East Angel Invitational

It was a relatively small gathering of teams at City Park on Tuesday, with most teams attending emphasizing development of JV runners over pushing their varsity runners in between larger weekend invitationals. The weather was nearly ideal for racing and touring East’s Championship Course which will host the DPS League championships in four weeks.

The Angel JV Girls flexed their depth in the first race of the afternoon taking seven of the first eleven places, led by 9^th grader Lila Cypers who ran a 23:22 for 3^rd.  Junior Evelyn Higgins (24:39) took 5^th, leading a pack that included sophomores Isabella Raworth-Erazo (24:48) and Avery Ash (24:50) 6^th and 7^th, senior Gemma Haller (24:51) 9^th, junior Clara Artley (24:52) 10th, and sophomore Anna Rothman-Haji (24:54) in 11^th.  The JV Girls totaled 30 points, easily ahead of second place Eaglecrest High School with 49. 

The Angel JV Boys were equally dominant taking four of the first five places and six of the top-10.  Senior Charlie Kruger moved up aggressively in the second half of the race to place second with a time of 19:33. He was followed closely by the pack that included juniors Corbin Hobert (19:35), Julio Dominguez-Perez (19:36) and freshman Finley Steed (19:50).  Making their first return to racing following injuries, seniors Allen Harder and Jack Kriekels took 8^th and 10^th respectively in 20:04 and 20:05.  The Angels scored a total of 22 points, ahead of Eaglecrest High School with 52 and Denver South High School with 56.

The East Varsity teams were instructed to run the first 2 miles at a controlled workout pace before being given the green light to close out the last mile at race pace. Ninth grader Rosie Mucharsky led the Angel Girls, closing the lead of South’s lead runner of nearly 2 minutes at 2-miles to just 50 seconds at the finish. The rest of the East team similarly moved up nicely after intentionally giving up a lot of ground to the competition in the first 2-miles.  Sophomores Grace Todd and Sophia Shiroff moved up to 3^rd and 5^th respectively, while junior Bri O’Meara finished 7^th, senior Annabel Filippini 9^th, sophomore Sasha Bull 11^th, senior Ellison Mucharsky 12^th, juniors Eleanor Goldstein and Helen Miller 14^th and 15^th, and ninth grader Ella Terch 16^th.  Despite running the race as a workout, the Angels managed a 26-32 victory over league rival Denver South.

The East Boys ran the first 2-miles of their race/workout even more conservatively than the East Girls had. None-the-less, senior Eamon Nussbaum stormed back over the final mile to threaten for the win, eventually settling for 3^rd behind two Denver South runners. Junior Quinn Higgins ran for 5^th overall, followed by a parade of five Denver South runners before East freshman Jonas Scudamore led the Angel pack through the finish for 11^th place followed by juniors Ian Logan and Garrett Johnson, senior Owen Congdon, and junior Ben Hopper. One additional South runner crossed the line before sophomore Kai Luna and junior Charlie Keglovitz finished for East in 17^th and 18^th.  Though East ran the meet as a workout, Denver South looks to be a formidable opponent for the league championship, finishing with a mere 21 points to take the Angel Invite title.

Saturday brings the St. Vrain Invitational, which will bring together twenty-nine 4A and 5A schools including all of East’s toughest regional opponents (Boulder, Broomfield, Fairview, and Monarch) and a couple nationally ranked programs (Mountain Vista and Niwot).