Colorado doesn't often have a small-school entry at Foot Locker Nationals. Ryan Poland makes it two years in a row for the small schools. Photo courtesy PhotoRun.net.
Several interesting questions arise for the Colorado contingent at tomorrow's Foot Locker Nationals meet.
In head-to-head racing, the score this fall is Scott Fauble - 1, Walter Schafer - 1. The rubber match comes tomorrow. My prediction has the race within the race going to Schafer. Schafer won most recently in Wisconsin, and once you get this deep into the season trends are hard to reverse. If anyone can reverse the trend, though, Fauble's history says he is capable of doing it. Look for a strong race from both.
Colorado has had a few small-school (3A and down) entries at Foot Locker Nationals, but the last one until last year was in 2001. The interesting thing here is that the current small-school representative and the next-to-most recent small-school representative, Bret Schoolmeester, come from the same school--Denver Christian High School. Schoolmeester came in with a longer list of credentials, but can Poland trump Schoolmeester's finish? I suspect so.
The most recent small-school representative from Colorado was Joseph DeMoor, now at the University of Colorad. Prior to Schoolmeester was Aaron Blondeau. The Salida High School graduate also went on to run for the University of Colorado and had a high school assistant coaching gig or two before I lost track of his whereabouts. Before Blondeau, it was Cruz Zarco of Sargent, then Callie and Chris Nelson of Florence.
Danny Nicolls is Colorado's fourth male entry at Foot Locker Nationals. Brother Bobby had an injury late last fall and missed Foot Locker, but finished 18th in 2007. It seems likely that Danny has a good shot at establishing the family's best finish at Foot Locker Nationals.
Among the girls, you can't help but wonder if Kelsey Lakowske's race will evoke any memories of Allie McLaughlin's. The story line is similar at a number of points. An unbeaten season until Foot Locker Midwest. A win at the 5A state meet with a monster gap over the field. A so-so, given the history of their seasons, 4th/5th-place finish at Foot Locker Midwest. Watch out if you see Lakowske going big for the early lead at Foot Locker Nationals.
Actually, it would be shocking to see Lakowske to try to front run the national race, but I will be among the least surprised people on the planet if her race in San Diego has a much better ending than her race in Kenosha two weeks ago. Given a return to a more familiar kind of footing a top-10 finish for Lakowske is anything but unreasonable.
All the best to all five of Colorado's entries. Check back here tomorrow for race coverage.