Rain was in the forecast for Colorado, but through the morning on Saturday conditions could not have been more pleasant for the cross country race at Lyons High School with sunny skies and mild temperatures. The three loop course at the St. Vrain Invitational facilitates a great spectator experience and it was great to see so many “Guardian Angels” on the course to support the team. St. Vrain is a quintessentially southwest US style course with an almost exclusively dry hard packed dirt surface, few trees to provide any shade, and a couple moderate hills; it resembles the Colorado State Meet course more than any other on the Angels’ schedule and always attracts many of the best teams in the state.
The Girls Varsity lined up to race first. All the Angels teams demonstrated grit coming off an unfortunate starting line assignment on the far outside. Sophomore Corrine Kennedy seems to be gaining confidence by the week and looks ready to be a future leader of the team as she got off to a good start; she was able to hold on to 29th place of the over 200 runners in the large schools division race in 19:57. Junior Julieta Ochoa moved up to just a single position back of Kennedy with her time of 19:59 on a course that does not give up sub-20 minute times easily. Junior Scout Chomas dropped a time of 20:27 for 44th and sophomore Avery Johnson 20:32 for 47th. Sophomore Lola Carhart had one of her best races of the season, going 20:37 for 51st. Junior Mary Clare Nussbaum continues to be a consistent contributor to the team and crossed the finish in 21:09 for 77th. The East Angel ninth-grader brigade was again led by Lila Brown who was just ahead of Nussbaum in 70th in 21:00, while her classmates Ainslie Mohr, Paola Ochoa, and Emma Maldonado-Ramos went 83rd, 120th, and 132nd, in 21:26, 22:35, and 23:00 respectively. Even with senior Rosie Mucharsky on the sidelines cheering on the team, the Angels managed to finish 6th of 25 teams, of which four are nationally ranked.
In the Boys Varsity race it looked as if senior Jonas Scudamore had got himself mixed up in a team trial for US #3 ranked Niwot High School. The Cougars put up a perfect score of 15 points as they had the first six runners across the finish line while Scudamore settled for 9th in 16:06. Behind him, senior Ben Brown and junior Isaiah Springer had arguably the best races of their season, running 17:04 and 17:08 for 34th and 40th over the challenging course. Sophomore Emery Wagner ran 17:48 for 77th, while junior Jack Gertge threatened his personal best time running 18:11 for 105th. Juniors Mason Harper and Abraham Morginsky finished nearly together in times of 18:39 for 125th and 126th, while their classmate Kyle Kojima ran 18:59 for 139th. Junior Alexandros Mays was the last across the line for the Angels running 19:20 for 153rd. The Angels, again not quite at full strength, took 10th of 25 teams.
Sophomore Abby Forsberg led the Angel Girls in the JV race, running 23:36 for 40th. Her classmate Grey Jenson put up another very solid performance, running 23:42 for 44th place. Junior Daniela Maldonado-Ramos (24:08) was next for the Angels in 52nd. The Angel Girls JV finished 8th of 14 scored teams. The JV Boys were led by freshman Tre Even who finished 47th in 19:32, a personal best! Juniors Alex Wilkerson and Tomas Cole ran 20:34 for 73rd and 20:59 for 86th respectively, while sophomore Zevi Shiroff ran 21:08 for 91st and freshmen Finley Knight and Elliott Sense ran 21:22 and 21:28 for 97th and 99th in the 238 runner race. The JV Boys were 7th of 19 scored teams.
This weekend the Varsity and JV1 teams will travel to Lawrence, Kansas for the Rim Rock Invitational. Ninth and 10th graders will race the following Tuesday at the Pat Amato Frosh/Soph Invitational and everyone else at the Pat Amato Invitational on Friday, October 4. Link to full results for St. Vrain
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Denver East High XC 