Brunner and Middaugh run into record books at Warrior Lincoln Park Classic

If the producers of “Madden 23” ever decide to launch a “Bowerman 23” cross-country video game, the software producers can plug in a “99” speed-rating for Porter Middaugh and Will Brunner. The duo smashed the course record at the Warrior Lincoln Park Classic in Grand Junction by 16-seconds, coming across the line with an identical 14 minutes, 56.3 seconds to become the first athletes to go under 15-minutes on the course.

“I mean, 14:56 is like a video-game number,” head coach Rob Parish appropriately stated.

“I’ve coached a few years here and we don’t usually talk in times that start with 14.”

Parish said that based on the boys’ paces in the program’s historically benchmark workouts, the coaching staff knew if the weather, course and competition all aligned, the juniors would bust a big one.

“It’s amazing but it’s not altogether surprising when you see what they’ve done in the last two months,” Parish said. “The data was pointing towards a performance like this; we just needed to have the right situation.”

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Middaugh and Brunner were chatting on their Tuesday long run about going after 15:10.

“I was like thinking in my head, sub-15 — that’s the real goal,” Brunner told Colorado Milesplit’s Bobby Reyes after the race.

“We heard around 4:50 splits so we knew we were sub-15. I think that third mile, we really notched up the gear a little bit,” Middaugh added.

With 1200-meters to go, Middaugh ratcheted up the pace.

“The whole race, I just wanted to match what he was doing,” Brunner told Reyes.

“I saw him make that move and I was like, ‘woah, it’s now or never.’”

Middaugh made the long-range move, but Brunner had a little more in the homestretch, officially taking the win. Central Grand Junction’s Shalom Trowbridge (15:31.4) finished third, followed by his teammate, Jackson Edwards (15:49.8), the only other athletes to go under 16-minutes in the nine-team field

Even though they couldn’t technically share first place, the main goal for both athletes was in a sense accomplished.

“We were definitely trying to go fast this week,” Brunner said to Reyes.

“They’ve been amazingly patient following the plan,” Parish said, praising the whole team’s patience as the Huskies have eschewed some of the more traditionally fast courses throughout the year.

“They’ve been chomping at the bit; they’ve put up with all of my hoop-jumping exercises to get them ready,” he joked.

In other words, this was their chance to let it rip.

“The next few races are going to be important and pressure-filled and more about place where this had zero pressure and they could run however they wanted and go for it,” Parish said.

The Huskies showed up as a team, too, sweeping all four individual titles and all four team titles — including perfect scores in both the boys and girls junior varsity competitions.

“It was just a really fun day for our program,” Parish said.

Beyond their top two, Jorge Sinaloa was sixth in 16:13.2 and John McAbee was 10^th in 16:41.4. Jake Lindall (17:15.8) finished 15^th and Sawyer Blair rounded out the scoring five in 20^th with a 17:27.2.

“Their development has been tremendous,” Parish said of the pack. “They’ve been so bought in to this pursuit and were able to see some of the rewards of that hard work yesterday.”

On the girls side, Milaina Almonte (18:23.8) and Lindsey Whitton (18:30.0) went 1-2 as the Huskies put all of their top five into the top-10 places. Lindsey Kiehl (19:45.2), Presley Smith (19:47.8) and Kira Hower (19:52.3) finished eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively. It was the first time since the St. Vrain Invitational they’ve had the full squad together.

“So, that was fun to see them all run,” Parish said. “The goal is to get all the parts to run well together at the end. I think we’re close.”