Aiden Le Roux set the tone in cross country all year long.

Saturday at the 4A state meet at Norris Penrose Event Center, the Cheyenne Mountain junior set the course record – for all classes – and clocked in at 15 minutes, 2.1 seconds for first place.

“It’s crazy and it’s still a little unbelievable,” Le Roux said. “The training I’ve done and the work that me and my teammates have put in, I knew it was possible, but it was unbelievable to do it in reality.”

Le Roux sat atop Colorado MileSplit’s top times nearly all season and ran a personal best 14:45.47 on Sept. 20 in Grand Junction.

He scorched the field then and Le Roux did so again at the state meet with nearly 20 seconds between him and second place, who was his teammate Brogan Collins.

“I didn’t think about having the fastest time all year,” Le Roux said. “I just kept thinking about pushing myself to see what I could do. I understood that I couldn’t let that get to my head and just to keep pushing with my team.”

Collins, who clocked in at 15:18.10, has also dominated most courses this season. Collins and Le Roux have been ham and eggs for the Red-Tailed Hawks’ team and Collins said, “Having Aiden has been a huge help.”

“He’s been pushing me along and he’s great to have during our workouts,” Collins said. “We train on this course all the time since our high school is just up the road. But all of our races have prepared us for this and that was a big help mentally.”

For Coronado, the boys finished as runners-up with 69 points, just behind Thompson Valley, which won with 64 points.

The Cougars’ second-place finish marks their best placement since 2012 when Coronado won their lone cross country title.

Oliver Horton capped a stout season with a third-place finish for Coronado, the Cougars’ top finisher, and ran a 15:31.22.

In all seven races this season, the Cougars’ sophomore placed top three and ran his fourth-best time of the year in the season finale.

At the 2023 state race, Horton placed ninth with a time of 15:49.40 and was the lone freshman on the podium and in the top 15.

This season, as a sophomore, Horton served as the only sophomore in the top-18 runners.

“We knew going into the meet that it was going to be all-hands on deck,” Cougars coach Lisa Rainsberger said. “A couple weeks ago, we lost (one of our top) runners Xzavier Campos to a freak accident.”

Rainsberger said Campos broke his left foot during finance class and recently had surgery to repair the injury.

Campos, a junior for the Cougars, is expected to recover and return to running, but Rainsberger isn’t disappointed nor discouraged with Coronado’s placement or the untimely accident.

“That didn’t delete the hope,” Rainsberger said. “We still prepared for being on top the podium and we came darn close. We were five points from winning. I’m proud of our boys. They could have dug a hole and been depressed. But they rallied and each of the ran a PR for this course. When they wake up, they will understand the accomplishment they just achieved. Everything isn’t determined by first place but by the collective effort.”

Stoughton, McRae earn podium finishes

Discovery Canyon’s Griffin Stoughton “had no idea” how her first state meet would go. It went well.

Stoughton had her best performance of her freshman campaign with a personal-best time of 18:28.50, to earn fourth overall.

The freshman attributed her success to a boost from Cheyenne Mountain’s Raegan McRae.

“Raegan was so helpful and we kind of carried each other that first mile,” Stoughton said. “At the end of the day you’re competing against people, but there’s nothing wrong with running with others because you’re both benefitting from it. … It ends up being mutually beneficial.”

McRae cracked sub-19 minutes for the first time in two races and placed fifth in the race for the Red-Tailed Hawks with a time of 18:54.10.

To start the year, McRae felt she struggled – she opened the season with a 20:38.60 at the Cheyenne Stampede, which also occurs at Norris Penrose – but hit her stride to conclude the season.

McRae said she cleared the mental hurdles that plagued her earlier in the year, but dealt with one final obstacle to conclude her sophomore year.

“Nothing crazy on the course but the creek crossing at the end was difficult,” McRae said. “It was at the end of the race and I already felt like I was dying. So that wasn’t fun.”

Other podium finishes

Last season as a sophomore, Lewis-Palmer’s Noah Thompson finished 36th at state with a time of 16:45.80. This year, Thompson placed sixth at the event and clocked in at 15:50.80, 15 seconds off his PR as a junior.

To start the year at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede, Thompson earned 12th with a time of 16:12, a 22-second improvement.

Thompson wrapped the season with four top 10 finishes for the Rangers after having just one as a sophomore.

Coronado’s Boston Potts concluded his cross country career with a 15:51.90 for eighth place for the Cougars.

It marked the first time in two races that Potts ran sub-16 and was his fifth top-10 finish of the season. As a junior, Potts ran a 16:08.15 for 18th place at state for the Cougars.

This story has been update with additional finishers.