Thorvaldson, a senior at Rawlins High in Wyoming, elevates to No. 3 all-time high school girls performer with 16:19 effort; Cherry Creek senior Wolfe runs 14:30.1 to eclipse last year’s mark of 14:38.4 by Sprout, also at Liberty Bell

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

The fastest high school 5-kilometer cross country performances ever produced on Colorado soil in both genders were achieved Saturday at the inaugural Heritage Distance Classic on the prestigious Liberty Bell course at 5,351 feet elevation in Littleton.

Sydney Thorvaldson, a senior at Rawlins High in Wyoming, won the girls competition in 16 minutes, 19 seconds, elevating her to the No. 3 all-time prep performer in a 5-kilometer race.

Parker Wolfe, a senior at Cherry Creek High in Colorado, also earned a dominant victory in the boys event in 14:30.1, eclipsing the state standard established last year by recent Valor Christian graduate Cole Sprout, who ran 14:38.4 at the Liberty Bell Invitational. Wolfe was runner-up last season in 14:47.3.

RESULTS

Sprout, a freshman at Stanford, still boasts the fastest 5-kilometer cross country time by a Colorado prep athlete when he ran 14:16.01 at the Desert Twilight Festival in Casa Grande, Ariz., making him the No. 4 all-time high school performer. Wolfe ascended to the No. 14 performer on a 5-kilometer course in U.S. prep history.

Thorvaldson ran 16:40.6 on the Liberty Bell course last year to achieve the fastest 5-kilometer performance recorded on Colorado soil, lowering the 2016 standard of 16:43.4 produced by former Grandview star and Nike Cross Nationals champion Brie Oakley, a redshirt junior at Cal.

Following a 32-second victory last year over Cherry Creek standout Riley Stewart, Thorvaldson prevailed by an even bigger margin in Saturday’s rematch, winning by 47 seconds over the junior, who clocked 17:06.

Thorvaldson now trails only the national high school 5-kilometer girls cross country record of 16:06.87 run at the 2018 Ocean State Invitational at Goddard Park in Rhode Island by recent graduate Katelyn Tuohy of North Rockland High in New York, along with the 16:12 achieved last year by Brynn Brown of Denton Guyer High in Texas at her own home meet at the South Lakes Park Eureka Playground course.

Tuohy is a freshman at North Carolina State and Brown, a senior, has verbally committed to North Carolina.

An hour after Thorvaldson’s race concluded Saturday in Colorado, junior Jenna Hutchins of Science Hill High in Tennessee elevated to the No. 6 all-time girls high school 5-kilometer performer, when she ran 16:25.08 at the Chickasaw Trails Invitational at Oakville Indian Mounds Park in Alabama.

In the girls team competition at the Heritage Distance Classic, Valor Christian edged Arapahoe by a 36-43 margin. Mountain Vista, led by a ninth-place effort from Shayda Zarrin (17:59), was third with 70 points.

Jocelyn Millican was seventh (17:53.1) and Taylor Whitfield (17:58.4) placed eighth for Valor Christian, with Ava Mitchell (17:48) and Emily Lamontagne (17:48.5) finishing fifth and sixth for Arapahoe.

Mountain Vista secured a 36-55 victory over Chaparral in the boys competition, with Owen Nolan (15:44.2) placing fourth, Kyle Boe (15:55.5) taking seventh and Harrison Witt (16:00.7) finishing eighth.

Freshman Brennan Draper secured sixth in 15:53.5 for Chaparral.

Heritage, with Michael Beck (15:40) and Jason Becker (15:51.9) finishing third and fifth, was third with 70 points and Valor Christian’s fourth-place showing with 94 points was highlighted by a runner-up finish from sophomore transfer Ty Garrett (15:23).