Week three of the East Angel’s cross country season kicked off at the 40th Annual Liberty Bell Invitational at Heritage High School in Littleton. Teams from around the region go to Liberty Bell for the promise of fast times on the mostly flat and hard surfaced course, and despite warmer than ideal temperatures, fast times were delivered by the Angels.
Running at full strength for the first time this season, the Boys Varsity were off the line first. Harrison Scudamore led the Angels with a 5K personal record of 15:28 for 4th place, five seconds off the winning time. Harrison was followed by Asher Hoyt (38th, 16:41), Will Daley (87th, 17:42), Jackson Adams (104th, 18:01), and Ian Trautwein (124th, 18:18) who all ran personal best times. Together they totaled 357 points for 16th place of 25 schools in the large school division.
The Girls Varsity closely followed the boys, and were again led by Laurel Kruger who shattered her previous best time for 5K by 43 seconds on her way to a 19:27 finish for 31st place. Laurel was backed up by Nell Salzman (67th, 20:21), AlanaMarie Barros (69th, 20:24), Lilly Cory (80th, 20:38), Abby Howard (84th, 20:42), Anna Lucy Buddenhagen (86th, 20:45) and Emily Turner (106th, 21:26). The scoring five totaled 331 points for 14th place of 23 schools in the large school division.
The JV-1 squads toed the line about an hour later. The 10th place JV boys were led by Riley Nickols who ran a smartly paced race on his way to an 18:54 49th place finish – a 40 second improvement on his previous best 5K. Riley was closely followed by Patrick Cox (50th, 18:55). The Girls JV-1, made up exclusively of 9th and 10th graders, raced to a 5th place team finish with personal bests run by nearly every runner: Elena Thoman (26th, 21:27), Lindsey Weyant (29th, 21:32), Grace Burnett (32nd, 21:37), Grace O’Meara (34th, 21:39), Lilia Scudamore (44th, 21:51), and Maisie Moskowitz (55th, 22:06).
On Saturday, East Angel Cross Country, minus its Varsity and JV-1 runners, would take on the tough competition at the St. Vrain Invitational in Lyons over the challenging Lyons High School cross country course. In Girls Varsity competition, the Angels were led by sophomore Serene Mather (82nd in 22:54), followed by freshmen Julia Schor (126th, 23:48), Maya Nussbaumer (133rd, 23:52), and Maya Winfield (142nd, 24:17). Despite the challenging conditions, junior Henry Kaufman ran to a new personal best of 20:05 for 152nd place in the Varsity Boys race; sophomore Jack Beardshear also ran a personal best time of 20:41 for 169th. For the second time in as many weeks, Teddy Hickenlooper was the first Angel to run across the finish line in a JV boys race, this time running 21:00 and 74th place over the St. Vrain 5K course. Ninth graders Clara Lorenzo (26:18, 93rd) and Laurel Supplee (27:01, 114th) were the first Angels in the JV Girls race, which completed the weekend of racing for Denver East High School Cross Country.
This week brings East two opportunities to run seasonal best times as the squads will be split between the inaugural Nighthawk Invitational hosted by Northfield High School at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Thursday and the Arvada West Invitational at the Stenger Soccer Complex in Arvada on Friday. Both courses promise to be flat and fast. Check the website for meet entries this week; Varsity runners selected for the Rim Rock Invitational in Kansas (September 21st – 24th) should expect to hear from Coach Kohuth at the beginning of this week.
TEAM PICTURES ON MONDAY 9/11. BRING YOUR UNIFORM.
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Denver East High XC 