Nike honors Niwot boys cross country team

It was quite a year for the Niwot High School boys cross country team. Winning a state title in Class 5A, Niwot's first experience in the highest state classification, with a dominant team effort began the run of honors for Coach Kelly Christensen's runners.

That was followed by a second-place team finish at the Nike Cross Regionals in Arizona, which also qualified the team to run at the Nike Cross Nationals.

The Cougars surprised quite a few people at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon, by not only finishing ahead of Herriman High School (Utah), the team Niwot lost to in Regionals, but by winning the National team title. And it wasn't close, with Niwot's top five runners scoring 70 points, while American Fork High School (Utah) came in at 96 points, and Herriman following with 106 points. The victory marked the first time a Colorado team had won the Nike Cross Nationals.

For their efforts, the Niwot boys runners were honored at a school assembly on Jan. 8 when Nike representatives arrived to present the national title, along with Niwot alum Elise Cranny, a two-time Olympian in track, who also spoke to the assembled students, coaches, faculty and staff.

Niwot residents and visitors don't need to look far to see the work put in by the NHS cross country program participants. Runners can be seen most days around town on the streets and trails. Coach Christensen and his counterpart in track, Head Coach Maurice Henriques, have developed a team-first culture in the running program.

That was evident in the individual results from state, regionals and nationals. Junior Hunter Robbie started his high school career as a soccer player, and wasn't always fast when he took up running. But Robbie's hard work paid off with a berth on the Nike nationals squad as a sophomore, where he finished 106th overall.

This season as a junior, Robbie never won a race, but he was always among the team leaders. He finished fifth in the state meet, less than two seconds behind teammate Ryder Keeton, who finished third overall. Robbie followed that by finishing 21st at the Nike Cross Nationals, the highest individual finish for a Cougar runner, earning the Boulder Daily Camera's cross country Runner of the Year recognition for his efforts throughout the season.

Robbie succeeded teammate Rocco Culpepper for the Camera's county-wide honor, but Culpepper was still part of the Cougar team's success, winning the St. Vrain Invitational last September and the Granite League Championship in October, just ahead of Robbie.

Quinn Sullivan led the Cougar runners at the Nike Regionals, finishing 12th overall, just ahead of Keeton (15th) and Robbie (21st).

At Nationals, the Cougars ran as a pack, with only 31 seconds separating the first and last Niwot runner. Keegan Geldean (9th), Sullivan (10th), Gabriel Marshall (11th), and Gavin Engtrakul (35th) closed out the team scoring as the top five runners along with Robbie.

The strength and depth of the Cougar program was made more apparent when standout runners Culpepper (47th) and Keeton (64th), who won important races earlier in the season for Niwot, did not count in the scoring. The Cougars were so dominant that Culpepper's score could have replaced Engtrakul as the fifth team scorer and the Cougars still would have won the team title.