Battle Mountain Cross Country Ends 12-Year Winning Streak at State

Aspen —Battle Mountain High School finished seventh at the Class 4A state cross-country championship on Saturday, snapping a 12-year streak of top-two team finishes. The Huskies ran at the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, placing behind a field of 20 teams that included a significantly strengthened division.

The result marks the end of an era for the program, but coach Rob Parish sees it as a validation rather than a failure. “I think that they were able to do as well as they could was awesome,” Parish said, noting the team “overachieved” given the competition.

The 4A division has grown tougher in recent seasons, a shift driven by CHSAA’s new success multiplier rule. Three-time defending 3A champion The Classical Academy moved up a class and claimed the team title, led by senior Vivian Jack. Jack won the individual race with a 27-second margin of victory, finishing the 5K crushed dirt course in 17 minutes, 17.4 seconds. Summit High School sophomore Kayla Broecker finished second in 17:44.7, breaking away from a chase pack in the final 800 meters to secure her second-straight runner-up finish.

For Battle Mountain, the scoring came from a group of runners who peaked at precisely the right moment. Senior Isla Elton led the Huskies with a 27th-place finish, running in 19:24.1 and slicing 18 seconds off her time from last year’s race. “I’m sad that was my last race, but I was really happy to do it with this team,” Elton said. “I think we all work really well together and we’re just really good friends.”

Junior Baizley Biniecki placed 51st, followed by Caroline Provencher (70th), Larsen Middaugh (76th), and Kylee Buchanon (85th). Parish praised Buchanon specifically for having “the race of her life.” The depth of the field made the seventh-place finish notable; Air Academy, which added a Nike Nationals overall champion to its roster, finished 15 points behind The Classical Academy. Several other schools from the larger 5A division also dropped down into 4A, creating a stiffer competition pool.

Parish pointed to the culture and training as the reason for the strong showing. “The girls believed in the peak, believed in the training,” he said. “A lot of girls have done an amazing job of just filling the spots, adopting the culture and doing great.”

The performance drew recognition from rival coaches. A Cheyenne Mountain coach slapped Parish’s shoulder on the way to the bus, telling him: “Every year — you guys do this every year.”

All four Region 1 teams that qualified for state finished in the top eight. Summit placed third, leapfrogging regional champion Steamboat Springs (fourth), while Durango finished eighth. The Huskies may not have secured their 13th-straight top-two finish, but they left Colorado Springs with a result that reflects the reality of modern high school cross-country: the bar keeps rising.