If you miss running and seeing your xc friends, join us at running club!

Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 3:45pm at the same place we met for practice in City Park.

Please return your varsity and JV uniforms after school, 3:20 – 4:15pm, in the counseling office on Friday, Nov 11.

If we haven’t received your uniform, you will be charged a $100 fee. As always, we would rather have your returned uniform instead of this fee. We need every uniform returned for next year’s runners. If you just drop your uniform off in Kohuth’s office, we won’t know that is was your uniform.  Please be sure to check it in directly with a uniform parent volunteer or Coach Kohuth or Spano. 

If you have already turned in your uniform, thank you.

Please return your varsity and JV uniforms after school, 3:20 – 4:15pm, in the counseling office on Monday, Nov 7.

If we haven’t received your uniform, you will be charged a $100 fee. As always, we would rather have your returned uniform instead of this fee. We need every uniform returned for next year’s runners. If you just drop your uniform off in Kohuth’s office, we won’t know that is was your uniform. Please be sure to check it in directly with a uniform parent volunteer or Coach Kohuth or Spano.

If you have already turned in your uniform, thank you.

Four. That is the number of high schools to place both their boys and girls cross country teams in the top-10 at the 5A Colorado State Cross Country Championships: Valor Christian High School, Mountain Vista High School, Fairview High School, and Denver East High School. 

Nearly perfect racing and spectating conditions greeted athletes, coaches, families, and fans at the Norris-Penrose Event Center Saturday morning, with sunny skies, mild breezes and temperatures in the high-40’s. The Boys 5A race was the second championship race of the morning. The Angels were assigned the starting box on the far-right side of the start line, on which twenty teams and twelve individual qualifiers lined up to race for the state title. As the racers came through as a single pack in the first 200m, most of the Angels had found positions near mid-pack. By the end of the first mile, senior Corbin Hobert, in his second race since returning from a stress fracture, had established himself as East’s lead runner, coming through in 41^st place. About 40 places and 10 seconds back, the usual pack of senior Quinn Higgins, sophomore Jonas Scudamore, senior Ian Logan, and freshman Henry Bennett came through, while junior Connor Beardsley and senior Harry Hittle were an additional 10 seconds and 40 places back. The second mile loop opens with the most substantial hill of the course, a 200m switchback known as “Little Willis,” followed by a more level section, the descent of Little Willis, and one last little uphill toward the 2-mile mark. Hobert, Higgins and Scudamore all took the hill aggressively and moved up substantially over that second mile, with Hobert in 32^nd at the 2-mile mark with Scudamore and Higgins in 44^th and 45^th, seven seconds back. Logan at this point was about 10 seconds back of Higgins and Scudamore and had moved up to 60^th place, with Bennett holding 82^nd another 10 seconds back. Over the next 1000m, Higgins and Scudamore further closed the gap with Hobert, and the three approached the creek crossing 400m from the finish closely placed. Hobert demonstrated the best closing speed of the three, finishing 27^th in 16:20, Higgins kicked into the rodeo stadium in 30^th place in 16:23, and Scudamore finished 34^th in 16:26. Logan was East’s 4^th runner across the line, placing 65^th in 15:56, Bennett was next in 87^th (17:05), while Beardsley and Hittle were 119^th and 131^st.  As a team, the Angels had been in 12^th place with 327 points one mile into the race, moved up to 8^th place two miles into the race with 246 points, and held on to 8^th while dropping their score to 226 at the finish – the second-best finish for the Angels at the Colorado State meet in the last 20 years. Valor Christian won the Boys 5A title with 155 points in one of the deepest races in recent history with the top-10 teams being separated by fewer than 100 points – in 2021, 230 points separated the first 10 teams. The race was also far faster than most years; in the eight years the State Meet has run this route, only in 2017 and 2019 would the times of East’s top-3 runners not been fast enough to finish among the top-12 individuals overall. 

