Thursday:

Run 40 minutes on your own or with teammates. Strides after your run & stretch.

Meet in Counseling Center at 3:45pm

If you are not racing on Saturday, please turn in your uniform on Wednesday, 10/27 after school in the counseling office.

Remember there is a $100 charge for unreturned uniforms.

Hi Runners!

It is time to turn in your uniforms. If your season is over, please bring your uniform to room 225 (the counseling center) after school on Tuesday or Wednesday and give it to Coach Spano or one of our uniform volunteers.

We need EVERY uniform back so runners will have uniforms next year. We prefer clean uniforms, but we would much rather have an unwashed uniform than an unreturned uniform. Just let us know if it is clean or not.

Thank you for helping us achieve our goal of getting every uniform back! Stay tuned for more info on the end of season xc banquet!

If you are running at State this Saturday, we will collect your uniforms next week.

Sweet and Bittersweet Results at 5A Region 3 Championships

The path to qualifying for the Colorado State Cross Country Championship runs through one of five regional qualifying meets where only the top-4 teams and top-15 individuals from each regional championship move on to the state meet. 

5A Region 3, which predominantly includes schools from Boulder and Broomfield Counties, is one of the deepest regions in the state, particularly on the Girls side of the competition. The East Angels arrived at Broomfield Commons Park knowing they had their work cut out for them to make it to the State meet. After what had been a cool morning, the clouds drifted away and temperatures warmed to the mid-60’s – ideal for spectating, but a bit warmer than ideal for 5k racing.

The Boys race went off first taking on the dry course of predominantly hard packed dirt and crushed grinders paths but for a 200m stretch of grass fields at the start and finish. As is typical at this championship, a handful of runners capable of running sub-16:30 took off from the start, trailed by a pack of 20 or so runners hoping to find their way into the top-15 by the finish.  Among this pack were East’s trio of junior Quinn Higgins, senior Eamon Nussbaum and junior Ian Logan. Trailing a bit farther back were freshman Jonas Scudamore, senior David Anderson and junior Ben Hopper. By the 2-mile mark a group of red clad runners was dominating the top-15, with the top 3 East runners mixed amongst the top 7 runners from heavily Fairview High School (also in red), with East’s 4^th, 5^th and 6^th runners not far behind. It was clear to those spectating for all of the final mile that the Angel Boys were on their way to State meet, and it was just a matter of whether they were going to finish 2^nd or 3^rd in the team competition. Higgins and Nussbaum each ran strong second halves of the race and stormed through in personal bests of 16:32 and 16:41 respectively for 6^th and 7^th place.  Logan (17:06) held on for 16^th place while Scudamore (17:24), Hopper (17:33) and Anderson (17:39) moved their way past many of the runners who had gone out too aggressively in the opening mile, eventually securing 21^st, 26^th and 27^th. Senior Jack Kriekels, continuing to get stronger by the week, ran a personal best 17:59 for 33^rd, classmate Owen Congdon was 36^th in 18:03, and junior Charlie Keglovitz ran a personal best 18:13 for 41^st.  Once the dust settle, the East Boys had secured third place and their first trip to the State meet in four years with 74 points, behind just Fairview (33 points) and Boulder (73 points) and well ahead of fourth place Ralston Valley (111) and fifth place Legacy (152).

There was little time to celebrate before the Girls race was off and going. Like the race before, a handful of the top girls from the region were far out front while a large pack gave chase through the first mile. East ninth grader Rosie Mucharsky, as expected, was among the early leaders.  Sophomores Grace Todd and Sophia Shiroff were near the back of the first chase pack while the quartet of seniors Ellison Mucharsky and Annabel Filippini, and junior Helen Miller and sophomore Sasha Bull were a fair amount further back. In this early stage, it might not have looked as if the Angels would be competitive at all, but this early race patience would payoff in the second mile as Rosie Mucharsky secured a hold on 2^nd place while Todd moved up into the top-15 with Shiroff not far behind. Ellison Mucharsky would put some distance between herself and her teammates as she made her way up the field, but all of East’s top-7 runners were seemingly passing more runners. Before the meet, the athletes and coaches knew they would need to tally a score under 110 point to have a chance at State, and it looked as if the Angels were close to that goal as they kicked through the finish, with Rosie Mucharsky 2^nd (18:03), Grace Todd 12^th (19:40), Sophia Shiroff 24^th (20:15), Ellison Mucharsky 31^st (20:24 – personal best), Helen Miller 37^th (20:45 – personal best), Annabel Filippini 45^th (21:01 – seasonal best), Sasha Bull 48^th (21:09), Bri O’Meara 55^th (21:58) and Ellie Goldstein 58^th (22:22).  The Angels totaled 106 points with nearly all of the athletes running near or better than their seasonal bests, but on this day that was not quite good enough to go on to State meet as a team. The Angels finished a mere one point behind a deep Monarch High School Team (105) for fourth place, while Fairview placed first with 58, Boulder second with 87 and Broomfield High School third with 88 points. It was a heartbreaking outcome for a team that raced hard and competed well. With their top-15 finishes, Rosie Mucharsky and Grace Todd will go on to compete at the State Meet as individuals.

The Colorado State Meet is on Saturday, October 30^th at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs. The 5A Girls race is at 9:00am and the 5A Boys race is at 10:20am.  We really encourage all of our teammates and fans to come down for this great event. 

All XC runners! Meeting in the back of the auditorium at 3:45pm on Tuesday, Oct 19.

Thursday 10/14: regular practice at 3:45pm

Friday 10/15: no official practice. Workout to be completed on your own (or get together with teammates on your own). 

