The East Angels started the week by bringing a large squad to the North Viking Invitational at Willis Case Golf Course. For the first time is several weeks, East was running its varsity sevens at full strength, and in this meet against all of its DPS rivals, in addition to more than a dozen other teams. We are now just three weeks before the DPS Prep League Championships at City Park. The Case Willis course offers a true cross country challenge with plenty of hills to slow runners down – personal best times are rare here, and more typically, runner were finishing 45 seconds or more slower than their seasonal bests.  It is similar to what will be run at City Park on October 10.

The JV boys got things started. They were led by sophomore Jack Rocchio who achieved that rarest of feats on Tuesday – a seasonal best time of 21:30 for 15^th place. Ballard Kauffman (20^th), Alex Zonca (22^nd), Gunnar Ranum (34^th), and Riley Nicklols (35^th) were the other scorers for East, and the JV boys finished 4^th of 16 teams, 36 points behind 2^nd place Denver South.

Maisie Moskowitz impressed in the Girls JV race, winning the entire race by a full 34 seconds in 23:23. She was backed up by fellow ninth grader Anna Lucy Buddenhagen in 3^rd place, junior Madeline Solomon in 6^th, sophomore Sara Merman in 7^th, and senior Maddie Scholtz in 11^th. Together they combined for a mere 28 points and easily won the Girls JV championship.

Junior Harrison Scudamore returned to competition by out-leaning a new rival from Denver South to win the Varsity Boys race. Also cracking the coveted top ten to come home with individual hardware were senior Rafael Marmalejo-Daher and freshman Asher Hoyt, finishing 9^th and 10^th respectively. The freshman trio of Elijah Bruggeman, Liam Peck, and Kristian Laird (47^th, 49^th, and 50^th) came in close together and the Angels finished 4^th of 21 teams with 116 points – 58 points behind champion South Denver and also “behind” 3^rd place Denver North who also had 116 points but whose 6^th runner finished ahead of East’s.

It was a different story in the Girls Varsity race, where the East Angels finished 2^nd place of 14 teams, a mere 6 points behind Lakewood High School and a slim 3 points ahead of Denver North and 24 points ahead of Denver South. Junior Nell Salzman led the Angels with a 7^th place finish and a time of 21:25 – a full 21 seconds faster than she had run the North Viking course as a freshman or sophomore despite Tuesday’s hot conditions. Frosh Lindsey Weyant and sophomore Lilly Cory worked their way up to 13^th and 14^th, followed by Samantha Skeen (18^th), Laurel Kruger (31^st), Emily Turner (32^nd) and Serene Mather (33^rd). It promises to be an exciting DPS Prep League Championship when these schools meet again.

On Friday, the Angels traveled up to Coach Kohuth’s old stomping grounds in Boulder for the Pat Patten Invitational. This was a smaller meet, but one made up almost exclusively of Boulder and Fort Collins area teams that are regularly in the top-10 in the state. The course at Viele Lake has some hills and the afternoon started off warm and became almost comically windy – so personal bests and seasonal bests were rare.

Ninth-grader Allana MacRossie-Smith came across the line 12^th in the JV Girls race to lead East to a 4^th place finish out of nine teams. She was followed by Scholtz in 23rd, then Audrey McGlothlen (28th) and Merman (31^st) who each ran seasonal bests despite the conditions. Junior Caroline Ritchie in 35^th rounded out the scorers for the Angels.

Sophomore Alex Zonca and freshman Zakarias Abdulkadir ran together for most of the boys JV race to lead the Angels with their 44^th and 45^th place finishes in times of 20:19 and 20:20 respectively. Kauffman (61^st), Nickols (62^nd) and David Spritzer (69^th) represented the balance of the Denver East scorers, and the team finished 6^th of 9 teams.

Salzman led the Varsity Girls team with a 20^th place finish and finishing time a full ninety seconds faster than last year on the course. Skeen finished in 31^st and Cory in 32^nd – a full 2 and a half minutes faster on the Viele Lake course than she was last year. Kruger (48^th) and Moskowitz (54^th) were next in for the Angels who finished 8^th of 9 high caliber teams.

Scudamore ran to a 2^nd place finish in the Varsity Boys race, finishing behind only the defending 5A Boys State Champion.  Marmalejo-Daher, Hoyt, Bruggeman and Laird followed in 29^th, 36^th, 62^nd and 63^rd, to make up the balance of the scorers for East. Also running Varsity, were Jackson Adams (69^th), Peck (70^th), Rocchio (71^st and with another seasonal best for the week of 21:04), and Alex Weber (72^nd).