Eighty minutes later, the 5A Girls would also run a historically fast race, with the winner becoming the first girl ever to break 17 minutes on the course and the next four all under 18 minutes – doubling the number of girls ever to post times that fast. Probably sensing the hot pace out front, most of the East Angel Girls positioned themselves in the back half of the pack as they came off the far right side of the start line, running conservatively throughout most of the first mile. The exception was sophomore Rosie Mucharsky, who tucked into the second of a couple chase packs following the early leaders, coming through the mile in 22^nd place. Juniors Grace Todd and Sophia Shiroff were 87^th and 94^th through the mile, ninth graders Scout Chomas and Julieta Ochoa 96^th and 118^th, and juniors Sasha Bull and Avery Ash 116^th and 146^th. At the mile, the Angels were in 15^th place as a team with 365 points. Todd would make the most gains of any of the East Girls over the hilly second mile, moving up to 68^th place, behind Mucharsky who went through 2 miles in 27^th. Chomas and Ochoa made steady gains, moving into 88^th and 110^th respectively, with Shiroff in between those two in 92^nd. Those individual gains pushed the Angels as a team up to 12^th place at the 2-mile mark with 332 points. The Angels dropped another 31 points over the last mile of the race. Mucharsky finished 33^rd overall, followed by Todd in 44^th, Chomas in 84^th, Ochoa in 90^th, Shiroff in 98^th, Bull in 126^th and Ash in 137^th. Their 301 points was good enough for 10^th place overall among the 20 teams in the 5A Championship, leaving little doubt after a one-year absence from the meet that the Angels belonged among the top teams in the State. Air Academy High School was the overall Girls Team winner with a mere 76 points. The East Girls 10^th place finish was the second-best finish by an East Girls Cross Country team in school history, behind only the team’s 8^th place finish in 2019. 

The accomplishments at State Meet capped an historically great year for the Denver East Cross Country Program – arguably the best in program history. (Denver East Boys won five state titles between 1958 and 1967, back in an era when the state was less than a third of its current population and only cows roamed Douglas County. Girls did not participate in the Colorado State Meet until 1978; so our ideas of a “program” have change a bit in the last fifty-five years). In 2022, the Angels swept Denver Prep League (again); qualified two teams for State for only the second time in school history; and placed two team in the top-10 for the first time. How does this 2022 Angels team compare to previous years? If you imagine a scenario where the 2022 East Girls team races the 2019 East Girls team, and each runner equals their personal best time, 2022 easily out-distances 2019, by a score of 23 point to 32 points. If you imagine the 2022 Boys racing the 2012 Boys (a team that finished 5^th at State), the score finishes tied, 28-28, with the 2022 team claiming the win by way of the 6^th runner rule. The Kohuth top-10 board was reset five times on the boys’ side and three on the girls’ side in 2022. Also this year, the school record for girls was reset, again (Mucharsky); a new freshman boys record was set (Bennett); and the second fastest time by an East sophomore was run (Scudamore). A virtual meet of the best JV Teams in the State this year estimates that the JV Girls would place 10^th and the JV Boys 12^th of all teams statewide. Quod erat demonstandum.

Final DPL Update: Another demonstration of the strength of our fellow DPL schools at State Meet – Denver South Boys finished 12^th in 5A; Northfield Boys finished 12^th and Girls 8^th in 4A; and George Washington Boys finished 15^th and Girls 10^th in 4A.

Also, don’t forget to buy your banquet tickets! https://east-xc-banquet-tickets-2022.cheddarup.com

If you are will be running at the Nike Cross Country Southwest Championships, please complete the spreadsheet as soon as possible (ideally by the end of day Oct 31) so we can add your entry and order a singlet for you. If you have already completed the sheet, please go in and add your email address.

