Aspen’s Jack Diaz climbed from 70th place after the first mile to a 20th place finish at the high school cross-country state championships in Colorado Springs on Saturday. Courtesy of Chris Keleher

Jack Diaz came back to the pack one runner at a time.

The Aspen junior watched wave after wave of runners pass him at the start of the Class 3A boys cross country state meet at the Norris Penrose Event Center on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

Yet Diaz remained calm. He stayed poised and gradually returned to an over-aggressive pack as he stuck to his race plan on the way to a 20th-place finish in 17 minutes, 3.7 seconds.

After the first mile, Diaz was in 70th place. He moved up to 47th after two miles and picked off 27 more runners on his way to the finish line.

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