The Angels will be busy with three meets next week – the last meets before we get into Championship season. On Wednesday East travels to the Denver Botanic Gardens in Chatfield for the Dakota Ridge Invitational; this is a fun, moderately challenging course at which East ran very well last year. On Friday, the team will split between the Denver West Invitational at Bear Valley Park and the Thornton Invitational at the Thornton (Margaret Carpenter) Recreation Center – which will also host our Regional Championship (aka State Qualifying meet) three weeks later. Both meets will offer a good chance to run seasonal bests over fast courses and the Thornton meet give the Varsity a chance to preview the Regional course with 41 other highly competitive teams.

Many consider this past weekend to be the biggest weekend in Colorado cross country until State Meet due to the quality and size of the Liberty Bell and St. Vrain Invitationals. Denver East is one of the few schools that competes in both of these big meets.

LIBERTY BELL: The East Angels started off their weekend at the Liberty Bell Invitational on Friday, hosted by Heritage High School. True to expectations, this meet produced many personal bests. The varsity boys were led by senior Rafael Marmalejo-Daher in a personal best of 17:11. He was followed closely by freshman Asher Hoyt in 17:13, which was the 6th fastest time of any freshman in the Division 1 Varsity race. Also with life time bests were fellow freshmen Elijah Bruggeman in 18:51 and Kristian Laird in 19:01, junior Jackson Adams in 19:15, and freshman Liam Peck in 19:17. This very young team was 21st of 22 teams.

Junior Nell Salzman turned in the best time for the varsity girls with a strong 20:03. Sophomore Lilly Cory followed not far behind in a lifetime best of 20:23. Lindsey Weyant was the top freshman for East in 20:53, and for the third time in as many weeks junior Laurel Kruger ran a new personal best – this time a 21:20. The girls, all juniors or younger, were 16th of 21 teams.

In the JV boys race, the Angels saw underclassmen lead the day with sophomore Cole Finley-Ponds (19:29), freshman Ballard Kauffman (19:49), and sophomore Alex Zonca (19:57) each turn in personal best times over 5K. Junior Samantha Skeen, still obligated to run JV races this weekend and next due transfer rules, finished second overall in the girls JV race, followed by frosh Macie Moskowitz and Ann Lucy Buddenhagen, who each ran to personal best times. Maddie Scholtz and Mackenzie Whitehead-Bust rounded out the scorers for the JV squad, who finished 8th out of 18 teams in their division.

ST. VRAIN: On Saturday, the Angels traveled up to Lyons High School for the prestigious St. Vrain Invitational. Harrison Scudamore, who had skipped the Liberty Bell to concentrate on this race, led through much of the second mile, but would eventually fade to a 5th place finish in a seasonal best 16:08. Asher, Rafael and Elijah, who had all run hard and fast races the previous evening, followed in 64th, 66th and 181st. Junior Alex Weber was the 5th runner for the East boys who finished 17th in a field of 27 teams, of which 9 teams are currently ranked in the top 10 in Colorado in the 4A or 5A Divisions.

Sophomore Emily Turner, who had also run at Liberty Bell, had her strongest race of the season thus far, leading East in the varsity girls race with a 114th place finish. Not far behind, Lindsey (119th), Laurel (120th), Serene Mather (145th), Ann Lucy (174th), Maddie Solomon (180th) and Maddie Scholtz (207th) each followed up their Liberty Bell races with solid performances at St. Vrain. The team, depleted of its top two runners from the day before, finished 20th of 25 teams.

The boys JV race was highlighted by personal best times run by frosh Zach Abdulkadir (20:48) and juniors Mac Meeter (21:51) and Henry Kaufman (22:06). Along with Nicholas Panagos and Jack H. Thompson they led the Angels to 14th place out of 27 teams. The girls JV team was again led by Samantha Skeen in 11th. Allona Macrossie-Smith impressed in her cross country debut with a 36th place finish, followed by Sara Merman, Audrey McGlothlen, and Anna Clayton. Together they placed 7th of 30 teams in JV girls.

LOOKING AHEAD: On Friday the squad will split between the John F Kennedy Commander Cup at Bear Valley Park and the Arvada West Invite at the Stenger Soccer Complex. Both are smaller meets than this past week, but both offer fast courses good for running personal best times over 5K cross country.