Competing Saturday at the Garmin Running Lane Cross Country Championships in Huntsville, Alabama, both runners broke the 15-minute mark in the 5K.
“Land and I have been visualizing this race,” Frausto said. “It was our chance to go big and leave it all out there.”
The national championships were held on a former golf course that has been turned into running park. The course had some rolling hills to challenge the runners, but its elevation was only around 600 feet.
“Moving down in altitude definitely helped,” Frausto said. “It makes a big difference. Your legs don’t get lactic as fast, so at the end it feels like you can move better.”
Frausto said he and Lambert caught each other about midway through the race and then separated a bit.
Frausto ended up crossing before Lambert, placing 37th out of 304 runners in the gold race in 14 minutes, 44.23 seconds.
Lambert crossed 48th in 14:50.1.
“It feels great,” Frausto said. “I never thought I’d get to this point in my career; I wouldn’t want it to end any other way. Land fought out there and did great as well.”
Colin Sahlman of Newbury Park, California, won the race in a national record, 14:03.29, helping Newbury Park take the team title.
Niwot’s Zane Bergen was the top finisher from Colorado in the boys race, placing fourth in 14:09.91. Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) finished second as a team while Niwot finished eighth, Valor Christian placed ninth and Mountain Vista placed 10th at the national meet.
Sixty-five runners broke the 15-minute mark, 266 finished in under 16 minutes while the last place runner still ran an 18:14.62. In the blue and bronze divisions, 655 runners competed, but no runners broke the 15-minute mark.
“It was crazy to be surrounded by the best runners,” Frausto said. “It was awesome to be out there.”
He also thanked Ron Keller for, “pushing us to be the best runners we can be.”
In the girls championship, Niwot claimed the national team title, led by a seventh-place finish from Eva Klingbeil (16:44.69). Arapahoe finished third, Cherry Creek placed fifth, and Valor Christian finished 16th as a team. Riley Stewart of Cherry Creek had Colorado’s best finish, placing third in 16:28.3... Click here to read full article
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