Boulder’s cross country meet — the Pat Patten Invitational on Saturday — will feature its own star runners in senior Lucas Wik and sophomore Calia Vaughn.
Wik has the sixth-fastest boys 5K in the 5A classification at 15 minutes and 0.20 seconds, which he ran at Liberty Bell on Sept. 13. His team, meanwhile, is only behind Niwot in MileSplit Colorado’s current team rankings. Wik, Toby Wong, Cooper Draves, Ulysses Paulsrud and Jack Rhodes have all run under 15:40 this season.
Boulder’s girls team, meanwhile, is ranked sixth in the state. Vaughn has the eighth-fastest girls 5K time in 5A this season at 17:26.50.
Below are five preps events to watch this week.
Mead-Holy Family football is the GOW.
Jefferson Academy at Peak to Peak boys soccer; Thursday at 6 p.m.
The 3A No. 7 Pumas (3-0-4, 0-0-2) have one of the stranger undefeated records in the state. Of their four draws this season, they came into the week tying their past three matches.
No. 6 Jefferson Academy (5-2-1, 0-1-1) beat Peak to Peak in last year’s 3A semifinal, advancing to the title game against Holy Family, which beat the Jags in overtime.
Get this: Troy Brown has 15 goals for JA, while Peak to Peak has scored just six goals all season (outscoring teams 6-1 through seven games).
Mead at Silver Creek boys soccer; Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The 4A No. 3 Raptors (5-1) allowed their first two goals of the season in a 2-0 loss to 5A No. 6 Legacy on Monday. In the five games before that — including a win over state-title leading Broomfield — they’d outscored teams 18-2. Rien Pacaro has six goals and two assists to lead them.
No. 16 Mead (5-2-1) started the season 5-0-1 before losses to 3A defending champ Holy Family (Sept. 15) and 5A No. 13 Erie (Thursday).
Niwot at Legacy volleyball; Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
The defending Granite Peaks League champ Cougars (9-2, 5-0) and the Lightning (10-3, 4-0) are the last two GPL teams without a league loss.
Thursday’s matchup will also feature GPL’s top two kill leaders in Legacy’s Aislin Oldach (177 kills in 42 sets) and Niwot’s Bella Berger (173 in 39).
Centaurus at Cheyenne Mountain football; Friday at 6:30 p.m.
The Warriors (4-1) begin play in the I-25 League against the Red-Tailed Hawks, whose 5-0 start is their best open to a season in at least two decades.
The game features one of 4A’s top passing attacks with Centaurus (averaging 263 yards per game) against one of its best in Cheyenne Mountain’s run game (311 YPG).
After splitting time at QB through the first three weeks of the season, Carson Thomas has taken over the role the past two games. He’s 82-for-119 for 1,0003 yards and 15 TDs this season.
Pat Patten Invitational; Saturday starting at 9 a.m. at Viele Lake
If the 14 school attending all deploy their top runners at the invite, MileSplit’s virtual meet, calculated by using season-best times, says Boulder wins the boys race and places second in the girls’. Meanwhile, Mountain Vista’s girls edge the Panthers.
MileSplit’s virtual meet is predicated using either the best times of a runner during the season, or their average time. It’s not a perfect science by any means as every 5K course ranges in difficulty, and thus times. For instance, Boulder ran at Liberty Bell earlier this month on a course that is often regarded in XC circles as one of the fastest in the state.
But it’s fun to use anyway.
Whether by best or average times for the Pat Patten Invite, the prediction for team results are similar.
Using best times individually, Wik (third), Wong (seventh), and Draves (eighth) are thought to all place in the top 10 in the boys’ race.
In the girls’, Vaughn (second) and Fairview’s Martina Riley (fifth) are said to finish in the top five, followed by Boulder teammates Sophia Africa (seventh) and Kajsa Wik (10th) inside the top 10.
Out of the schools currently said to be attending, five are from the Boulder Valley School District. Behind Boulder in the virtual meet, Fairview is expected to place third in girls and sixth in boys. The Knights are followed by Broomfield (seventh in girls, ninth in boys), Centaurus (ninth, eighth), then Monarch (11th, 10th).
Reality sets in on Saturday.