Salmen takes second place at Bulldog 5K
The Glenwood Springs cross country team seems to be peaking at the right time.
With just a week before the 4A Western Regional Meet, the Demons posted one of their best results of the season at the Bulldog 5-kilometer in Palisade on Friday. And, as luck would have it, it was on the same course regionals will be held.
Paced by Marco Salmen’s second-place finish, the Demons posted a third-place team finish.
“The Boys were so pumped after this race,” said Glenwood coach Joe Mollica. “They all ran really fast and they can feel the possibility of a championship coming again.”
Class 5A Grand Junction won the 16-team meet with 58 points, followed by Class 4A Moffat County and Glenwood at 106 and 124, respectively. Palisade was fourth with 131 and Steamboat was fifth at 138.
Palisade’s Glenn Randall won the individual title with a time of 16 minutes, 34 seconds, followed by Salmen 7 seconds back.
Having Salmen back at what looks to be full strength bodes well for the Glenwood squad. Salmen, the Demons’ No. 1 runner, missed most of the season with a leg injury.
“(Salmen) said, `coach, I’m not going to let (Randall) get out of my sight,'” Mollica said. “He’s had to get his running legs back after doing all that cross-training and he’s got to get the psyche back, too. He’s got to get used to the 5K psyche.”
Chris Coddington finished eighth for the Demons in 17:29 and Alex Tiernan, a Roaring Fork student who runs for Glenwood was 16th in 17:57. Alex Littler was 33rd and German Gill was 65th with times of 18:43 and 20:01, respectively.
“WE ran this race and finished third and we were extremely tired (from the past week of training),” Mollica said. “This week we taper down and rest and they should be fired up this Saturday.”
On the girls’ side, freshman Angie Vichick was the top Demon finisher at 31st in 22:53 and Cassidy Willey was 46th in 23:58.
On Saturday the team competed in a relay meet in Montrose and had a strong showing from freshmen Eli Whiting and Caitlin Bergman. Whiting ran the equivalent of a 20:30 5K, while Bergman clocked in at 23:35.
The regional meet begins with girls running at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Palisade, followed by the boys at 10:45 a.m.
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