Last Two Nike Cross Nationals Team Champions Mountain Vista, Air Academy Meet In Girls Race; Benjamin Adams Eyeing Sweepstakes Boys Title After Finishing Third Last Year
By Keenan Gray of DyeStat
Nike Cross Nationals and HOKA Festival of Miles photos
The best of Colorado high school cross country makes their way to the state’s premiere in-season meet at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational on Saturday at Heritage High School in Littleton.
The last two Nike Cross Nationals girls team champions – Mountain Vista (2024) and Air Academy (2023) – are set to meet in the Runners Roost Sweepstakes Girls race, going off at 8:15 a.m. MT.
Mountain Vista began their 2024 national title run last fall with a win at the Liberty Bell Invitational, beating Air Academy 73-103. At the same meet a year prior, Air Academy dominated the sweepstakes race over Mountain Vista, 26-95, leading to an eventual national title in Portland. Air Academy and Mountain Vista are ranked No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, in the DyeStat Early Season Southwest Rankings.
Mountain Vista returns just two members from the national championship team that’ll be on the starting line this weekend: Claire Guiberson and Brenna Jorde. Guiberson finished 32nd at NXN last fall and has already begun her season with an early-season win at the Vista Nation XC 2-Mile Invitational.
Air Academy, who finished one spot off the NXN podium last fall by six points, return five members, including three top-50 finishers in Chamorra Cooper (29th), Jordan Banta (44th) and Mariah Hook (50th). Banta was Air Academy’s top finisher in the last fall’s sweepstakes race, finishing sixth.
Sandwiched between Air Academy and Mountain Vista in the Southwest rankings are No. 4 Heritage. The meet-host features an excellent duo in Emry Schwalm and Caroline Fender. Schwalm and Fender went 1-2 at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede on Aug. 22, the host site of the Colorado State Cross Country Championships. Schwalm finished fourth in last year’s sweepstakes race.
Chaparral, featuring Sky St Louis, and Boulder figure to be in the team mix, too.
Two of the top three individual fisnihers from last year’s sweepstakes races are set to return: Delaney Reuter and Emily Cohen. Reuter of Eaton finished second to last year’s winner in Summit’s Ella Hagen by five seconds. Cohen of Cherry Creek followed Reuter…
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