On September 2nd, the Greeley West Cross Country team opened up their season at an invite in Leadville Colorado at Colorado Mountain College. If you are not familiar with Leadville, it is a town in the mountains sitting at an elevation of 10,152 feet.

That’s almost two miles above sea level. It was a successful day for the team, finishing third and having three runners in the top 20.

Senior Maria Geesaman knew the altitude would affect their running. “We, as a team knew it would be a lot different and harder to get a full breath and I know it affected most of the girls, but personally it didn’t affect me as much. I just focused on my breathing and put my mind to finishing the race.” Geesaman said.

Coach Rich Davis likes to start the season in invites like the Leadville invite because they are more of a smaller tournament with not a lot of teams. Last Friday, they competed in an invite with over 80 teams from six different states.

On the way to Leadville, the bus broke down three times because it was overheating, and every time it would overheat they would have to pull over and wait for the bus to get ready to go again. Davis laughed as he recounted the driver’s response. “This is our best 30 year old bus,” Davis recalled.