COLORADO SPRINGS – The Classical Academy will be taking home both the Class 3A boys state cross-country title and the individual title once again this season.

Senior Chandler Wilburn led the way with the individual title, but had his work cut out for him. He finished at the top with a time of 15 minutes, 46.3 seconds topping Logan Gullett (15.52.10) and fellow teammate and defending state champion Matthew Edwards (16:00.4).

Wilburn had finished second at state four times in both cross-country and track and last year he took fourth behind both Edwards and Gullett – so the victory was bittersweet. It also was no secret that Gullett came into the state race undefeated against the 3A competition.

“It was a battle. But hearing the cheers – it’s exactly how I played it out in my head,” Wilburn said. “Logan is an incredible competitor; I have gotten beat by that guy a number of times. It was a blast to race against him today. Between him, Matthew, and I, we didn’t know who was going to win.”

The trio separated themselves from the pack after the first mile with Edwards and Gullett jockeying for second, but by the second mile Gullett was fighting Wilburn for first place.  

“I started to hear the cheers for Logan, I didn’t even hear the cheers for me anymore,” Wilburn said. “I just assumed he was right behind me, and it was just a matter of who was going to push for it at the end.”

TCA won first place with 47 points with Frontier Academy placing second with 112 and Alamosa finishing third with 121.

Junior Nathan Meister finished 11th and senior Casey Golden placed 15th for The Classical Academy.

“We have a great coaching staff that are always pushing us,” Edwards said. “Just having that dynamic of having that good of a team to work and push each other consistently to keep getting better is special. Our next three guys after Chandler and I have switched places each race.”

Edwards, who is a junior, will lead a strong group of returning squad. He also is hungry for next season after losing part of his year due to a stress fracture in his femur.

“I only had three months of training under my belt, I knew it was going to be hard and so I wanted to give Chandler the best shot possible. I’m just so happy for him,” Edwards said. “Looking forward to next year already. We have four of our top six coming back.