Jackson Haselnus puts on a late sprint to earn a second-place finish

The Barlow boys cross country team poured it on as the rains came down heavy over the last mile Wednesday and overtook Reynolds to claim the league’s final spot to the 6A state meet.

Reynolds built a seven-point advantage at the first mile marker and maintained that edge through the middle stages of the district race. But Barlow runners surged toward the finish line to claim second place by a nine-point margin.

“That’s a bigger gap than we were expecting today, so I guess we ran well,” Barlow’s lead racer Jackson Haselnus said. “We were told to shoot for every green shirt we saw, and we came out and did that.”

Haselnus highlighted that charge by overtaking the Raiders’ top runner with about a half-mile to go. He also put on a late sprint on the track, making up about 25 meters to overtake Centennial’s Tyler Hybl for second place, shaving another point from the Bruins’ team score in the process.

The clincher for the Bruins came when its No. 2 and 3 racers Auston Burns and Austin Kettelson managed to erase a sizeable gap on the Raiders’ No. 2 runner, beating him to the finishing chute by four seconds.

Central Catholic won the meet with 26 points, putting its full counting five racers among the top eight finishers. Kyle Thompson won the race in 15:24.20.

Look for extended meet coverage in the Friday, Oct. 26, edition of The Outlook.

View a photo gallery from the meet at …

http://daveball.exposuremanager.com/g/oct24_mhc_district_xc