COLORADO SPRINGS — Well into the second mile of Saturday’s Class 5A boys cross-country state championship, “everything was still up in the air,” Dakota Ridge’s Evan Appel said.
Good thing the race was 3.1 miles.
Appel turned on the jets late, finally got around Thornton’s Dey Tuach and finished in 15 minutes, 54.5 seconds to win by 16 seconds at the El Pomar Sports Complex.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to catch (Tuach),” said Appel, who drew inspiration from the Dakota Ridge girls’ romp to the Class 5A title. “I saw some people out there yelling for me, and I knew I couldn’t let them down. So I surged, and I gave it all I could, and it paid off, thankfully.”
While Appel reveled in the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat was evident on Tuach’s face. The native of Sudan was wheeled into the first-aid tent near the finish line after an injury to his right knee kept the senior from finishing the race.
“I found him just outside the fence, 200 meters back,” Thornton coach Sue Hammerschmidt said. “He’ll be able to move on, but right now he’s just very upset because obviously he could’ve had this.”
Said Appel of Tuach: “I had to muscle past him on the backstretch, and he made it tough for me. He kept jumping in front of me, and I think he was just holding on to what he had and maybe he just gave it too much. He ran a great race.”
Tuach’s injury opened the door for Cherry Creek’s Charles White to finish second. Grand Junction’s Martin Medina was third. Bobby Nicolls of Regis finished fourth, and Dart Schwarderer of Wheat Ridge completed the top five.
Schwarderer paced the Farmers, albeit by less than a second over freshman teammate Scott Fauble, to their first state title in 28 years.
“It’s really exciting,” said Schwarderer, a junior, whose state-champion teammates included Henry Cowhick, Bryan Heiny, Mickey Nelson, Aaron Goldfain and Patrick Williams. “We definitely wanted a little revenge (against Dakota Ridge), but they just ran as well, and Evan was just awesome today.”
Wheat Ridge’s total of 100 points was 32 better than second-place Arapahoe. Cherry Creek, behind top-10 finishes from White and sophomore Walter Schafer, finished third with 148 points.
