Right foot injury plagues Coronado's Solis at state meet

FORT COLLINS • Coronado senior Dusty Solis, who finished seventh last year in Class 5A, succumbed to an injured foot Saturday and struggled home 93rd — fifth best on his team.

The Cheyenne Mountain boys’ squad, paced by junior Mitch Kasyon in 14th, took a disappointing second in 4A.

“When the dust settles, they’ll be happy with what they accomplished,” said Indians coach Stan Lambros, who returns five of his top seven runners. “I’m real proud of these guys.”

For Shawn Dubbs, who attends Cripple Creek-Victor but runs for Woodland Park, it was an impressive day. He began the weekend on a recruiting visit to Air Force and capped it with a fourth-place finish in 4A.

“This is my best race of the year,” said Dubbs, who finished in 16 minutes, 5.3 seconds.

Dubbs hung with Wheat Ridge’s Scott Fauble (15:24.22), who successfully defended his 4A title, until a mile remained.

“He just kicked it and ran away from everybody,” said Dubbs, who was 18th a year ago. “I was second for a long time, but couldn’t hold it.”

Fauble’s time was 26 seconds faster than Cherry Creek’s Walter Schafer, who won the title in 5A, where Palmer junior Andrew Goodman finished ninth. Solis had his sights set on that title but battled an injured right foot since winning his regional race 16 days earlier.

“Dusty ran a gutsy race, but it was so painful for him,” Coronado coach Doug Hugill said.

Solis hoped the meet being delayed a week by weather would benefit him.

“I knew better when we started striding to get loose,” said Solis, who sat on the grass afterward with an ice bag taped to the outside of his foot. “I hoped it would be 80 percent, but it was worse than that.”

In the 3A race, defending champion TCA took second, seven points behind Salida. Titans junior Josh Simkins (16:29.33) was fourth — 15 spots better than last year — and sophomore Adam Avischious (17:03.63) was 13th.

“The guys laid it on the course,” Versaw said. “Josh had a great race. I’d have a hard time convincing them of it now, but second isn’t bad.”

Vanguard’s Jeremiah Evangelista was fourth in the 2A race, 55 seconds behind the winner.