Niwot Dominates Desert Twilight
* Niwot girls compete at Desert Twilight under the lights
Photo Credit: David Veenstra
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Niwot took the trip from Colorado to Arizona and was able to make statements for both teams.
The biggest statement came on the girls side as they scored a perfect 15 points in Gilbert, Arizona.
Led by sophomore Addison Ritzenhein, who finished the 5K course in 16:44, helped Niwot to a 17:31 average. Her run was the sixth-fastest time completed on the course within the last decade.
The Wake Forest commit Mia Prok was second in 17:31 and sophomore Avalon Beltran completed the course in 17:38. The fourth and fifth runners, Olivia Alessandrini and Cayden Justice finished in 17:50 and 17:54.
Even though Niwot's boy team didn't win with a perfect score, the Cougars still came up on top with 47 points and a 15:31 average.
Donovan Bitticks of Horizon grabbed the title by one second over Niwot's sophomore Rocco Culpepper. Bitticks, who finished 44th in last year's race, won with a new 5K personal best of 15:10.
"My mindset was I just trained harder than everyone out here," Bitticks told MileSplit after his win. "I'm going to go out there and win. That's all I could think about the entire race."
It was a close race for second as Culpepper finished seventh-tenths ahead of El Paso Eastwood's Aidan Danny Torres.
* Donovan Bitticks reflects on his Desert Twilight victory
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Page 3: Niwot Dominates Desert Twilight