Over the past several years, the Berthoud High School (BHS) cross-country team has established themselves as a Colorado cross-country powerhouse and the 2022 season was no different. The Spartan harriers – both the boys and girls teams – will be well-represented at the 3A state championship meet this weekend.

Racing at the 3A Region 4 meet last Thursday at Monfort Park in Greeley alongside 13 other teams, the BHS boys squad raced their way to second place, matching last year’s school-best finish as a team, while the girls took fifth place.

Courtesy photo – The Berthoud High boys cross-county team holds their second-place plaque earned at last week’s regional championships. The Spartans will be sending their full team of athletes to this weekend’s 3A state championships.

The boys will send seven runners – Scott Clark (16:30.80, sixth place), Tate Bothun (16:51.80, eighth), Aiden Malherbe (17:20.90, 14th), Afton Cooper (17:23.40, 16th), Daniel Hatton (17:47.50, 20th), Evan Torres (18:37.50, 31st) and Emmanuel Hernandez (19:09.50, 41st) – to the state championships while the Lady Spartans will be represented by Jaycee Williams (19:09.40, third) and Sydney Slauson (20:03.00, eighth) at state.

“It’s rewarding as a coach, but it’s the boys putting in the hard work year-round, they are constantly putting in the work that’s needed to be successful in this sport, to see them being excited to represent Berthoud at the state level is super exciting,” said BHS Head Coach Jordan Jennings. “I think the girls team, in any other region across the state, qualifies as a team for the state meet. We knew our region was going to be really tough with Timnath coming in with a great girls team, there were five really good teams and we knew one was going to be out and unfortunately, it was us, but I think there was a lot of success within that race even if it didn’t go our way.” Jennings added that while only Williams and Slauson qualified to race, both girls will have multiple teammates joining on them on the trip this weekend as a show of support.

Williams, a junior, is making her third trip to the state meet while Slauson, a sophomore, is making her second appearance. The pair both said they have a good race plan for the course, knowing they’ll need to stay near the front of the pack through the first two miles and then kick hard in the final third of the 5K.

“Just be aware of the hills but use them when I can,” Slauson said, “I just want to save my energy and be ready to really go in that last 800 (meters) or so.” Williams, who posted the best-ever finish by a BHS runner last year in taking fourth place at state, said, “The third mile is mostly flat grass so just wait for that third mile.”

On the boys side, the leadership of seniors Hatton and Torres has been key. While the pair’s younger teammates have posted some faster scores, Jennings explained the leadership of the older two has proven invaluable.

Courtesy photo – Berthoud High cross-country athletes Jaycee Williams (right) and Sydney Slauson raced their way to third and eighth place, respectively, in last week’s regional championships at Monfort Park in Greeley, earning their spots in the 3A state championships that will be held this Saturday at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs.

“With Evan and Daniel, those two have really brought this young group along and we have some great young runners but they need to be led, and we really learned that with the girls squad the last few years with Ally (Padilla) and even if they’re not your top runners, it’s critical to have that leadership to have that presence to hone in those young runners, it’s just doing the small things, and these young guys wouldn’t be where they are without the senior leadership they have.”

While the boys said they were pleased to have taken second place at regionals, they collectively felt like they did not put in their best possible performance collectively. “It feels really good to have taken second place, but I know a lot of us had not-so-great races and we could have done better,” said Bothun, while Clark agreed that a possible lack of adequate hydration team-wide was a likely factor in not finishing closer to first-place Frontier Academy.

Torres, now making his fourth appearance at state, explained how the team has evolved and improved his four seasons saying, “I think we’re really going there to compete, in the past our goal was just to make state, but now we’ve moved on to bigger things and our goal is to place higher at state, we need to focus up and dig deep down within ourselves and we can do it.”

“We’ve said that making state is no longer enough, but we also talk about how state is a celebration of our hard work and our dedication to the sport,” Jennings said. “The results could be anywhere and I know we will walk away knowing we worked to get there and we will celebrate it, whatever happens Saturday, I know we can walk away as a pretty happy group knowing we enjoyed the process.”

Other Berthoud results: girls; Jagoda Blumska (23:05.50, 33^rd), Bella Miller (23:05.50, 34^th), Marie Cabrera (23:42.80, 42^nd), Megan Malherbe, 23:43.50, 43^rd), Gabriela Hernandez (25:46.80, 64^th), Kara Wilson (26:23.10, 67^th), Maria Resaland (28:58.50, 78^th); boys, Benjamin Clopper (19:37.80, 47^th), Jesse Hatton (19:39.20, 48^th).

This season’s state championship meet will be held at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs; the 3A girls will begin kick things off with their 5K race beginning at 9 a.m. and the 3A boys will follow with a start time of 10:20 a.m.