Cohort 2 got its first real taste of serious competition at the Ram Clash on Tuesday night. The course near the APEX Center in Arvada gave us a little bit of everything from road and sidewalk, to dirt hills, wood chips, and single track – true cross country. The racing started off with a speedy first mile in the boys race, but the Angels collectively used some strong second miles surging on hills to really put themselves in positions to race in mile three. While heat affected some of the boys performances, some solid closing at the finish yielded a second place team finish, and top-20 finishes by David Anderson (4^th), Elliott Brumbaugh (13^th), Jameson Leigh (14^th), Jay Cory (16^th), and Marcus Burnett (20^th).

Running in the second race, the girls followed their typical pack strategy that has carried them to a lot of success so far. Collectively taking the first mile at a more controlled pace, everyone moved up consistently throughout the race and it was looking like we were going to run away with the win as Sophia Charles (1^st) ran to the win, Sasha Bull (2^nd) held off a late charge for second, and Grace Burnett (6^th)  was just edged out to finish 6th. In a surprise though, some of the wave 2 runners paced through the wave 1 runners, and despite placing 6 more runners in the top-20, Bri O’Meara (11^th), Claire Ely (13^th), Alia Quinby (14^th), Helen Miller (16^th), Ellie Goldstein (17^th), and Clara Artley (19^th), we were edged by just 2 points in the final scoring 31-33 by race host Green Mountain.

But with a pair of second place finishes and some really fast times, we have a lot to celebrate about today, and to look forward to going into our final race of the season on Saturday against Northfield.

Complete Results:

Boys Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=222993

Girls Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=223006