The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs High School boys and girls cross-country teams established a few things Saturday morning that can’t be debated.

The Sailors have a leg up on Rangely and Meeker.

Their position in relation to the rest of the state still is up in the air, but both teams got off to exactly the start they were hoping for Saturday in their first meet of the season.

Steamboat welcomed Ran­gely and Meeker to its own invitational at Strawberry Park, then thoroughly stomped their guests.

The girls team accounted for the first seven finishers and senior Brittany Long won the 5-kilometer race with a time of 22 minutes, 45 seconds.

“I’m not really happy with my time, but it’s a good starting point,” Long said.

She ran a time-trial on the course last week and was several seconds faster. Still, she had little trouble taking pride in what was a big day for her team.

“We did very, very well,” she said. “Even being a small meet, we had a perfect score. We always have a really small girls team. But this year, we have so many people and we’re so close, we are able to push each other.”

Another of Steamboat’s top returning girls, Jaime Winter, missed the race with a nagging injury, but there were plenty of Sailors right on Long’s heels. Sophomore Natalie Gear was second and closing fast through the second half of the race. She finished 6 seconds back at 22:51.

Liza Stout was third while Jorid Halsnes and Claire Parsons rounded out the team’s scoring runners.

“Natalie and Liza really showed up,” Steamboat coach Matt Reinhold said. “They really worked together throughout the race and definitely impressed.”

The boys were nearly as successful, taking the top four spots.

Seniors John Cutter and Charlie Stoddard broke away from the pack early in the race, then Cutter broke away again, surging around the track behind Strawberry Park Elementary School to finish at 17:46.

Stoddard was second at 18:13.

Peter Daley and Buddy Kinder also ran most of the race together, with Daley earning a little separation at the end to finish third in 19:13. Kinder was fourth at 19:40.

Asher Rohde, Steamboat’s last scoring runner, fought his way past a pack from Rangely to finish eighth.

“The gap is going to close between Peter and Buddy and John and Charlie because Peter and Buddy can really work together to get up there closer,” Reinhold said. “It was just a good race — the perfect way to start a season. It was small, but it definitely helped us work on teamwork for bigger races.”

— To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 871-4253 or e-mail jreichenberger@steamboatpilot.com