T.E.A.M. Boulder welcomes Masters Athletes as the featured event of the Colleen De Reuck Cross Country Classic. The USATF Masters 5 km Cross Country Championships will be held this Saturday, November 2 at Harlow Platts/Viele Lake Park, in Boulder, Colorado. Perfect Cross Country weather is in store - sunny skies, with temperatures in the low to middle 40s for the men’s race at 9:40 a.m., rising into the low 50s by the time the women’s race concludes the day at 11 a.m. The men’s race features Joseph Gray, 16-time national Mountain Running Champion and the 2016 World Mountain Running Champion. Winner of the 2024 USATF Masters 10 km Championship, Gray will be challenged by Tyer Butterfield and Neil McDonagh. Butterfield is a two-time Olympic triathlete, competing for Bermuda in 2004 and 2012. Butterfield showed his current fitness in claiming the Masters win in the first event in the Boulder XC series on this course. McDonagh is the reigning Masters Road Mile Champion; he finished just off the podium at the 2022 edition of these championships, held in Boulder. Ann Kirkpatrick, a 2020 Olympic marathon trials competitor, won the 5 km Cross Country Championship here in 2022 and returns to defend. She was the top overall woman at the Black Squirrel Trail Half Marathon in early September. Melissa Dock captured the women’s 40-44 gold medal in cross country at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Sweden this summer. This May, she finished just ahead of Kirkpatrick at the Bolder Boulder 10K. It should be quite a rematch on the turf. Shelly McDonald finished just off the age grading podium in 2022. The following year she finished 12th overall at the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. All six run and train along the Front Range; it will be quite a dust-up. The athletes with the top age grading score are honored as the strongest runners, for their age, across all ages. Both elevation and surface tend to lower age grade scores. Two of the best age grade athletes, Rick Becker, and Nat Larson, hailing from Washington state and Massachusetts, are on hand. Becker edged Larson for the 8 km age-grading crown at the USATF Club Cross Country Championships last year in Tallahassee. They go up against Coloradan, Frank Zoldak, who took top honors in the 10K Championship at that event. The elevation gives Zoldak a slight edge. Greg Mitchell, who finished top ten age grading at the highly competitive 2022 USATF Club Cross Championships in San Francisco, could also factor into the contest. Kris Clark finished second at the 2022 edition of these championships in Boulder. Suzanne Cordes was fifth, but Dock could beat them both. At age 39, in 2021, Dock finished ninth overall in the Open race at Club Cross in Tallahassee. Her age grading score, albeit at sea level, was three points higher than Clark’s in Boulder. The thrilling Age Division contests are more intriguing this weekend because a few athletes are battling for the final Grand Prix points. Will they win or get on the GP podium? There is no tomorrow! Three men, Larson, Gary Ostwald, and Ken Youngers can win their division Grand Prix with a strong performance. The Women’s Grand Prix contests are settled, save one. Cindy Lucking needs to win the 70-74 division to have a chance at a GP win. But Helene Myers only needs to finish her race to deny Lucking the victory. A terrific battle is shaping up in the team contest in men 60 and up, featuring local teams, Athletics Boulder and the Boulder Road Runners vying against each other and this year’s national Grand Prix winning Atlanta Track Club. Some teams are as focused on the team Grand Prix win as much as the Championship. An example is the women 50 and up division. Three teams from the area, Athletics Boulder, Boulder Road Runners, and the Fort Collins Running Club are focused on winning the championship, giving them bragging rights along the Front Range. The Impala Racing Team, out of the San Francisco Bay area and the Shore AC, from New Jersey are locked in a tight battle for the GP win. The odds favor Impala who only need to finish in the top five; Shore AC must win to have a chance at the Grand Prix victory. This concludes the 2024 Championship season. The 2025 Masters National Grand Prix kicks off with the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Tacoma, Washington on December 14, 2024. Submitted by Paul Carlin Photo Credit: Dave Albo