Saturday’s Mountain Games Minute

The Adidas Terrex Apres 5k was a worthy preamble to the weekend’s endurance events lineup at the 2022 GoPro Mountain Games, with 273 runners taking to the course out of Mountain Plaza Friday night in Vail.

Katie Fankhouser and Wesley Robinson took the women’s and men’s titles, respectively.

The 20-year-old Fort Lewis College runner, Fankhouser, finished with a time of 21 minutes, 4.7 seconds, about 40 seconds ahead of Boulder’s Karley Rempel and Vail’s Sarah Hochtl. Fankhouser hails from Lyons, where she was a Colorado 2A state champion and demonstrated some of the widest range ever seen by a prep track athlete in the state — high jumping 5 feet, pole vaulting 10-7 and running the 400-meter dash in 1:01.90 in addition to having a 5k personal best of 18:41.

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The boys race was a battle between Robinson and Western State-affiliated Adidas Terrex athletes Jeshurun Small and Josh Eberly. Small, a former Western State trail athlete, where he ran under Eberly, finished right behind his former coach. In the end, it was Robinson, a former University of Tennessee and George Washington University runner, who came out with an impressive 16:45.1 time, edging the 41-year-old Eberly (17:00.6) and 24-year-old Small (17:06.7).

Local age-group winners included Eagle’s Ethan Current (boys 12 & under) in 25:30.1 and Carey Salvin of Edwards (girls 17-18) in 38:27.3 in the youth divisions. For men, Eagle’s Matt Johnson (50-54) in 23:18.1 and Dan Nielsen (60-69) in 22:01, claimed top honors. On the women’s side, Vail’s Sarah Hochtl (30-39), Eagle’s Nancy Mires (50-59) in 28:59, Gypsum’s Trina Richey (60-69) in 29:07 and Margie Mayne (70 and over) in 35:57 were age-group champions.

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Slackline superstars

If you haven’t stopped by the Kayak Hole at the International Bridge for a slackline show, there is still time. Mickey Wilson, Heather Larsen and Davis Hermes — three of the top slackliners in the world — have wowed audiences with their afternoon shows. The last is Sunday at noon.

Pacifico Raft Cross competition brings splash of fun to Mountain Games

Dane Jackson and Nick Troutman have been facing off on the water all week, and on Friday, they teamed up for the Pacifico Raft Cross event, claiming the first place purse of $750 dollars.

The team of Riley Frank and Jacob McConnel finished second, with Fabio Lourencao and Todd Toledo rounding out the podium.

The raft cross race included a 200-meter spring from the ‘land start’ format at the Covered Bridge, finishing at the International Bridge. Teams navigated through a gated course in a Hyside 10.5 mini-max raft, dueling opponents in the rounds to qualify for finals.