AURORA | City teams and athletes won two team championships and three individual titles during the 2016 fall prep sports season. Here’s a look at one of Aurora’s individual state event winners in Grandview senior Brie Oakley, the Class 5A girls state cross country champion:
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
GRANDVIEW’S BRIE OAKLEY: CLASS 5A GIRLS STATE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPION
Girding herself for the 2016 Class 5A state cross country meet ever since her runner-up finish in the 2015 meet, Grandview senior Brie Oakley put her exceptional fitness and competitiveness on the line. Oakley had gained ground on Fort Collins senior Lauren Gregory — winner of the three previous 5A state championships — consistently in her short time in competitive running and she became the first Colorado runner to defeat the Lambkins’ star at the state meet to win the first individual state championship for an Aurora school since Smoky Hill’s Keara Sammons won the 2005 5A crown. Thrilled to finally be on the course after a hype-filled week, Oakley worked her way to the front of the field on the wide opening stretch of the state race, opened a slight gap over Gregory — who she also topped previously at the Liberty Bell Invitational — after a mile (going out too fast to start the race as she seemingly did every time) and built a lead of nearly a minute by the two-mile mark. She completed the 3.1-mile course in a remarkable 17 minutes, 7.83 seconds, to set the course record by more than a minute at the Norris Penrose Equestrian Center in Colorado Springs. Gregory came in second at 18:32.72.
With Oakley leading the way, Grandview finished a program-best fourth as a team with junior Caroline Robbins joining Oakley on the all-state medal podium with a sixth-place finish. Oakley finished the entire cross country season unbeaten as she won the Aurora City Championship at the beginning of the year, then went on to win the Centennial League championship and 5A Region 2 title prior to state, then the Nike Southwest Regional and the Nike Cross National championship race. It was perhaps the finest individual cross country season ever in Aurora, similar to the 2003 campaign of Smoky Hill’s Katelyn Kaltenbach, who went undefeated and won the Foot Locker national championship race that season.
