Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  They may be young but they are mighty…and fast and determined, and they won the third place slot at the Colorado High School State Championships which took place at the Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs.

Out of 16 teams in the 2A division, the Nederland High School girls took third place, with Telluride coming in first and Lyons coming in second.

Nederland High School junior, Sarah Davidson, was the first Nederland runner, coming in sixth place with a time of 20:44.2 and freshman, Helen Cross, was right behind her, coming in seventh with a time of 20:46.3. Freshman Anna Neher was 43rd with a time of 24:07.2; sophomore Meg Feeley was 49th with a time of 24:56.29 and Alex Sorokach came in 58th with a time of 26:00.41. There were 105 girls in the 2A competition.

The one Nederland boy to qualify for state, Adam Figgins, came in 36th with a time of 18:39.88. There were 101 boys competing.

Davidson came in 10th place overall which earned her a spot on the championship podium and Cross came in 11th place.

Nederland has often come up with state championship cross country runners and considering that all of the girls will probably return to run next year, the Panther’s running future is bright.