As a reminder, Coach Kohuth will use this document to make entries to the meet. Once we have determined who is participating, we will be in touch about the cost of entry and team uniform. (Note that this race is near Phoenix, AZ and requires travel and lodging. You can use information on the form to coordinate with other runners who are going.) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IMo1_V-P_kyrbG2OgRm0522HtRH8g7QK8qPxNG3rxZg/edit#gid=0

Feel free to message Jennifer with questions: jareich424@gmail.com or 303-725-7900

There are two upcoming races in November for those who want to continue to test their fall fitness.

Nike Southwest on November 19.

Please use the following document to indicate your intention to go to the Nike Southwest Championships. Coach Kohuth will use this document to make entries to the meet. Once we have determined who is participating, we will be in touch on the cost of entry and team uniform. (Note that this race is near Phoenix, AZ and requires travel and lodging. You can use information on the form to coordinate with other runners who are going.) PLEASE COMPLETE THIS BY NOV 1.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IMo1_V-P_kyrbG2OgRm0522HtRH8g7QK8qPxNG3rxZg/edit#gid=0

Niwot (2 MILE 4 REAL) on November 9

Niwot HS will host 1 mile and 2 mile track races on the evening of Wednesday, November 9. East athletes have used this race a chance to race between State and Nike SW in previous years. It is a chance for anyone to do a track race while in good XC shape. There are no team entries, so just use the link to enter yourself. There are sure to be some Angels and coaches at this event. REGISTRATION PRICE INCREASES AFTER OCTOBER 31.

https://co.milesplit.com/meets/500999-2-mile-4-real-2022#.Y1dWgHbMJD8

Please turn in your JV uniform on Monday, 10//24/22, to avoid a $100 fee. We need all uniforms back so runners can use them next year.

When: after school on Monday

Where: just outside Kohuth’s office door

Check in: please hand them to the parent uniform volunteers so they can check your name off the list

Thank you!

Five years ago, the Denver East Boys and Girls Cross Country teams both qualified for the Colorado State Championships at the regional championships hosted at NW Open Spaces Park in Northglenn.  This marked the first time both teams had qualified in the same year. The Angels returned to the Northglenn course on Thursday, on an unusually warm day for late October, and repeated this accomplishment in definitive fashion; collectively, it was the best performance by Denver East at Regionals in program history. 

In the Boys Championship race, the top-5 runners for East were a dominant presence in the lead pack from the first half mile to the end of the race, with just a single runner substantially ahead of this pack.  Like the week prior, sophomore Jonas Scudamore and senior Quinn Higgins ran together for nearly the entire race. The pair was never outside the top half dozen runners, eventually moving up to 3^rd and 4^th place entering the final mile. In the final kick, Scudamore (16:17) would eventually run-down 2^nd place right before the finish line, behind only Erie’s Evan Krauss, who currently owns the 6^th fastest time in Colorado. Higgins finished 4^th in 16:22. Freshman Henry Bennett was again the top freshman in his race, moving up to 11^th place over the last mile. Senior Ian Logan stuck with his teammates in the lead pack, finishing 13^th in 16:53. A single place behind, senior Corbin Hobert held on to 14^th place in his first race back in more than a month – good enough to help the Angels secure first place in the meet and give him some momentum heading into State Meet. Senior Harry Hittle, who has held down the #5 or #6 position on the Angels’ varsity most of the year, was coming off a couple disappointing races; on Thursday, Hittle ran the first mile a smidge more conservatively than he had most of the season, leaving him ready to move up throughout the race, including passing a handful of runners in the final sprint to grab 24^th place as East’s 6^th runner in 17:34. Junior Connor Beardsley (17:45), who prior to this season had no varsity experience, but who has held a varsity spot for every meet he has raced in 2022, was East’s #7 runner on Thursday and 34^th overall. Last week’s hero, senior Ben Hopper (18:22), moved up to 45^th place overall, with junior Kai Luna (18:24) in 46^th – had East needed either of these runners in the #5 spot, they would have provided enough for East to advance to State.  Five of East’s boys finished inside the top-15 overall, which would have qualified each of them as individuals for State. Together, they totaled a meager 44 points to take the Regional Championship and easily qualify as a team. The Regional Championship is the first for the Angels in a really long time; the closest East has been in memory was 2012, when the first, second and third place teams had an identical number of points, but East was awarded 3^rd based on the “6^th runner rule.” On Thursday no such tie breaker was needed; the Angels were trailed by the other state-qualifying teams: Fairview with 57, Monarch with 83, and Erie with 84. 

