El Paso Eastwood and junior Noah Garcia came to Desert Twilight ready to prove themselves against a stacked Desert Twilight field and exceeded all expectations.
Results
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Individually, Garcia had run 14:31 locally in Texas without major competition. He'd battle with many of the Southwest's and countries top returners in Yohanes Vanmeerten (Flagstaff, AZ), Quinn Sullivan (Niwot, CO), Oliver Horton (Coronado, CO) and Jay McDonald (Summit, CO). Vanmeerten was fourth at Brooks XC Nationals in 2025. Horton was Desert Twilight in 2025 ahead of Vanmeerten running 14:23 to 14:25.
The Sweepstakes boys race was the final race of the event on Toka Sticks Golf Course at 9:55 PM MST. It would be very competition through the first mile as the field would go through in 4:36 with all of the major names in the lead group.
Over the second Mile the race would begin to play out as a lead group of Garcia, Vanmeerten and Horton would move to the front and begin to make it a three man battle for the title. The three crossed 2 Miles in 9:23 with Liam Folk (Heritage, CO), McDonald and Jude Ritzenhein (Niwot, CO) holding on behind them.
As them moved into the final Mile, Garcia made a move and began to push the pace as Horton would respond soon after moving back to the front. Vanmeertan would fall off the pace as Garcia and Horton would begin their battle over the final mile.
Horton and Garcia would be back and forth taking the lead, with under 800m to go Horton had some separation on Garcia who was a few steps back, but not done yet. Horton would lead them down the finishing straight as Garcia had made up ground and the two were sprinting for the finish line. Garcia would stay strong through the finish to take a narrow win in 14:30.4 ahead of Horton's 14:31.6.
Quinn Sullivan would move up significantly over the final Mile to take third in 14:35.9 with Vanmeerten taking fourth in 14:42. McDonald would place 5th just ahead of Ritzenhein both running 14:49.
The win for Garcia is massive. With an 8:50 3200m as a sophomore on the track and a strong start to the cross country season his resume was looking good, he needed to face some national caliber competition. You can't find a much stronger field to prove yourself than this Desert Twilight field as Garcia proved he belonged amongst the top names in the country.
Sweepstakes Boys 5000 Meter Run
Garcia's El Paso Eastwood team would impress as well taking a close 2nd to Niwot who would take the team title 87 to 91. El Paso Eastwood would lead through both the 1 Mile and 2 Mile splits with a 122 to 140 lead over Niwot going into the last Mile. Both teams would move up over the final mile, but Niwot shaving 53 places off their points was narrowly too much to match.
Niwot Top 5El Paso Eastwood Top 5
