Liberty Bell Invitational

The East Cross Country coaches regularly emphasize that there are not fast courses, just fast runners and they aim to teach that cross country is not about time but about who you beat. But still….Running on a course that puts up little resistance, combined with perfect weather for racing, meant that a lot of personal bests were run on Saturday, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. And with that speed, the Angels beat many good runners as well.

The Varsity Boys ran first on Saturday, lining up against 21 other teams, including three teams that had finished in the top ten in the nation last year, and an additional handful of the top programs in Colorado. The Liberty Bell field is always loaded, and prior to this year, no Angel team had ever finished better than 15th in the elite Sweepstakes division. Liberty Bell is not an easy course to spectate, but the East boys looked to have gotten off the line well. Coming through the mile senior Corbin Hobert was a bit back of 20th place with most of the rest of the Angel pack about 30 places behind. The Angels moved up nicely over the next 2 miles with everyone closing very well. Hobert moved up to 15th place in 15:21, senior Quinn Higgins had a great finish for 42nd place in 15:52, followed by sophomore Jonas Scudamore in 57th in 16:01. Senior Ian Logan and freshman Henry Bennett finished together in 16:07 for 69th and 70th. All of those performances moved those boys further up on the top-10 list of runners in recent East history (at least since 2000). In fact, East now has had five runners run faster already this year than last year’s fastest runner. Personal bests were also run by senior Harry Hittle (128th, 17:08) and junior Kai Luna (143rd, 17:25).  With 218 points, the Angel boys finished 6th of 22 teams, right in the mix of the best programs in the state, and well ahead of Regional rivals Erie High School and Boulder High School, and league competitors South High School and Northfield.

The girls races start just three minutes after the boys, adding a degree of difficulty in getting around the course to see how things develop. For the East Varsity Girls, things developed very well. Sophomore Rosie Mucharsky bettered her personal best and school record of 17:37 by a single second, running 17:36 for 12th place. Junior Grace Todd broke the 19 minute barrier for the first time with her 18:50 for 44th, and fellow junior Sophia Shiroff  brought her top-10 in East history and personal best down to 19:18 with her 57th place finish. Ninth grader Scout Chomas threatened the 20 minute barrier with her 20:01 for 88th, followed by junior Sasha Bull in 98th and 20:15 to close out the East scoring. Ninth grader Julieta Ochoa ran to a personal best 20:40 for 112th and senior Evelyn Higgins ran 21:19 for 137th. The Angel Girls totaled 280 points for a strong 9th place finish – the best Sweepstakes finish ever for any East Girls Team. Like the Boys, they were also ahead of all their Regional and League rivals, including regional nemesis Broomfield High School. The team average time of 19:12 is the fastest in school history.

The JV Boys and Girls went off about 90 minutes later, and personal best times continued coming in abundance. The Boys were led by Connor Beardsley, who ran smartly to move his way up to a 23rd place finish in 17:15. Freshman Tobias Penner and sophomore Ben Brown joined Beardsley in getting under 18 minutes with their 41st and 44th place finishes in 17:48 and 17:54 respectively. Sophomore Finley Steed held on for a 64th place finish in 18:16 and junior Finn Egan completed the scoring for East in 82nd in 18:42. Ninth graders Isaiah Springer and Mason Harper finished nearly together in 19:49 for 118th and 120th.  The JV Boys were 9th of 21 scored teams in the JV Sweepstakes Division.

Ninth grader Kairine Brown and junior Anna Rothman-Haji fought for top-25 finishes in the Girls JV race, finishing 17th and 21st respectively in times of 20:29 and 20:36. Sophomore Lila Cypers also dipped under 21 minutes with her 20:55 for 25th. Senior Helen Miller, junior Avery Ash, and ninth grader Meara McBride finished nearly together in 34th, 35th, and 37th in 20:19, 20:20 and 20:22 respectively, with ninth grader Mary Clare Nussbaum finishing in 20:40 for 52nd of the 140 runners. The East Angel JV Girls were fifth of 20 teams, and not insignificantly, were 48 points ahead of Northfield, avenging an earlier season loss at the JV Girls level.

In the Open races, a couple of seniors led the Angels. For the Boys, Garret Johnson was the first Angel across the line with a time of 19:44 for 21st place. Junior Carson Lerner and sophomore Donovan Aggeler raced together for 56th and 57th and times of 19:35 and 19:37, followed by Sophomores Ben Parish (85th, 20:22) and Noah Shurz (88th, 20:25) and freshman Kyle Kojima (97th, 20:36) in the 250 runner race. For the Girls, it was Bri O’Meara leading the way with a 7th place finish in 20:28. Ninth grader Daniela Maldonado-Ramos improved to a 22:59 with her 32nd place finish, followed by senior Eleanor Goldstein (37th, 23:10) and sophomores Ella Terch (39th, 23:23) and Yelena Konowal (45th, 23:32) in the 220 athlete race.

Coming up is a 2 meet week with the West Cowboy Invitational on Tuesday and the St. Vrain Invitational on Saturday. Cowboy will be a smallish meet and East will run its JV-2 at the Varsity level – and be competitive – while the JV1 and Varsity will focus on Saturday. Everyone will race at St. Vrain. St. Vrain is a large meet on one of Colorado’s most iconic cross country courses – it is a good spectator course and we encourage families to make the drive. It will be every bit as competitive as Liberty Bell, maybe even more so this year; the meet offers the chance for the Angels to go head to head with nearly all of its regional competition in addition to some state and nationally ranked teams.

And remember,

You can volunteer to help move the tent to meets here.

You can get your new quarter-zip top here.

Athlete Potluck this Thursday 9/15 at 528 Humboldt Street 80218

Save the Date: Chipotle Fundraiser Monday Oct 3 from 4-8.

Go Angels!