With one of the youngest varsity teams in the state, Moffat County High School girls cross-country has produced some spectacular results.

Following a second-place finish at the Oct. 24 regional meet, the team will look to replicate its success at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Fort Collins during the state cross-country meet hosted by Fossil Ridge High School.

Anchored by junior Maddy Jourgensen, the team has finished first overall three times this season.

The state meet originally was slated for Oct. 31, but excessive snow postponed the meet a week.

With an extra week to prepare, both the boys and girls team have been able to recover from injuries and squeeze in another week of practice.

Goals

Jourgensen said when fall started, she would not have guessed the team would have come within one point of winning the regional meet.

“Going into the season, I was kind of nervous with a young team,” she said. “I never would have thought we would get second at regionals. But I’m really proud of our team this year.”

Moffat County’s top five includes Sassy Murray, Bailey Hellander and Eryn Leonard – all freshmen.

“I’m hoping we can place in the top 10,” Jourgensen said. “We have a good team this year – the younger girls have improved a lot.”

Jourgensen, who finished sixth at the state meet last year, said she has set her goals a little higher.

“I want to finish in the top three,” she said. “The top five is pretty close this year.”

Leonard said she had mixed feelings heading into state.

“I’m pretty nervous and excited,” she said. “I hope we do well, but I know we will.”

Leonard has big goals for herself and her team.

“I would like to come in the top 15, and get in under 20 minutes,” she said. “As a team, I’m hoping we can get in the top five, maybe even first or second. If we stay as a pack, we can.”

Nike Cleverly reiterated what Leonard said, saying the team is stronger when running together.

“State is different than regionals because there are a lot more teams, so there will be gaps,” she said. “This will actually help us, because we run so tight and our top runners are very fast.”

For her first state meet, Murray said she wants to be within striking distance of her teammates.

“I want to try to stay up and keep Bailey and Nike in sight,” she said. “As a team, I think we can place in the top 10.”

Hellander said she had one personal goal.

“I want to beat Nike,” she said. “I beat her last week.”

The competition

Jourgensen won’t be able to jog to a state title.

She will have to outlast top-flight runners like Alamosa High School’s Nikki DeSouchet and Thompson Valley High School’s Becky Schmitt.

Included in that mix is Greeley West High School’s Allie Parks and Evergreen High School’s Bryn Haebe.

“(Bryn) beat me earlier in the season by only four seconds,” Jourgensen said. “I just want to stay close to Allie – I want to beat her, but I don’t really know if that will happen.”

Coach Todd Trapp said the team would keep an eye on Thompson Valley, Greeley West, Mullens and Cheyenne Mountain High School.

“Those are the top teams in the state,” he said. “Those teams are put out there as contenders to win a state title, and we might be down the list a little further.”

Heading into the state meet, Moffat County’s girls team was ranked 10th, so a top-10 finish would be the team’s main goal.

But the team has one score to settle, Trapp said.

“I know the girls want to get a little revenge with the Montrose team that beat them by one point at the regional meet,” he said. “They will be gunning for all those teams, but they really want to show they were a better team.”

Strive in the middle

Cleverly said the team won’t stride away from its regular season strategy.

“It’s really important in the middle of the race to talk to yourself, and say ‘You have more left in you,'” she said. “That’s usually when people start to doubt their running and begin to weaken and we want to capitalize on their weakness.”

Trapp said the girls need to run their races and not get caught up in the excitement of a state meet.

“We just need to stay with our training and do what we’ve been doing,” he said. “We need to stay focused on the meet and not think about things we don’t have control over and just go down there and run our specific races.”

Extra week

Cleverly said the extra week might have benefited Moffat County more than some of the other schools.

“I think all of us were mentally prepared to have state last weekend, but the extra week will help us all,” she said. “We get more training and more conditioning, while the other teams might have had to stay indoors because of the snow.”

Jourgensen said the extra time could only help.

“I think it will help us,” she said. “We had an extra week to improve, and we’re in the same situation as everyone else.”

The course

Trapp said Fossil Ridge should benefit the Bulldogs.

“The kids know the course – they’ve ran the course before and know it’s fast,” he said. “Everyone likes a faster course, because then they get those fast times.”

Leonard said the team ran well earlier in the season when it visited Fort Collins.

“We ran there in pre-state for our second meet of season,” she said. “It wasn’t too tough and pretty flat in most areas. It was fast, but the last mile was pretty hard.”

Murray said the course should help her individual time.

“It’s really flat and dusty and there’s one big hill,” she said. “Other than that, it’s a really fast course which I think will help me and boost my confidence.”

Hellander said the team will have to start out strong for a good finish.

“After the start we’ll be fine,” she said. “There’s bunch of girls at the beginning, and then it goes into a very thin path, so we need to start out in a good position.”