:22.3.
The top-five finish capped off a strong season for Cerullo who, after opening the year with silver at the 5A Legacy Lightning Invitational, only continued to impress. He was elated that his best race of the year came on Saturday, despite peaking early.
“That 5A race helped boost my confidence a lot,” Cerullo said. “It helped me go out with the fastest people. This race was a lot like the 5A race. I was having a great time during the race, just in a good mood. And again, I hit a bicep flex as I crossed.”
Much like Cerullo, Beasley peaked a bit soon during the season but kept the fire white hot up until his final race of the year. He won the St. Vrain Invitational outright six weeks before stepping onto the course at Norris Penrose but entered the state meet with a different mindset than years past.
That earlier win gave him the confidence he needed to rank himself among the best 10 3A runners in Colorado when it mattered most.
“My last few state performances were not good because I didn’t really have a strategy,” Beasley said. “I just went in, blazing the first mile and the last two miles, I was dead. This time, I had a lot better strategy, which was to just slowly pick people off.”
Goodman showed true grit through his performance, even if it wasn’t the top-three finish he had hoped for. He tripped and fell at the creek crossing with about 500 meters to go and, despite feeling “paralyzed,” got back up to finish his race strong to still nab a podium spot.
Near the start of September, he won the Division 3 race of the Liberty Bell Invitational by a healthy 17 seconds.
“I guess it shows that I’m not going to give up,” Goodman said. “I’m going to keep chugging. I could have just fallen in the water and given up but I kept going.”
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5A and 3A state XC: Let’s hear it for the boys - Boulder Daily Camera
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