Please fill out the following spreadsheet if you plan on racing at NXR! This will help the coaches as they make entries and make plans for the weekend. NXR will be on Saturday, November 22nd in Mesa, Arizona at Toka Sticks Golf Club.
Hey State Team!!! We will meet on the track for drills and wickets before the maintenance run. Remember to have something warm to put on after you run!
After five months of miles of trials and trials of the miles* the season of preparation transitions to championship racing. There is really nothing that can match the excitement and pressure of this part of the season. Goals set back in June finally become tangible. At the Regional Championships, it’s show-up with everything you’ve got or go home for the season. To extend the season to State Meet, teams need to finish in the top 4 and individuals need to finish in the top 15. The Angels showed up in a big way and for just the fourth time in school history, Denver East qualified both the Boys and Girls teams for the State Championship – one of only two schools from 5A Region 4 to qualify both teams.
It was a beautiful fall day for racing, with temperatures around 50 degrees in the morning of the 5A Region 4 races. The Monfort Park course in Greeley has some eccentricities, but the Angels had raced there three weeks earlier, so were familiar with the situation, which probably played to their advantage.
Heading into the meet, the Angel Boys were projected to take 5th, more than 20 points back of the projected fourth place team, Rocky Mountain High School who had beat the Angels 43-87 in their final invitational of the season. To overcome those prerace expectations, the boys would need to run smarter and tougher than their competition. The East boys front duo of seniors Henry Bennett and Isaiah Springer set the tone early on, running close together in the first mile just inside the top 15. Bennett steadily moved up and was running around 11th place at the midway point, moved inside the top 10 by the 2-mile, and moved all the way up to a 6th place finish in 15:53. Meanwhile, Springer by 2-mile had faded back a handful of places and was running no better than 16th. Approaching the turn for the final stretch of the race, Springer found a few extra gears and started to fly past runners in front of him (including Rocky’s top runner) finishing in 8th at 16:08. Senior Kyle Kojima anchored the middle of East’s scoring runners, moving up around 20 places in the second half of the race including past Rocky’s 3rd and 4th runners over the final mile – runners who had beat him by more than 30 seconds twenty days earlier on the same course. Kojima ran a pr 16:43 for 26th place. Sophomore Tre Even ran the race of his career, similarly moving up steadily through the pack to run a 33 second personal best, finishing 34th in 16:55. Senior Jackson Gertge, who hadn’t even been able to finish the race 20 days earlier due to injury, closed out the scoring for the Angels with his 40th place finish in 17:03. Junior Emery Wagner wasn’t far behind finishing 42nd in 17:09. Ninth-grader Liam Gerber (42nd, 17:25) added depth and displacement for the Angels, outkicking Rocky’s 5th runner over the last 100m to hang another point on the team the Angels had to beat. Making his varsity debut, sophomore Finley Knight finished in a personal best 17:56 for 59th place. Senior Mason Harper made it to the finish despite tearing his hamstring in a midrace fall, gutting out a 66th place finish in 18:17. By the time all the East runners had made it back to the team tents, the team scores were beginning to post, showing that the Angels has a team score of 109 points for 4th place behind Erie, Fort Collins and Fossil Ridge, and comfortably ahead of 5th place Rocky Mountain High School with 133 points, and the celebrating could begin.
The girls matched that composure in the race that followed and made some history of their own. The East Girls entered the race evenly matched with three other teams – Fossil Ridge, Loveland, and Rocky Mountain – all teams who could be ranked in top 10 in Colorado and top 50 nationally. Seniors Scout Chomas and Julieta Ochoa led the way for the Angels from the start, with junior Corrine Kennedytucked tightly behind through the first half of the race. The three flirted with the top 10 early on before falling back a few places in the second half. Behind that trio, senior Mary Clare Nussbaum was moving her way from outside the top 20 in the first mile to inside in the second mile. Chomas would eventually kick to the finish for 11th at 18:41, just ahead of Ochoa in 13th in 18:42, Kennedy in 14th in 18:46, and Nussbaum in 15th in 18:52. Prior to this year, no East Girls team had finished with more than two runners among the coveted top 15 positions. With four in the top 15, Fridays finishes proved once again that this an historically great team for East. Ninth-grader Tessa Fe Morris capped the scoring in 17th at 19:02, having also moved way up throughout the race, including over a particularly swift last 500m – her time a 37 second personal best. A couple sophomores kept the train rolling for the Angels. Fiona Jeong, making her varsity debut, finished strong and delivered a 38 second personal best, finishing 20th in 19:08, while her classmate Lila Brown dropped a personal best 19:18 for 21st. The team was backed up by Lola Carhart who fought off a recent respiratory illness to finish 23rd in 19:33 and ninth-grader Charlotte Clarke who made her varsity debut by finishing 42nd (20:25) to round out a deep varsity squad. The Angels totaled 70 points for 3rd place behind Fossil Ridge (58) and Loveland (64) and ahead of Rocky Mountain (80), all four teams moving on to the Colorado State Meet.
The Angels move on the Colorado State Meet at the Norris Penrose Events Center in Colorado Spring on Saturday, November 1. The 5A Boys race at 9am and the 5A Girls at 10:20am. East will have bus leaving from the school at 6am. Student-athletes wanting to join the team on the bus to support the team at State just need to let Coach Kohuth know.
Hey Runners! One of Coach Fehrman’s former students is gathering data about student athletes for a sociology class–if you have the time and inclination, please fill out this link:
If you have already returned your washed uniform to Coach Kohuth’s office, well done! For anyone who has not returned their uniform and is finished for the season, please bring your uniform to practice on Monday, October 27.
For all athletes still racing after Monday, we’ll do a final uniform collection at the banquet on Wednesday, November 19. Speaking of the banquet, don’t forget to register here by November 12! We’re still looking for volunteers for the banquet – please sign up here. And if you have any ideas for silent auction items, please contact Jacob Smiles.
Practice will be at 4:00 at the track today, not at City Park. This will be so we can do jumpies and wickets. The rest of the details from our previous post are correct.
Also, the regional dinner at Coach Scudamore’s house will be for those racing at regionals and alternates.
Our next full team function will be the banquet in a few weeks!
Hey Runners!! Here are the details for the events leading up to the Regional Meet Thursday morning:
Tuesday–regular practice at 4:00 in City Park
Wednesday–pre-meet at 4:00 in City Park, then traditional Regional dinner at Coach Scudamore’s house, 751 N. Elizabeth St. No need to bring anything–food is taken care of!!!
Thursday–bus at 7:00am to Monfort Park in Greeley. Boys race at 10:00, girls race at 10:35. Awards are at 11:10. Bus is making a stop at Buckee’s on the way back!
Denver East High XC 