The 5A races of the Colorado State meet were run under nearly perfect conditions – temperatures in the high 30’s for the Boys 5A race and low 40’s for the Girls 5A race with sunny skies and little wind. Times for the day reflected the conditions. Up front, the races went largely as expected, with Niwot taking both team times, Mountain Vista’s Ben Adams taking the individual title for the boys and Niwot’s Addison Ritzenhein setting a ruthless tone for the girls. Denver East Boys couldn’t quite repeat the magic of the week before, but there were definitely some races for which to be proud. The Denver East Girls showed what a complete team they have – grabbing another top-10 finish in the most competitive state in the nation.

Senior Henry Bennett again led the Angels for Denver East. He hit the mile in 5:08 (55th) in what was a more conservatively paced opening mile up front than expected. He was still in control through the hilly second mile in 10:47 (51st). From there he picked off late-fading runners to finish 45th in 16:18, in a field where 15:27 was needed to be in the top 10. In Bennet’s third appearance at the State Meet, he had his highest finish and his fastest time on the Norris-Penrose course. Senior Kyle Kojima ran the same blueprint but from a few seconds farther back passing 26 competitors from the mile mark to the finish on his way to arguably the best race of his career: 5:19 at 1 mile (112th), 11:07 at 2 miles (98th), and closed at 16:51 for 103rd. Senior Isaiah Springer had a hard time getting to his usual pace on race day, but gutted out a 5:20 / 11:15 / 17:10 (128th). Senior Jackson Gertge (5:21 / 11:22 / 17:18, 135th) and junior Emery Wagner (5:27 / 11:33 / 17:27, 140th) rounded out the scoring look, while sophomore Tre Even (5:26 / 11:38 / 17:50, 149th) and freshman Liam Gerber (5:27 / 11:51 / 18:14, 156th) had solid debuts in their first State Meet. The Angels finished 20^th of 20 teams on the day. Cross Country is the hardest sport in Colorado to qualify for State, both by percentage of schools qualifying schools and number of nationally ranked programs. While the Angels had hoped for a little more on Saturday, Denver East toed the line with the best and showed they deserved to be there.

In the Girls 5A races, seniors Scout Chomas and Julieta Ochoa rode their three previous years of experience at the State Meet to spectacular final races in Denver East red. Both got out well but left themselves something in the tank after the opening mile to continue moving up. Chomas got out in 6:02 (66th), came through 2 miles in 12:39 (54th), and finished 48th in 19:10 – nearly a minute better than last year. Ochoa was right with her, 6:02 at 1 mile (64th), 12:39 at 2 miles (52nd), and51st in 19:12. That’s exactly the kind of controlled, non-panic race you want from your captains. Meanwhile, senior Mary Clare Nussbaum was doing what she has done all season, starting seemingly too far back and then showing amazing grit in the second half of the race to move up more than seems likely. Nussbaum, hit the mile at6:14 (98th), 12:54 at 2 miles (80th), and raced all the way up to 59th in 19:20. Then came the young guns. Ninth-grader Tessa Fe Morris and sophomore Fiona Jeong had a total of 3 races at the varsity level experience between the two of them, but they ran like veterans. Morris worked her way up from 6:14 at 1 mile (100th), to13:02 at 2 miles (91st) and all the way up to 72nd in 19:33 at the finish. Jeong ran a similar rhythm, going 6:19, 13:02, and finishing 74th in 19:35, giving East five runners in before 20:00. Sophomore Lila Brown (6:22 / 13:34 / 20:38, 124th) and junior Lola Carhart (6:27 / 13:49 / 21:06, 134th) closed out the Denver East presence. The Angels finished 10^th with 272 points becoming only the fourth girls team in school history to finish in the top-10 at State Meet – an accomplishment all the more remarkable when you consider that two of the top-5 fastest cross country runners in school history – Avery Johnson #4 and Corrine Kennedy #5 – were out with injury and illness respectively.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the banquet to celebrate everything the Angels accomplished in 2025.