FORT COLLINS — Denver North’s Joseph Manilafasha has overcome a lot in his life - from escaping the African nation of Burundi after his father’s death in the nation’s civil war, to escaping to a refugee camp and then having his family uprooted and brought to the United States when he was 10 years old.

So another Class 4A state cross country championship may not seem like a big event - but to Manilafasha, it is.

The 2006 champion overcame a disappointing last season to dominate his competition this year, including Saturday’s race at Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins by completing the 3.1-mile course in 15:08.20, recording the fastest time of the day regardless of classification.

Falcon’s Wes Rickman (15:29.5) and Kevin Johnson (15:32.7) finished 2-3 to lead their squad to a team title with 130 points. Wheat Ridge finished second with 182 points, sparked by Dart Schwaderer and Scott Fauble finishing fourth and fifth place respectively.

“It means a lot really,” said Manilafasha, who finished third last year. “I really wanted to have a good senior year and finish out on something positive for cross country, and this is it.”

After winning the title two years ago, Manilafasha said he struggled with staying healthy last year. Between some minor injuries, not getting enough sleep, and not eating right, Manilafasha was never considered a threat to challenge last year’s champion Kevin Williams of D’Evelyn.

But Williams would have had his hands full with Manilafasha on Saturday. Like all of his races this season, Manilafasha sprinted to an early lead and came through the first mile at a pace of 4:30, and wasn’t surprised that he was already ten seconds ahead of the chase pack that included the Falcon runners, Wheat Ridge runners, and Mullen’s Andrew Berberick.

“I wasn’t surprised because everybody who goes out with me, they kind of learn their lesson,” Manilafasha said. “With running, you’ve got to be able to hang in there. That’s what I wanted to do today was go out hard and see if anybody wanted to go with me.

“I kind of went out too hard I didn’t realize it until the second mile when they started catching up to me.”

But the chase pack wasn’t catching up to him because by the second mile, Manilafasha had a 19-second lead, and Rickman was making a move of his own to secure the runner-up spot for the second straight year.

“My coach and I talked about it the last couple of weeks, with his race strategy compared to mine,” Rickman said. “And I decided not to go with him at the beginning and just try to reel him in at the last mile. But he’s a pretty consistent runner and he ran a phenomenal race.”

“I’m satisfied. It was all about the team victory today. So (the individual victory is) always a secondary goal, when you’re rooting for your team.”