craigdailypress.com

Corey Wojkiewicz catches his breath after finishing Saturday's cross-country meet. The Bulldogs boys team placed sixth out of 12 teams.

Smack dab in the middle of the peak training period for the Moffat County cross-country team, the Bulldogs reached a Summit.

Not the summit at the top of a mountain, rather a Saturday meet at Summit High School.

The Bulldogs couldn't shake the fatigue from the intense practice sessions last week. The girls finished fourth and the boys sixth, out of 12 teams, at the invitational.

"We just ran tired," coach Todd Trapp said. "Our practices beat them up this week. They're sore."

The Bulldogs are in the midst of what Trapp calls "peak week," in which the runners perform their most intense training regimens of the season.

"They only had one day to recover," Trapp said. "It's tough to run when your muscles are still healing."

The Bulldogs top runners - Alicia Nelson and Mike McNicol - placed third and fourth individually, each runner finishing more than one minute ahead of their closest teammate.

Trapp said one of the goals for his team heading into Saturday's contest was to beat rival Steamboat Springs and division foe Summit High.

The Bulldog girls beat the Sailors, but fell to the Tigers.

The boys team was out-paced by Steamboat, but finished ahead of Summit.

"It's good to know that we (boys) can beat Summit," Trapp said, "but the Steamboat loss was frustrating. They are our rivals."

The Bulldogs defeated Steamboat last week in their home invitational.

Trapp said his runners would need to identify the opposing team's equal runner and use that as a motivation.

"They need to believe," he said. "Our No. 2 runner needs to look ahead and see Steamboat's No. 2 runner and focus on beating them. They will respond better to that challenge."

Peak week will continue for Moffat County this week. The Bulldogs are training hard, with Trapp saying the efforts of his team at practice will pay off come regionals.

"Everything that we are doing right now is geared toward one thing," he said. "Focusing on regionals."

Despite the tough practices in store for the Bulldog runners, Trapp said Saturday's meet in Mountain View should have a more favorable result.

"The workouts are tough," he said, "but I know there are better races to come."