Battle Mountain girls cross-country team qualifies for 16th-straight state meet with runner-up regional finish

Rob Parish insists it’s “not a birthright to make the state meet” if you run for Battle Mountain. But it’s pretty close.

“You still have to do all the work,” the longtime head coach said after his Huskies qualified for their 16th-straight state meet on Thursday. Battle Mountain — which won 12 straight regional titles before finishing runner-up the last three — was second to Summit again at the 4A Region 1 championships held at Siena Valley Club in Gypsum.

“We’ve just been pretty fortunate to have a lot of athletes over the years and a lot of strong athletes who were willing to work,” Parish said reflecting on the team’s legacy. “The older athletes passed it down to the younger athletes.”

Summit’s Kayla Broecker broke away from Husky sophomore Eden DeMino just after the halfway point en route to a 28-second victory. The freshman finished the 5K course in 18 minutes, 45.97 seconds, leading the Tigers — who tallied 41 points — to the team win as well.

“I just put a lot of hard work into it and I knew this would come, but not this soon,” said Broecker, a soccer player who was attending a mogul ski camp during the Eagle Valley Invite — which DeMino won — back in September. Battle Mountain beat Summit twice during the regular season, but finished seven points back on Thursday.

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“They’re honestly good to have as competitors because it makes us push ourselves,” Broecker said of her Vail Pass rivals. DeMino’s 19:13.21 sliced more than 30 seconds off her time from September.

“I feel pretty good. We’re about to peak for state, so the training has been pretty hard,” DeMino said. “I think I’m feeling a lot faster right now.”

Her teammates, Caroline Provencher (20:09.59), Isla Elton (20:16.38) and Larsen Middaugh (20:23.19) went 6-7-8, and all came through before Summit’s third girl. Considering the increasingly deep Western Slope fields, Parish was impressed to see four in the top eight. Even though he’s seen some elite top runners during the 16-year streak — from the Constien and Harding sisters to Grace Johnson and Milaina Almonte — Parish said the Battle Mountain formula has always focused on the middle of the lineup.

“The front runners don’t qualify you for state. It’s those three, four, five, six runners we always talk about,” he said before pointing to his No. 5 on Thursday. “And Kylee (Buchanon) is a testament to that.”

On a cold, rainy afternoon where Ruthie DeMino wasn’t her normal self, Buchanon busted out a 21:10.87 — 1 minute and 14 seconds faster than her time on the same course last month — to finish in 26th.

“(Ruthie) had an off day and Kylee was there to pick it up,” Parish said.

Grand Junction (92) and Conifer (125) were the final team qualifiers, with Steamboat Springs missing a state trip by three points. Eagle Valley finished seventh as a team, led by Nina Hesseltine’s 21st-place finish. The freshman came back from a mid-season injury to clock a 20:54.51, a 28-second course PR.

“To have that struggle mid-season, to do her PT, alternative workouts and just really stay committed to the team and herself … it can be discouraging at times,” Eagle Valley head coach Melinda Brandt said. “It really showed all that work paid off.”

Even though Hesseltine missed her goal of qualifying for state as an individual by a mere seven seconds, the freshman said she “was very satisfied,” with the day.

“That’s alright, I put it all out there,” she stated.

Hesseltine and fellow freshman Paisley Kraft faithfully adhered to their coaches’ advice of getting out hard, coming through the first mile in 6:15. Kraft — who has been the team’s top runner at several meets this year — wound up fading to 37th in 21:50.8, finishing one place in front of the team’s other freshman, Henley Brown (21:53.1).

“I said, there’s no failures here and nothing to be disappointed in. You took the risk and that’s what we asked you to do,” Brandt said regarding Kraft’s gutsy effort. “We asked them to run with grit and heart, to dig and run for each other. They did a nice job of putting themselves ahead of where they were expected to be.”

With several middle school athletes in attendance and six girls registered for Nike Cross Regionals next month, Brandt said the future looks bright.

“They are hungry,” she said. “I think the girls program is going nowhere but up.”

The state meet will take place on Nov. 1 in Colorado Springs. Last year, the Huskies finished 20 points behind the Tigers at the regional before leapfrogging into second behind Timnath at state a week later. DeMino is hoping something similar will take place next Saturday.

“We made states,” she said. “So I guess we’ll have to win there.”