Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley runners step onto 800-meter podium at Colorado state track meet

It’s hard to imagine Eagle Valley’s Armando Fuentes without a happy-go-lucky smile and goofy quip at the ready.

Even after Friday’s strange 800-meter final at the Colorado High School state track and field meet, the senior — who placed seventh in a time of 1 minute, 57.90 seconds — was as chill as ever, grinning from ear to ear.

“That was so weird,” he said, bending over after splitting 1:01.3 and 56.5. And for you non-runners out there, the answer is ‘yes, when you run the half-mile that way, it still hurts.’

But Fuentes is the kind of runner whose stride makes any pace look easy and every pace appear fast. As the 18-runner field grouped up for a relative warm-up jog on the first lap, the Fort Lewis commit found himself trapped in lane three.

“I was stuck behind this stampede of giraffes,” he said. There’s another unique remark, in case you missed it.

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One person who was thrilled about the pacing schedule was Will Brunner. The Husky was making a quick double back from setting the state meet 3200-meter record just two hours prior.

“I was like, let’s go, I want this thing to be tactical,” Brunner said. He tested out the quick turnaround at the Western Slope League championships a couple weeks ago. There, Brunner soloed a 9:18 to win the 3200 and came back just 90 minutes later and nearly set the school record in the 800 — placing second to his teammate Porter Middaugh in a scintillating 1:55.69.

“I think the biggest thing was fueling right after my finish,” he said. He said this weekend he’d put down a Honey Stinger waffle right after finishing, then hop in his Normatec boots for a recovery boost. An hour out, he planned to consume a gel and maybe a shot of coffee. The strategy looked to be working as the future Harvard runner was well positioned to react to Lincoln Brewer’s injection of pace at the bell. The Niwot junior finally said, ‘enough,’ and bolted into the lead.

“I saw that Niwot kid take it out and I was like, I’ll follow him,” Fuentes said.

Brunner closed in 55.9, moving up two places to finish fifth. Niwot’s Rocco Culpepper, who came into the event fresh, slithered to the front for the win in 1:55.22.

“I think I put myself in a good position. Everyone started kicking (and) my legs were not there as much as they were doing the two-mile,” Brunner said. “I felt like I put in a race that was good. Top-5 isn’t bad for an event that’s not my thing, so I’m pretty happy with it. My legs weren’t perfectly fresh, but still pretty fun.”

Unsurprisingly, Fuentes also had a good time, even if the race didn’t pan out like he’d hoped.

“I was a little disappointed it was more of a tactical race and not just all out,” he said.  “I will say, it was a hell of lot of fun. It was awesome and honestly, this was a dope way to finish off my high school 800s.”

Next year, Fuentes and his teammate Cooper Filmore will join the Fort Lewis College team and compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, arguably the toughest NCAA DII conference for distance runners. Fuentes was convinced it was the right landing spot after a heli-snowboarding trip he took to Silverton.

“I was attracted to the smaller vibe,” he said before noting that he wasn’t originally planning on continuing to compete.

“At first, I was like, ‘nah I don’t want to run. Like, I think I’m done — high school is it,'” he said. “And then throughout the season I was like, man I kind of love this.'”