Arapahoe Warrior Invite
It was an exciting meet for East at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational on Friday afternoon. This meet always offers up some of the best competition in the state and features a real cross country course – two water crossings, a variety of surfaces, and this year’s added feature of twice having to negotiate your way over a large log lying across the trail.
The East frosh/soph boys kicked things off on this warm day. They were led by Elijah Bruggeman in 51st place. He was followed by Kristian Laird and Liam Peck, who each ran personal bests of 20:25 and 20:33 respectively. Cole Finley-Ponds and Alex Zonca rounded out the scorers for the Angels who finished 12th of 26 teams.
The frosh/soph girls were next on the course, led by a strong finishing Lilly Cory who finished 24th and ran a personal best of 22:49. She was followed by Emily Turner, Anna Lucy Buddenhagen who also ran a personal best time. Serene Mather and Massie Moskowitz followed and the East frosh/soph girls finished a strong 8th out of 23 teams.
Harrison Scudamore summoned a furious finish, closing a 5 second gap over the last 400m. It was literally a photo finish; the results were in doubt for several hours, but the officials finally determined he had come up a hair’s breadth short, taking second place. Rafael Marmalejo-Daher started his Labor Day weekend off well with a 35th place finish. He was followed by juniors Peter Jonas, David Spritzer and Jack Thompson – all with solid seasonal debuts for 2016.
The varsity girls were again led by Nell Salzman who finished 35th. Laurel Kruger ran another strong performance for the girls, followed by Caroline Ritchie, Madeline Solomon and Francis Fedele.
The junior/senior boys were led by Mac Meeter who ran a huge personal best in 5K cross country and the junior/senior girls’ race saw the East debut of Samantha Skeen who finished 4th overall. She was followed by Anna Clayton in her debut in cross country.
Congratulations to all the East runners who competed at this challenging meet.
Centaurus Invitational
A small and determined group of runners traveled to the Centaurus Invitation in Lafayette on Saturday.
In the boys varsity race, Rafael Marmalejo-Daher came back for his second race of the weekend finishing 46th. Frosh Asher Hoyt followed in 61st place. Jackson Adams, Cameron Ayedelotte, and Alex Weber rounded out the scorers for East.
For the second race in as many days, Samantha Skeen led the East girls JV squad – on this occasion with a 5th place finish. Maria Crippen, McKenzie Whitehead-Bust, and Audrey McGlothlen followed in 40th, 43rd and 45th – each with seasonal bests.
Stay tuned for many more personal bests next week as the team competes at both the super fast Liberty Bell Invitational and the super competitive St. Vrain Invitational.
Denver East High XC 