PHOTO CREDIT: Derek Veilleux
This is the part of the season where the stakes get loud. Conference meets are behind us. Regional nerves are in the rear-view. And now the sport is in its purest, most unforgiving phase: state weekend.
This weekend was a full stress test. Only the strongest held. Old Settlers Park in Texas delivered heavyweight title fights and comeback surges. North Carolina gave us one of the guttiest championship stories of the year. Hershey pulled the trapdoor and turned predictions into mud-soaked reality. Colorado offered both a finish line decided by a hundredth of a second and a course record that redefined the standard. Michigan dropped a United States number one. Minnesota put a brand new time at the top of its state history.
This was not just another week.
This was the moment where athletes either delivered the best race of their year, or watched someone else do it.
Here is just some of what happened.
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