COLORADO SPRINGS - Planned or unplanned, Mountain Vista’s Ben Adams and the Niwot team provided a jaw-dropping performance Saturday in the Class 5A boys state cross country championship race.
Adams, last season’s individual runner-up, had a plan to win his first individual title and even though the race threw him some curveballs of sorts — namely in a challenge from the Cougars’ Hunter Robbie — he prevailed with a classification record no less on a crisp morning at Norris Penrose Event Center.
Fending off Robbie, Adams crossed the finish line in 15 minutes, 3.30 seconds, to knock former teammate and 2024 champion Benjamin Anderson out of the 5A course recordbooks.
“It was such a wild race and didn’t go at all to plan,” Adams said. “I didn’t go out at all how I expected and Hunter had the most awesome race I’ve seen, so it just came down to grit, not giving up when he pushed in the last mile and just being able to kick hard at the end. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Adams relished his victory against an outstanding field that included a number of returning medalist from last season’s race in addition to some new challengers.
“It was a crazy time, but I couldn’t have run any slower and still won,” he said. “The competition reflected the time and it was just such a competitive race. …Definitely getting my teammates’ course record and continuing on the legacy for Vista was big.”
Robbie, meanwhile, did not go into the race with a definite plan.
He knows each race — especially at the state meet — has its own flow and he handled it as best he could, even though he ultimately wasn’t able to take down Adams.
“I don’t know if I’m going to feel good until halfway through the race, so I don’t really plan much,” said Robbie, who moved up from a sixth-place finish last season. “Sometimes you feel good and you feel fit, but we never really have a plan. It’s all loose because you never know how it’s going to play out. You never know how you’re going to feel Mile 1, Mile 2, so you just have a loose race plan and have some fun.”
Coach Kelly Christensen’s Cougars — last season’s Nike Cross Nationals winner and top-ranked team in the country — had all kinds of fun at the expense of the rest of the field, as they finished with a margin of victory of a whopping 113 points to claim the program’s second straight 5A state title and fifth all-time.
Robbie was followed by junior Quinn Sullivan in third (15:14.29) with freshman Jude Ritzenhein (15:19.37) — younger brother of Niwot girls star and multiple-time state champion Addison Ritzenhein — and senior Ryder Keeton (15:21.51) in sixth and seventh, respectively, and senior Gabriel Marshall in 10th (15:27.10). Robbie, Keeton and Marshall all had made the medal podium a year ago as well in the Cougars’ debut in 5A.
“We love being able to compete, so coming here and winning a title is awesome,” Robbie said. “It’s so fun. We look forward to it every year.”
Fort Collins’ teammates Cadel Ruthven (fifth in a big climb from 24th last season), a senior, and junior Sean Giles (ninth from 67th a year ago) got on the medal podium along with Golden sophomore Jackson Ferguson (fourth from 53rd in 2024) and ThunderRidge senior Ben Lee (eighth after a third place result in 2024).
In the team race, Erie (141 points) finished in second place with help from the tandem of consecutive finishers in senior Reid O’Brien and junior Brett Michalski in 14th and 15th, while the 152 of Castle View (led by sophomore Wyatt Dann’s 20th place finish) put it third.