With his muscular arms rippling and his long legs churning, Ro Paschal glided across the finish line. Simon Kearns and Nic Archuleta were not far behind, and soon after, Asa Kearns, Jake McKie and Zane Goodell arrived.
Then the celebration began for the Mancos High School cross-country team, which finished second in Class 2A at the Colorado State Cross Country Championships in Colorado Springs on Oct. 25.
The runner-up finish marked a significant achievement for the Bluejays boys team, which, after beginning the 2014 season unranked, won six regular-season titles and the Region 4 Championship.
Finishing ahead of Mancos in the team standings was Lyons High School, which was paced by top individual finisher Paul Roberts, whose time of 16:13 was the best across all classifications.
"All year long, our boys have raced so well, and they did not disappoint (at state) with a runner-up trophy and an individual medalist," said Bluejays head coach Brady Archer. "We were right in contention for the state title against a very good Lyons team."
Leading the way for Mancos was Paschal, who, racing in nearly 80-degree heat, finished seventh overall (17:37).
"It was definitely my favorite experience that I've had in high school so far," said the Mancos junior. "This is our best team ever at Mancos. We didn't consider ourselves underdogs, but at the beginning of the season, we were not even ranked. It was just great to be part of it this year."
Next across the line for Mancos were Simon Kearns and Archuleta, who finished 13th (18:32) and 18th (18:53) respectively.
"Finishing second in state, it's really huge for us," Simon Kearns said. "It was awesome to be a part of it."
Rounding out the Bluejays finishers were Asa Kearns, who finished 50th (20:14), Jake McKie, who finished 83rd (21:24) and Zane Goodell, who finished 85th (21:26).
"I think it's cool that we did good this year," said McKie. "We're not losing any runners (to graduation), so hopefully we'll be good next year, too."
Girls stand tall
While the Mancos girls didn't qualify for state as a team, two Bluejays qualified individually and performed well.
Leading the way was Emma Most, who finished 32nd out of 80 runners with a time of 23:17.
Next across the line for the Mancos girls was Hannah Skinner, who finished 54th with a time of 24:39.
Lyons won the girls team title, and West Grand High School's Tabor Scholl finished first overall with a time of 19:59.
"It was a little hotter out there than it was last year, but I thought we ran a pretty good race," said Most. "We had kind of a rough season this year, so I'm hoping we can all improve together as a team and do awesome next year."
Looking ahead
Keying the Bluejays offseason improvement will be Archer, whose commitment to involving runners in an offseason program helped the Mancos become an up-and-coming programs in the state.
(Coach Archer) is an amazing coach," said Simon Kearns. "He gives us everything that we need, and he's great to work with. He always has a good plan that gets us to where we need to be, and we really appreciate that."
