Cheyenne Mountain’s boys cross country team gave coach Stan Lambros the best retirement gift a cross country coach could receive on Saturday, handing him the Class 4A boys state title at the Norris Penrose Event Center, a mile from the school’s campus.
Ranked second in the country by DyeStat, Cheyenne Mountain beat third-ranked Niwot with a dominating performance. Niwot’s Zane Bergen won but Cheyenne Mountain runners took second, third, fourth, seventh and 12th. Cheyenne Mountain senior Erik Le Roux was second, 12 seconds behind Bergen, who will be running for Stanford next year.
“It was a dogfight out there,” Le Roux said. “They brought out the best in us, for sure. It made the state championship feel so well-deserved. I loved every second of it. To see our guys go 2, 3, 4 and 7, you know we left everything out there.”
Lambros is a counselor at Cheyenne Mountain, which last won a boys state title in 2010.
“I’ve been smiling all day,” said Lambros, who was so happy he asked a stranger if he could hug him. “I told the kids last night, there was nothing they could do today that would spoil the year we’ve had. Itap been so fun.”
Giving Lambros a fitting sendoff just made the win that much sweeter for Le Roux.
“He just helped build a really special culture here,” Le Roux said. “The fact that he gets to ride off into the sunset with one more state title, in this dominant of a fashion, leaves a lasting legacy for all the other guys that are going to come through to bring more state titles to this awesome school.”
Bergen won his second state cross country title by breaking the 4A course record he set last year, finishing in 15 minutes, 17.7 seconds — 12 seconds ahead of Le Roux. He was downcast, though, because his team had to settle for second place. Niwot was first last year and Cheyenne Mountain was second.
“The only goal was the team title,” Bergen said. “The team title last year was amazing. We were trying to repeat that this year, and Cheyenne Mountain had the better team today.”
