Manitou Springs cross country’s Henry Ilyasova making strides toward accomplishing his season goal

COLORADO SPRINGS – Throughout the summer, Henry Ilyasova could be seen running on the main roads in Manitou Springs, allowing cars to dodge him as much as he had to dodge the occasional car.

But it was all with purpose.

A senior for the Mustangs this season, Ilyasova was encouraged, but still disappointed in his eighth-place finish at the Class 3A state cross country race at Norris Penrose Event Center. He needed to get better. So the offseason was about training with a high mileage count. The first sign of that work came through when he took second in the 3A boys race at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede last Friday.

“I thought my mileage this summer was great,” Ilyasova said. “I think part of the reason (I didn’t win today) was because I’m coming off that mileage. I’m going to start tapering more speed work, tempo work and cut down on my miles and I’ll be just fine at state.”

He’ll have some added motivation after what happened at the Stampede, the pre-state meet that is run at Norris Penrose each year. 
 

He was seven seconds behind Lamar’s Brendan Davis, who won with a time of 16 minutes, 21.4 seconds.

Ilyasova and Davis know each other well as they often battle in Tri-Peaks races throughout the year. Davis getting the edge is going to be a feeling that sticks with Ilyasova and the team for the rest of the season.

“Considering he lost to someone he races regularly, I don’t really see it as something that sets him back,” Manitou coach Anna Mack said. “It’s going to fuel his fire. It’s a kid in our league so it’s going to fire him up a little.”

Alamosa claimed the team win for the race, but the Mustangs came in second and have asserted themselves as a team that will be dangerous through the rest of the season until they get back to Norris Penrose for state.

“This is definitely the best boys team I’ve had since I took over cross country,” Mack said. “It’s also the best boys team we’ve had in a while at Manitou. It’s been a while since we’ve sent a full team to state.”

Cody Kelley and Kian O’Boyle added top-10 finishes to give the Mustangs their No. 2 spot as a team.

Alamosa was slightly better with Isaac Higareda, Jayr Almeida, Santiago Trujillo and Izaiah Casanova all finishing in the top 10.

The Mean Moose will be tough to topple at state, but the Mustangs will continue to look for improvements throughout the year in order to give it their best shot. And Ilyasova will be the guy to set the tone for that improvement.

“I have so much motivation,” he said. “I want to win state and beat these other guys. And I think I can do it.”

He just needs to keep training. And if he can managed to dodge traffic as he keeps getting better, he can certainly dodge getting beat on the running trail.