Up front in the Girls Championship race, sophomore Rosie Mucharsky (18:46) ran with the lead three runners most of the first mile, faded to 4^th in the middle mile, and battled back with a great finishing kick to take 3^rd place overall. Just a bit further back, junior Grace Todd (19:42) steadily moved her way into the coveted top-15, eventually out dueling a couple runners in the final stretch to take 13^th overall. Junior Sophia Shiroff (20:35) fought off a nasty respiratory virus, the heat, and the competition, to hold on to 27^th place for Angels as their 5^th runner – a good 20 places better than the Angels had hoped their 5^th runner would finish. That strong placing of the top-5 East runners was largely delivered by ninth graders Julieta Ochoa (who managed a PR despite the heat) and Scout Chomas, both of whom stormed through the field and passed Shiroff and many other runners to grab 20^th and 23^rd place in 20:25 and 20:30, far exceeding expectations in their debuts at the Regional Championships. Junior stalwart Sasha Bull ran to a 38^th place finish in 21:13 as East’s 6^th runner, while junior Avery Ash, making her first varsity appearance in a championship race, raced to 48^th place in 21:46. Ninth grader Kairine Brown was 54^th in 21:58 and sophomore Lila Cypers was 59^th in 22:21. The East Girls finished with 86 points, 20 points better than projected, to take 3^rd place, behind Boulder (61 points) and Fairview (70 points) and ahead of fourth place Broomfield (95 points). Having missed making the State meet by a single point last year, being 59 points ahead of 5^th place of Monarch was particularly sweet.

The Denver East Angels Cross Country Teams will race at the Colorado State Meet at the Norris Penrose Event Center on Saturday, October 29. The Boys’ team looks poised to improve on their 11^th place finish from one year ago while the Girls could threaten the 8^th place finish from 2019, which was the best in school history for an East Girls’ team. The Boys race at 9:40am and the Girls at 11:00am. 

DPS League Meet Afterward:

To put an exclamation point on how meaningful sweeping the team titles at the league meet has become, check out DPS results at Regional Championships around Colorado. Denver South Boys qualified for State out of 5A Region 2, and the Northfield and George Washington Boys and Girls Teams qualified for State out of 4A Region 3. Five boys from DPS finished in the top-4 at their respective regionals. DPS will be represented at State as well as any league in Colorado. 

PS: Don’t forget to get your banquet tickets soon. So much to celebrate this season!

https://east-xc-banquet-tickets-2022.cheddarup.com

Car Pool: If you can give a ride or if you need a ride to the Regional meet on Thursday, click HERE. Plan on arriving at  NW Open Spaces Park in Northglenn close at 12:30pm. 

Early Dismissal: All of the regional team and alternates will be dismissed after 4th period (11:45am) on Thursday. All other JV team members may also be dismissed after 4th period to cheer on their teammates, but in oder to get JV early dismissal, please sign up on this google sheet: Early dismissal for JV runners

Tent: We need someone to pick up the tent after regionals and to bring it to State. Click here if you can help: Tent Sign Up

Uniform Return: Thanks to all who returned their uniform today! If you didn’t turn it in today, please bring it after school on Monday, Oct 24 to turn it in to the uniform volunteers.

If you have a regionals team jacket or 1/4 zip and are not part of the regionals team this year, please bring it to Kohuth’s office on Wednesday (10/19). We won’t have enough for the regionals team unless we get last year’s jackets back. Thank you!!

Go Angels!

Please return your JV uniforms on Tuesday, Oct 18 at 3:45 at our warm up place in City Park.