It was a busy Saturday morning for the East Angels as the team was split between two meets – the Liberty Bell Invitational at Heritage High School and the St. Vrain Invitational at Lyons High School.

The 4A/5A Girls Varsity race at St Vrain featured many of the best teams in the Colorado. Over the three loop course, the Angels got out quickly and were mostly able to hold their positions over the tough course. Junior Anna Lucy Buddenhagen led the team with a 53^rd place finish in 20:58. Sophomore Maya Winfield, running her first race of the season, was the next finisher for East in 21:08. Junior Lilly Cory (21:14), sophomore Abigael Howard (21:22) and junior Lindsey Weyant (21:54) were 68^th, 74^th and 94^th, and the Angels’ final tally landed them in 12^th place of 30 teams.

In the Boys 4A/5A Varsity race Will Daley ran to a 12^th place finish in 16:37, and Asher Hoyt finished 19^th in 17:03. Ian Trautwein and Xander Pacini raced to seasonal bests of 18:28 and 18:30 with their 110^th and 112^th place finishes. Jack Beardshear (19:12) rounded out the scoring in 160^th along with Eamon Nussbaum in 161^st in an identical time, and the Angels finished 13^th of 31 teams.

Laura Romero crushed the competition in the Girls JV race by nearly a minute, running the course in a seasonal best 20:56. Ninth grader Tsige Kaufman (24:11) was 41^st, junior Sarah Hoffer (24:48) 58^th, sophomore Isabel Fawley 73^rd (25:21) and ninth grader Sara Abdulkadir (25:33) 82^nd, and the Angels finished 6^th of 25 schools entered.

Sophomore Gus Trautwein, ninth grader Allen Harder, and junior Teddy Hickenlooper had breakout races for the season with their 85^th, 88^th and 96^th place finishes in 20:40, 20:44, and 20:48 respectively, leading the JV Boys to a 20^th place finish of 28 teams.

Meanwhile, another set of JV runners was racing across the blazing fast course over the roads of Littleton, doing their best against some of the state’s best varsity teams. Liberty Bell always delivers seasonal best times and this year was no different. For the boys, junior Taylor Lucas led the way with a time of 20:14, followed by sophomore Jacob Silverman in 20:33 and ninth grader Josh Bruggeman in 20:35. Running her first race of the season, Christina Doolan was the first Angel girl across the finish line with a time of 21:50. Fellow sophomores Grace Burnett and Claire Ely finished in 22:07 and 22:10, and junior Ellie McWhirter finished in 22:20.

The week ahead takes the Angels to the Denver West Cowboy Invitational on Tuesday and the Arvada West Invitational on Friday. These are both flat and fast courses, though the forecast for hot weather may slow things down a bit. The Angels will bring large squads to both meets and will be competitive at all levels.

Finally, this week’s alumni report: At the Smith College Cross Country Invitational, Laurel Kruger (class of 2018) of Smith College finished 15^th to help her team win the 6-team D3 meet.