LAKEWOOD – Raegan McRae raised her exhausted arms in celebration as she held off Niwot’s Elise Hagen by less than 2 tenths of a second at the finish line Friday morning.

It was a second-place finish for the Cheyenne Mountain junior, but in this event that has been all there has been for the taking during the four dominant years of Niwot’s Addison Ritzenhein.

Ritzenhein, one of the best runners in the nation, cruised to victory in 10:31.46. The daughter of an Olympian, Ritzenhein won this event four consecutive years and will run at Northern Arizona next year.

McRae, the reigning cross country champion from the fall, placed second in 10:40.29.

“I would say, I honestly didn’t’ know what was going to happen going into this race,” said McRae, who entered the event seeded fourth. “I had a lot of my teammates supporting me, so that definitely helped.

“Honestly, I think this race was all about what Addi wanted to do. She’s such a strong and amazing runner. So I just decided to see how long I could stay with that front pack and then just go off of instinct when I needed to make a move. That last lap I just had to lock in and keep my placement.”

McRae averaged a 1:20.9 split for her first seven laps, then turned in a 1:14.88 on her final 400.

The second-place finish came after McRae didn’t finish in the top five a year ago in this event. She credited her growth and confidence from cross country in putting her best among those not named Riztenhein in 4A.

“I think my cross country season was definitely something that built my confidence up, because with each race I had to try a new strategy,” McRae said. “Coming back to track season I just had to make sure I was applying those strategies. My coaches definitely helped me achieve this today. I’m just very, very grateful for everything.”