Cross country dominance for The Classical Academy is nothing new. But that never means it’s easy.

The Titans’ girls put together a remarkable race as they once again captured the 3A team state championship.

It’s their third consecutive championship as all five of their scoring runners finished in the top 15. Vivian Jack and Ellie Askew finished third and fourth respectively in the race, battling with each other rather than an opposing school across the finish line.

“If it was someone from a different team, I’d probably be booking it a little faster,” Jack said. “With Ellie, she’s my teammate. In this race, we’re in it together. Before and during the race I kept telling her, ‘Ellie you can come with me. Ellie, you can stay with me.’ It’s so nice to have someone like that where we can run together and be so far up.”

Eaton’s Delaney Reuter crossed the finish line first with a time of 17 minutes, 26.9 seconds which cleared the field by nearly an entire minute. Jack had a time of 18:44.9 while Askew was just a half-second back at 18:45.4.

But it was the depth of two local teams that resulted in Colorado Springs schools keeping all the team hardware local.

Banning Lewis’ Alexa Gonzalez snagged a top-five finish, and with three runners coming in with a top-10 finish, it was Manitou Springs finishing as the state runner-up. It’s the best finish in program history for the Mustangs.

Keyaira Moore finished seventh for the Mustangs with Chloe Bresnahan coming in at eighth and Elisa Karr finishing ninth.

“I’m so lucky to be on this team and be able to run with everybody,” Karr said. “And to have Key and Chloe pushing me the entire time.”

As wide as the smiles were for the Mustangs, they were wider for the Titans upon receiving the 16th team title in program history, which remains the most of any program in Colorado.

The Titans won their first title in 2003 and have consistently been in the championship picture ever since.

“It’s great to carry on a legacy that the TCA girls have,” Askew said. “I’m so grateful I get to be a part of this team.”

That gratitude carried over into the boys race where her brother, Noah, finished fourth with a time of 16:25.8. The Titans slipped off the top of the boys podium, but the pride that exists within the program was strong enough that Noah knew he had to represent TCA on the individual podium

“It’s a big honor to be in that spot in the top role,” he said. “We had Grant Fleenor at the top of our team this year and lost him to injury, which is super unfortunate. I really felt a responsibility to keep our legacy going. We know there are up years and down years. This year, we had a lot of amazing performances and just because we’re down doesn’t mean we’re out.”

The symmetry of the finishes with the Askew siblings marked a sentimental end to Noah’s career with the Titans.

Before the start of the boys race, he was aware of where his younger sister had finished as things played out throughout the course, he made a push at the end so they had a memorable experience to share.

“I knew I was in fifth for the majority [of the race],” Noah said. “I thought about how cool it would be for us both to finish at No. 4.”

He completed that push to get ahead of Lamar’s Joel Davis. The Titans’ day started with a team state championship win and it ended with a memory that two of their individual runners will never forget.