There were not going to be a lot of fast times run at Broomfield Commons Park on a 97-degree day. The finish banner is about the only shade you will find on that course. But run smart in challenging conditions and good things will happen, and a lot of good things happened for the East Angels on Friday.
Girls Varsity ran first at this meet. Senior Grace Todd came through the mile with a pack of about a half dozen competitors, with the pack trailing two runners who had already built a substantial lead. Todd easily pulled away from that chase pack in the latter half of the race to secure a third-place finish in 19:09. A strong pack of East runners trailed behind, making their way through the top-20. Sophomores Julieta Ochoa and Scout Chomas closed strong to finish 12th and 13th in 20:49 and 20:55, followed closely by senior Sophia Shiroff in 14th (20:56) and ninth-graders Avery Johnson (21:03) and Corrine Kennedy (21:05) in 15th and 17th. Senior Sasha Bull (21:39) crossed the line 22nd, despite being the victim of a pre-race wasp attack, while sophomore Mary Clare Nussbaum (21:42) placed 24th, and seniors Avery Ash (21:45) and Anna Rothman-Haji (22:21) 27th and 36th, the latter overcoming a hair-tie malfunction. While not all of the schools competing in the Girls or Boys varsity races were competing with their full varsity teams, it was a dominant performance by the East Angel Girls, placing six athletes in the top-17 for a mere 53 points to get the win against sixteen other teams.
In the Boys Varsity race that followed, junior Jonas Scudamore and sophomore Henry Bennett cruised comfortably with the lead pack before taking the lead together in the third mile. The pair would put a fair amount of distance between themselves and third place over the final 600m downhill finish to take 1st and 2nd in 16:50 and 16:59 respectively. Despite the conditions, sophomores Toby Penner (19th, 18:14) and Isaiah Springer (52nd, 19:09) both ran faster than they had the week before, perhaps adapting to their new roles on varsity. Junior Ben Brown endured a rough final 200m to finish 32nd in 18:43, and freshman Emery Wagner and sophomore Kyle Kojima also managed to improve on last week with a 19:21 for 57th and 19:31 for 62nd respectively. Senior Finn Egan finished 73rd in 19:55, sophomore Abraham Morginsky survived a starting line wasp sting (yes, the team was victimized at least twice by nature) and a mid-race fall to finish 76th in 20:04, and senior Carson Lerner placed 88th in 20:26 in his varsity debut. This inexperienced Boys Varsity team made a lot of progress in a week, this week finishing 2nd of 24 teams, behind only Jefferson Academy.
The Boys JV took to the course immediately after the varsity races. Sophomore Alexandros Mays went out fast, going through the mile mark in 2nd place; the heat and the pace would catch up to Mays, but he held on for 8th place in 20:43. Sophomore Micah Gallantz managed a PR despite the heat with his 5th place finish in 20:33. Sophomore Mason Harper was 10th in 20:50, junior Donovan Aggeler was 16th in 21:19, and sophomore Liam Taylor was 21st in 21:28. Those scoring five runners totaled 60 points– good enough for 2nd place, just 3 points shy of first place Golden View Classical Academy.
In the Girls JV race, junior Lila Cypers came through the mile in 5th place, with first and second place seeming to already have an insurmountable lead. But the heat took its toll on the leaders, and Cypers cruised past the pair with about a quarter-mile to run and came away with an impressive win in 22:30. The rest of the top-15 was dominated by East Angels, with sophomore Quinn Dunkin (23:22) racing to 4th, ninth-grader Lola Carhart (23:25) moving up to 6th, sophomore Daniela Maldonado-Ramos (23:28), 7th, junior Abby Purvis (23:31) 8th, sophomores Meara McBride (23:49, 10th) and Liza Cathey (12th, 23:52), and ninth-grader Abby Forsberg 15th in 24:16. On their way to the JV team title, the East girls totaled a mere 26 points, good enough to have beaten the rest of the entire field of 11 other teams if they were combined into a single team.
Things get much tougher in the weeks ahead. The Angels head to the Liberty Bell Invitational at Heritage High School on Saturday, September 8. Teams from around the state and region come to Liberty Bell to test themselves against the best programs in Colorado over a scorching fast course. Details of race division assignment and race times will be available at the beginning of the week.
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Denver East High XC 