Peak to Peak cross country caps emotional season with first-ever girls team title

Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com

COLORADO SPRINGS — Kim McConnell watched her daughter Quinn run towards the finish line, appearing to be a shoo-in first-place finisher in the 3A girls cross country state final.

But then Coach McConnell watched in dismay and screamed in horror as Quinn collapsed on the track for a first time — then a second — before falling to the dusty dirt ground right at the finish line.

“It was shocking because Quinn had a huge lead already when I saw her go past at the two-mile mark,” Peak to Peak cross country and track coach McConnell said. “Kayla (Young) really came back on her in the last part, so I think she went out too hard too early. It’s warm out here and there’s a lot of drama around the season and so many expectations of trying to win a state title.”

There were no individual cross country titles for Peak to Peak Charter School runners at the 2016 cross country state meet, but Quinn and teammate Anna Schults placed in the most dramatic race of the day and helped the Pumas clinch the program’s first-ever 3A girls cross country team title at Norris-Penrose Events Center on Saturday.

“It was scary and difficult,” Quinn McConnell said of nearly fainting at the very end of her race. “You feel like a third person watching yourself,, and it’s hard to finish because everyone is yelling at you. We’ve been working at this specific race for five months and all of our goals have been around it.”

McConnell came through the home stretch of the 5K race, followed by Denver North senior Kayla Young. Young was gaining ground on McConnell, until she started collapsing during the last 400 meters of the race. But suddenly, McConnell started to crumble as well — the first time she had ever experienced that happening during a race before.

Young passed McConnell and won the race, briefly setting a course record with a time of 18:36.1, before Grandview’s Brie Oakley was up to bat in the later 5A girls race and crushed the mark by more than one minute at 17:07.

Sophomores McConnell and Schults placed first and second in the 3A girls race, respectively, for the 2015 state runner-up Pumas. And this year, the duo placed second and third, respectively, to help the Pumas win first with 57 points.

“I think everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and to be able to win a state championship with the team is something we’ve wanted forever, and the fact we were able to do it despite everything that’s happened is just incredible,” Quinn McConnell said.

It was an extremely rewarding end to a tough, emotional year.

“This trophy represents a lot of drama this season and some very, very hard things that have happened,” Coach McConnell said. “It’s wonderful to look at, but it’s really all about the people who made it happen: the parents who have supported our team and the kids bonding together after Brandon Ries’ death to create something very beautiful.”

This year proved to be a very terrifying scene for the Peak to Peak community when Quinn started falling down during her race, as the cross country team had recently lost a member of its family in a similar setting.

On September 16, senior team captain Brandon Ries, 18, collapsed during the third mile of a 5K meet race in Broomfield and died.

McConnell told Runner’s World, “apparently he just started walking and then [laid] down on the side of the course, and that was it, he was gone. He was given CPR right away and emergency people came pretty fast and they tried for a long time, there on the course and in the ambulance and at the hospital.”

The cause of Ries’ death has not yet been determined. One of his two younger sisters, Jillian, is also on the Peak to Peak cross country team, but did not compete in this year’s state meet.

“Having his sister on our team is pretty poignant as well. She didn’t get to race today, which is unfortunate, but she’ll be back,” McConnell said. “They’re just waiting to get all the results back from Brandon before they give her the all-clear. They just wanted to be sure about any genetic links.”

There was a ton of support for and honorary nods to Ries at the meet, with a moment of silence and short tribute Coach McConnell wrote before the girls accepted their team trophy.

“Because of the consistency of his love, sacrifice, gratitude and joy, Brandon positively and profoundly impacted everyone around him all the time,” the announcer read out loud.

And James Ries, Brandon and Jillian’s father, said his son truly loved cross country, the team and running outside in nature. On Sept. 10, during a family outing to the Springs for a gymnastics show, James said Brandon practiced on the state XC course by himself in preparation.

“Coach McConnell and that team have really bonded together,” James Ries said. “Every workout is important for the physical aspect and team aspect, and Brandon was a vital part of that. He really tried to bring everyone along and make it fun for everyone.

He added: “for the team to come together, especially after Brandon died, and for the boys team to qualify for state is a great accomplishment and I’m very proud of those boys who banded together to make that happen.”

James Ries was also at the meet taking photos of the Peak to Peak racers, and couldn’t describe exactly what it felt like to be there.

“Many, many XC teams across the state [have] offered condolences and honored Brandon in a variety of ways. The cards and banners that we and the Peak to Peak XC team has received is really extraordinary. The running community has been an amazing source of support through all this,” Ries said.

He said there were numerous signed banners and cards filled with condolences and well wishes across the state and even outside the state. One team collected Chipotle gift cards and sent them to the Peak to Peak team; there were handmade cards, remembrance bracelets, wearing school colors and many more gestures.

Coach McConnell also said she received an enormous outpouring of support over the last few weeks.

“I’ve gotten emails and texts from around the world. It’s like a tangible help when all these people reach out to let us know they are supporting us,” McConnell said.

The team really came together as a single unit by using gratitude — to have Brandon in their lives and to be able to have one another on a team — and has been moving through this grieving process focusing on being open about discussing Brandon, and being there for one another, no matter what.

“It’s not really about the running — it’s about loving well. Brandon was 18 and did it so beautifully,” Coach McConnell said.

And the season isn’t even over yet for a handful of Peak to Peak runners. They’re off to the Nike Cross Regionals in Arizona on Nov. 19