All Colorado team wins gold for Team USA at U18 Mountain Running Cup in France

photos: Andy Wacker
 

Colorado Results Scoreboard

On Saturday (27-May) six athletes from Colorado represented Team USA in the 16th edition of the International U18 Mountain Running Cup in Annecy, France. 

All four members of the boys team and two of the four girls haled from Colorado.

The storylines of day was the gold medal won by the boys squad as they topped the podium stand and the individual silver medals won by Matthew Edwards (Monument) in the boys race and Keegan Edwards (Highlands Ranch - pictured on right) in the girls race.

The event was conducted on a 4.7km course, which started at 1,477m and then climbed steadily for 2.1 km to top out at 1,699m at the summit of Semnoz, before beginning a fast and furious 2.6k descent.

In the boys race Matthew Edwards' second place finish led the all-Colorado boys team to the team victory. He covered the course in 17:54 just eight seconds behind Gaitan Mordillo of Spain. Benjamin Anderson (Highlands Ranch) finished fifth running 18:34 with Will Brunner (Avon) rounding out the team scoring with an 11th place finish in 19:01. Jake Schwarting (Erie) finished 24th in a time of 19:38. The team scored 18 points to defeat Spain (35 pts.) and England (39 pts.). It was the first time Team USA has earned either an individual or team medal in the boys competition at this event.

In the girls race Keeghan Edwards reached the summit in the lead with Ines Herault Sicilia of Spain and Amelie Lane of England close behind. On the long decent Sicilia was able to pull away for the win crossing the line in 20:19 while Edwards fought hard to capture the silver running 20:46; just five seconds ahead of Lane. Rosie Mucharsky-Boyle of Denver finished sixth running 21:40 and was Team USA's second scorer. The team finished with 16 points and were just edged out by 1 point by Spain for the team title. The second place finish was Team USA's highest team finish ever in the girls competituon at the event.

The complete event results can be found here.