RANGELY |
These four Rio Blanco County cross country runners will compete at the state meet this Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo. From the Rangely Panthers, Raelynn Norman and Patrick Scoggins will make the trip. This will be Scoggins’ third state competition. Austin Russell and Julia Eskelson will represent the Meeker Cowboys.
On Friday, Oct. 21, the Rangely cross country team headed down to Delta for the 2A regional meet. The athletes knew that they needed to perform well if they were to move on to state. The first 15 runners across the line were going on for another week. “Regionals is always an exciting meet, all the athletes run hard since they know what is on the line. Almost all the Rangely athletes got a new PR this weekend. Not only is this course a fast course but all the athletes pushed hard to place well.”said head coach Beth Scoggins The boys were the first ones to run for the day. Patrick Scoggins took off ahead of the pack while the other boys waited, knowing that most runners were going to kill themselves the first mile. As the first mile came around Scoggins was neck and neck with Austin Russell from Meeker in the lead. Nick Miears came around in the middle of the competition passing other runners as he came up behind them. Brennan Noyes was the next Rangely runner with Landon Rowley and Cameron Filfred on his heels. The next time coaches and fans were able see the runners was with about 600-meters left in the race. Scoggins, Russell and Ben Kelly from Soroco were leading the pack and the race could have been won by any one of the three top runners. Scoggins was able to pull away from the other two runners winning the race with a time of 16:04, which is a new PR for him. Miears was able to place 41st with a time of 19:52. Noyes was able to run a season’s best of 21:59 placing 54th. Landon Rowley was recovering from being sick last week but was able to run a 22:23 placing 55th. Cameron Filfred, was right behind with a time of 22:35, placing 56th. Next to toe the line were the girls, Raelynn Norman and Chloe Filfred. Norman was ranked 20th going into the meet and knew that if she wanted to go to state she would have to have the meet of her life. As the gun went off she went for it. Filfred hung back and settled into her pace. Norman was in 17th place at the mile, but had several girls right in front of her that she could pass. With 600-meters to go she was with two other girls and they were in 14th, 15th and 16th place. As the finish line came into view Norman was able to dig deep and run with all her heart to pass one girl. She came across the finish line in 15th place with a new PR and a time of 22:09. Filfred was able to run a good race and place 45th with a time of 27:04. Scoggins and Norman will be heading to the state meet this Saturday, Oct. 29 at Colorado Springs, Colo. “The state meet will be a fun and exciting time. This is Patrick’s third time to the state meet and he will be a force to be reckoned with. For Raelynn, it will be great experience for the years to come,” said coach Scoggins.
