5A boys cross country: Chaparral’s Brown, Mountain Vista boys earn upset victories

COLORADO — Tanner Brown never expected to be the first to cross the finish line.

The Chaparral sophomore entered the state cross country championships ranked 16th in Class 5A and hoped, at the very least, to finish in the top five of a very competitive field. He did a little better than that, as with Valor Christian’s Ty Garrett right on his tail, he kicked it up a notch roundingthe corner into the Norris Penrose Event Center stadium. 

He beat Garrett out by just 3.6 seconds with a time of 15 minutes, 44.7 seconds to claim the crown in Colorado’s largest classification. 

“I was kind of in disbelief. I didn’t really know what happened yet. Still processing it,” Brown said. “I’m going to be honest. I didn’t even think that was a possibility. I came in here trying to get top five. That was my real goal today, but I started feeling good and was able to keep up with the pack the whole time until the end.”

From the start, Brown relied on his strategy of sticking with the pack in the front. Other racers systematically dropped off as the race progressed until just he and Garrett remained. They made the final jump in the final thousand meters and battled with every step, every stride from there on out. 

Going into the final stretch, he played on his greatest strength and used it to pull ahead just before entering the building. It paid off.

“Going up that final hill into the stadium was where I knew I should take it because I’ve always felt so strong at that hill every time I come here to practice and last year’s race,” Brown said. “I never really knew exactly where he was once I passed him on that hill, but I just wanted to go, go, go until the end and it worked out.”

Garrett and Fairview’s Eric Sankey rounded out the top three individual finishes with times of 15:48.3 and 15:57.1, respectively.

The finish for the boys team title proved even more thrilling as, up until the official announcement, neither Valor Christian nor Mountain Vista knew who pulled out the win. Both teams huddled near the podium as they awaited the official word. 

When the announcement came through that Valor Christian finished second behind the Golden Eagles, the Mountain Vista boys cheered in elation. They had beaten out the nation’s sixth-ranked team by just two points with a team score of 59. 

“I was very nervous,” Mountain Vista senior Jayden Nats said. “I just saw it coming in that they had the first two and it was just close. I was looking back after I finished and I saw every other team. It was Valor, then us, Valor then us. I knew it was going to be very close but I just had faith in my teammates.”

The Golden Eagles secured their team title through top-10 finishes as Nats claimed fifth (16:01.6) and junior Tyler Downs rung in at eighth (16:09.6). Valor, by comparison, had two boys in the top four thanks to Garrett (second, 15:48.3) and junior Drew Costelow (fourth, 15:58.4). 

It truly came down to the third, fourth and fifth runners for each team, and the Golden Eagles just barely edged out Valor.

“At Vista nation, we just know we can compete with anyone and if we had a good day, we can beat anyone in the nation,” Nats said. “We also have to work hard and know that nothing is given to us. It’s just the culture. We don’t have just seven good guys. We have 20 guys, 40 guys working hard at practice every day and that really pushes the front guys to be better.”