Twenty-seven (27) is a magic number in cross country. A score of 27 points or fewer, no matter how many other teams are competing, cannot be beat.

On Saturday, three Denver East Cross Country teams scored fewer than 27 points.

The Varsity Girls kicked things off after a ten-minute delay to reroute the course, with the much anticipated water crossings being eliminated after some concerns about their safety. (Kudos to our friends at South who had to improvise this change in the 11^th hour). For East, the pack of senior Scout Chomas and juniors Avery Johnson and Corrine Kennedy immediately established themselves near the front, trailing only a single runner from South through the first 2 kilometers. Meanwhile, junior Lola Carhart and sophomores Lila Brown and Fiona Jeong established their own chase pack a little bit further back. This early establishment of order changed very little over the next two kilometers, with the first South runner holding off a late charge by Johnson (2^nd, 19:20) and the second South runner holding off a late charge for 5^th place from Carhart (6^th, 20:01). With Chomas 3^rd (19:31), Kennedy 4^th (19:38), and Brown 7^th (pr 20:06), the Angels finished with mere 22 points for first place of the 13 teams, with South in 2^nd with 41 points.  Jeong finished 8^th in 20:08 in her high school cross country debut, completing the Angel dominance of the top-10 podium.

In the Boys Varsity, senior Henry Bennett opened the season with an auspicious individual win, the first of his career, in a time of 16:34. Bennett showed the patience of a veteran, waiting until the final kilometer to put away the last of his remaining competition by a full 9 seconds. Senior Jack Gertge had a career breakthrough race, knocking more than a minute from his previous personal best and making the podium of a varsity race for the first time with his 16:59 8^th place finish. Sophomore Tre Even, making his varsity debut, also knocked more than a minute from his personal best, running 17:42 for 19^th. Junior Emery Wagner moved up through the middle parts of the race to finish in 20^th in 17:45, followed by seniors Mason Harper in 24^th (18:00) and Kyle Kojima in 27^th (pr, 18:05). The total of 72 points was good for 3^rd place behind South’s 49 points and Columbine High School’s 68 points in the 16-team field. (Shout out to our DPS neighbor Manual High School, who finished with a scoring team for the first time in more than 20 years)!

The Open races were a demonstration of the Angels youth movement, with underclassmen dominating the top-10 in both races. There was a bit of déjà vu in the Girls Open race, as the Angels quickly took command of 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th place with ninth-graders Tessa Morris, Norah Dysart, and Charlotte Clark, while another pack of Angels chased a little further back. In this case though, the order did not hold, as sophomore Ainslie Mohr moved her way up to 4^th, a place ahead of Clark. Morris ran 14:51, Dysart 15:18, Mohr 15:34, and Clark 15:42 for the 3500m course. Ninth-grader Cate Carhart finished in 16:29 for 7^th place to complete the scoring for the Angels and grab another of the podium spots. The Angels finished with a paltry 21 points, ahead of second place Mountain View with 63 points of the 10 scored teams.

The Angels got out hard in the Boys Open race and held on to place seven runners among the top-12, of which five were freshman and the other two sophomores. Freshman Liam Gerber led the way with a 13:34 4^th place finish, followed closely by classmates Noah Irwin (5^th, 13:35) and Elias Striker (6^th, 13:41). Sophomore Finley Knight had what certainly had to be the best race of his career at this point, finishing in 13:45 for 7^th, while his classmate Luke Rasquinha also made his first podium with a 13:47 9^th place finish. Completing the run of underclassmen dominance were freshmen Evan Mucharsky-O’Boyle in 10^th (13:48) and Sam Schmidt in 12^th (13:50).  The Angels totaled 26 points, to come away with another team win with 13 scored teams, ahead of second place South with 56 points.

Next up for the Angels will be the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational at DeKovend Park. There will be water crossings at this race! This meet also offer us one of the only opportunities to run athletes in a separate frosh/soph race, which should be exciting for this group of Angels. Competition will be stiffer at Arapahoe, with a handful of the top 5A schools in the state entered. Details of the Arapahoe Meet will be posted later in the week.