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Eagle Valley junior Dylan Blair lowered his own school record Saturday at the Liberty Bell Invitational in Littleton. Blair blasted the notoriously fast 5k in 15 minutes, 4.1 seconds as 21 of the Devils’ 32 athletes achieved lifetime personal records.

“I think it shows I’m in really good shape right now,” said Blair, who set the previous school record last fall at the Warrior Classic, a course slightly short of a true 5k. “(Lincoln Park) is a little shorter, and to break it on a full-distance course by six seconds feels really good.”

Eagle Valley placed 17th in the division — the fastest of the meet’s six male fields — which consisted of mostly 5A schools. The Devils finished behind Summit as the second-best 4A squad and dropped their 5k team average from 17:12 a week ago to 16:13.

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“While the Liberty Bell course is not nearly as scenic as our home meet was last week at Siena Valley Club, it is refreshing to see racers push themselves to the max and see their times reflect that effort,” Eagle Valley head coach Melinda Brandt stated. “It was an encouraging day for the whole team!”

A week after soloing a 16:00 to win his team’s home invite, Blair enjoyed having company up front Saturday.

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“It was really fun to be able to race a ton of guys that are a little faster than me,” he said. “It really pushed me to my limits to keep going with them and stay with that pack the entire time.”

Blair was in 25th after the opening 800-meter downhill, but moved into the top-10 shortly after. The lead pack stayed together until the two-mile mark.

“Some people started to surge out and I didn’t want to go with them because I didn’t want to gas myself a little too early,” Blair said. 

Mountain Vista senior Ben Anderson won the race in 14:48.4.

“He nailed his paces and finished so strong to maintain a top-10 finish,” Brandt said of Blair, whose twin brother, Tyler Blair (15:12.6,) finished close behind in 14th. Jackson Filmore (16:11.5), Logan Drever (17:24.7) and Eric Asselin (17:29) finished in 77th, 149th and 155th to round out the Devils’ scoring. Blair said there were positive vibes on the bus ride home after the slew of personal records.

“We all really went out there and our 4-6 runners really came together to give us the points we needed,” he said before specifically highlighting Drever’s 90-second season best. “So far, the training has been going really great. Our mileage has been bumping up; right now I feel like we’re in a really good spot.”

Huskies win Liberty Bell D2 girls team title

Rob Parish said Battle Mountain’s entry into Liberty Bell was “last-minute.” The Huskies were rewarded for showing up: the girls won the D2 team race behind Ruthie Demino’s (19:17.0) top-5 finish.

“It was nice that we could get in and the kids were able to get the experience of running a really fast race,” Parish said. “Seeing the girls run that well was great.”

The Huskies posted a 2-minute split between their scoring runners as Eden Demino (19:41.6), Caroline Provencher (20:22.4), Larsen Middaugh (20:40.6) and Snow Swihart (21:17.7) finished 10th, 16th, 22nd, 36th, respectively.

Parish said Ruthie Demino’s gradual assumption of the team’s leadership mantle took a big step forward Saturday with her bold, front-running approach.

“She was aggressive,” Parish said of Demino. “She put herself near the front and put the effort forth to stay there. That’s a good sign for us because there’s all these younger, very talented athletes that are so new. … To have Ruthie there to lead the charge — that’s going to be gigantic for us.”

Ginger Reilly (20:41.7) finished in 23rd to lead Eagle Valley, which placed 14th as a team in the D2 race. The Battle Mountain boys were fourth out of 14 teams in the D3 event behind a 10th-place finish from Nate Beuche (17:00.9).

“Both teams are coming around and coming together,” Parish said. 

Battle Mountain still hasn’t garnered the attention of the statewide , though. Even though Parish believes the girls deserve a top-10 nod, his main concern at this point is teaching the young squad cross-country IQ and the importance of maximizing key training sessions.

“We just need to work on the workout intensity and the long run intensity. Those are both learned skills,” he said. “All the science — building the capillaries and building your cardiovascular engine — that’s when it happens.”

The Devils are currently sixth in 4A, though Blair said his group generally keeps the rankings “out of sight and mind” in September.

“Towards the end of the season, when we’re all trying to peak, we’ll definitely be looking at that more to see what teams we can maybe pick off,” he said. “Right now, I’d say we’re all in good shape, but we can all still be in better shape. So, team rankings don’t matter now as much as they will at the end of the season.”

After finishing as the top 4A boy in the 168-person field, Blair said his perspective on individual end-of-season potential has shifted slightly.

“It’s given me the thought that I do have a chance to compete to win,” he said regarding the state meet on Nov. 2. “Then again, the top-2 guys in 4A were not at Liberty Bell.”

But Cheyenne Mountain’s Aiden Le Roux and Brogan Collins — both of whom bested Blair at the season-opener in Colorado Springs in August — for the Warrior Classic. So will Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain. Blair’s goal is crystal clear.

“I’m really just trying to go for Porter Middaugh’s course record,” he said.