3A girls cross country: Liberty Common’s Allori wins individual, Alamosa captures team title

COLORADO SPRINGS — You could see Isabel Allori’s eyes light up when she entered the stadium at the Norris Penrose Event Center in the first race of the day at the state cross country championships.

The Liberty Common junior took one look at the clock at the finish line and saw that it was still starting with 16 and she knew she was going to not only obliterate the Class 3A state record, but her own personal record. How about a mind bending time of 17 minutes and 10 seconds, to break the 3A record by 50 seconds.

“I knew I had been going pretty fast, but I wasn’t really sure what the time was going to show,” said Allori, who was 65 seconds better than past champion Katelyn Maley of Basalt. “That was really just a lot of fun. I ran 18:56 her last year and over 20 as a freshman, so I’ve taken three minutes off and that is really cool.”

Allori and Maley went out quickly and when they reached the one mile mark had already put 20 seconds on the rest of the field and basically turned it into a two person race. By the time they came off the hill at the two mile mark, Allori’s lead had grown to 30 seconds and Maley was trying to hold off Allsion Pippert of Stargate.

“We went out at almost exactly 5:25 and I knew there was a chance it could be a fast pace early on,” Allori said. “But after that, I just wanted to work the hills… and once I started to gap, I started to feel really confident.”

In what was expected to be one of the better team races of the day, with any one of five teams vying for the title, it ultimately came down to two teams. In the end, Alamosa rallied and caught defending champion The Classical Academy. The Mean Moose finished with 57 points to TCA’s 88 and Holy Family was third with 186.

Alamosa put two runners in the top ten, lead by junior Sarah Delacerda (5th in 18:43.5) and freshman Madeline Castillo (7th in 18:45.7). The Moose put all five of their scoring runners in the top 25, including sophomore Elizabeth McQuitty, senior Lia Castillo and senior Autumn McQuitty.

“There was a little pressure coming in (with the team race in the back of my mind), but I really think it pushed me,” Delacerda said. “When you are getting tired, you have to realize you are doing this for your team and not just for myself at this point. I really pushed myself in that last mile for my team.

“This is an incredible feeling and I really wish we didn’t have to stay in the top ten circle at the end, cause I would have loved to be out there going crazy with my team. We have a bond like no other.”