Fartlek run – 10 minute warm-up; then alternate sprinting at 90% effort for 40 seconds and running maintenance pace for 80 seconds (total of fast interval  + recovery = 2 minutes). Do this 6 times (6 fast segments and 6 maintenance segments); after the 6th sprint, run 5-6 minutes at maintenance pace, then repeat (6 x 40 second sprint, 80 second maintenance pace).  Do a 10 minute cool down run. 

Saturday 10/16: 50-55 minute maintenance run

Sunday 10/17 : rest

Monday 10/18: regular practice at 3:45pm.  Fast and fun!

Tuesday 10/19 and Wednesday 10/20: regular practice at 3:45pm

Thursday 10/21: Regionals!

The East Angels ran to four DPS League team titles on cool fall afternoon on Denver East’s home course at City Park. The worst of the forecasted weather, which threatened wind and a cold rain, never fully materialized, but great performances from a long list of Angels certainly did.

Junior Bri O’Meara would kick the winning into gear with a dominating wire to wire win in the Girls JV championship race, running 22:29 over the deceptively tough course. O’Meara was followed across the finish line by East classmate Ellie Goldstein (23:01) and ninth grade Lila Cypers (23:03) who each had a firm grip on 2^nd and 3^rd places respectively from early stages of the race. A rare trio of runners not from East crossed the line before sophomore Anna Rothman-Haji (23:22) and ninth grader Ella Terch (23:30) came through in 7^th and 8^th to complete the scoring for the Angels with a measly 21 points – good enough to beat the rest of all DPS teams combined. Senior Gemma Haller (14^th, 23:59), junior Clara Artley (15^th, 24:08), sophomore Avery Ash (16^th, 24:08), ninth grader Ana Beam (18^th, 24:11), and sophomore Isabella Raworth-Erazo (19^th, 24:15) would put an explanation point on the Angels dominance of the race, finishing with 10 of the top 20 runners in the race.

While the East Girls JV left nothing to doubt from the beginning of their race, the Denver East Boys JV (ranked as the 10^th best JV team in the State according to Colorado MileSplit) got everything they could handle from a surprising Denver South JV team. Junior Charlie Keglovitz (18:42) took an early lead only to eventually be caught by the top South runner with about a half mile to run. A bit further back, senior Jack Kriekels moved up from 5^th place to 3^rd place over the latter stages of the race, passing two South runners on his way to finishing just a fraction of a second behind his second-place teammate – a finishing surge which would prove decisive in East’s eventual razor thin victory. Two South runners crossed the line before East senior Alan Harder (19:04) and junior Julio Dominguez-Perez (19:06) came in, putting East’s 4^th runner a single place ahead of South’s 4^th runner who came across next. With four runners each across the finish line, East and South were locked in an 18-point tie.  East senior Charlie Kruger (19:16) and sophomore Kai Luna (19:35) were the next two to sprint down the long finishing straightaway for 9^th and 10^th place, securing the win for East with 27 points to South’s 29 points.

The Varsity Girls race that followed delivered far more decisive results, both in the race for the individual championship and the team championship. East frosh Rosie Mucharsky had a large lead seemingly from the opening strides, with the rest of the field conceding to her dominance while she chased her goal of grabbing the course record of 18:33 (Catie Leggit, 5A Region 1 Championship, 2015). Storming through in 18:31, Mucharsky claimed both the course record and a 49 second victory. Racing in what was the second of several chase packs, this one running for places 4^th – 9^th, sophomores Grace Todd (20:22) and Sophia Shiroff (20:49) emerged in 4^th and 9^th place for the Angels.  At that point both Northfield and Denver East had 3 runners through the finishing shoot, but from the early stages of the race the next group of runners who followed were almost exclusively East Angels. Senior Ellison Mucharsky eventually took charge of this pack, finishing 10^th in 21:21, followed closely by junior Helen Miller (12^th, 21:26), and sophomore Sasha Bull (14^th, 21:36) – East with 6 runners across the line before any other team had 4 finish. Captain senior Annabel Filippini was a bit off her usual pace in 24^th (22:27). East’s total of 37 was 8-points better than Northfield and 28 better than 3^rd place George Washington.

With Denver South Varsity Boys running without their usual #2 runner, what was expected to be the closest team race of the meet never materialized, despite a South runner’s surprising individual win. East’s lead pack of senior Eamon Nussbaum (17:12), and juniors Quinn Higgins (17:22) and Ian Logan (17:38) were ahead of South’s second runner from the start and only extended that lead over the next miles, finishing in 3^rd, 4^th and 6^th respectively. Freshman Jonas Scudamore moved ahead of South’s second runner, among others, in the final mile and would sprint to an eventual 8^th place finish with an identical time to the 7^th place finisher from Northfield of 17:45.4. Senior David Anderson’s 10^th place finish in 17:54 completed the scoring for the Angels at a mere 31 points. Junior Ben Hopper (18:13) and senior Owen Congdon’s 13^th and 15^th place finishes meant East had seven of the first 15 runners in the race. South totaled 51 points for second place and third place Northfield totaled 86. 

Sweeping all four team titles is always a top line goal for the Angels. Mission accomplished!  Next goal: qualifying for State. On Thursday, October 21, the Varsity teams travel back to Broomfield County Commons Park for the 5A Region 3 Championship with the top 4 teams and top 15 individuals earning a spot to the Colorado State Meet. Boys race at 4:15pm, Girls at 4:45pm.  We hope to have a crowd of supporters there as the Angels take on the best from Boulder and Broomfield Counties.