The Invitational season concluded at the Pat Patten Invitational at Viele Lake in Boulder, adjacent to Coach Kohuth’s alma mater, Fairview High School. The views of the Flatirons on Saturday were better than fair, as were many of Denver East’s performances on the rolling, multi-surface course, which was slick and muddy in places following the thunderstorms from the day before. 

All of East’s teams have been somewhat depleted due to apparent viral illnesses the last couple of weeks, none more so than the Boys Varsity who have also run the last two weeks without their usual low stick, Corbin Hobert, who has been out with a stress fracture. East underclassmen Jonas Scudamore and Henry Bennett seem to have dodged the worst of whatever virus has plagued the team thus far, as sophomore Scudamore led the Angels for the second consecutive week with his 20^th place 16:38 finish and freshman Bennett had one of his best races of the season in 16:57 for 34^th place. Senior Quinn Higgins held on for 39^th in 17:04, while his classmate Ben Hopper, looking stronger every week, ran 18:13 for 86^th. Junior Kai Luna finished the scoring for the Angels with his 95^th place finish in 18:30. Seniors Charlie Keglovitz (126^th, 19:53) and Garrett Johnson (129^th, 20:12) finished in the 6 and 7 spots for the Angels, who settled for an 11^th place team finish. 

Sophomore Rosie Mucharsky looks to be rounding into strong post-season form as she moved up from 6^th place midway in the race to a 3^rd place finish in 19:04. Ninth grader Scout Chomas seems to improve week to week, finishing 39^th overall Saturday in 20:46, followed by juniors Sophia Shiroff (45^th, 20:52) and Sasha Bull (72^nd, 21:46). Another ninth grader exceeding expectations, Mary Clare Nussbaum, was right on Sasha’s heels with her 73^rd place, 21:46 performance. Sophomore Lila Cypers has quietly put together a really solid and consistent season for the Angels, at Pat Patten finishing 86^th in 22:02. Seniors Evelyn Higgins (94^th, 22:12) and Helen Miller (100^th, 22:19) were just a few strides back of Lila. Despite missing two of their usual top-7, the Varsity Girls managed a 7th place finish.

The youth of the Angels continued to impress in the Boys JV race. Sophomore Ben Brown led the team with his 19:05 run for 32^nd place. Ninth grader Abraham Morginsky continues to show substantial potential, finishing 39^th in 19:25. Junior Finn Egan was 47^th in 19:47, followed by a pair of additional freshmen, Isaiah Springer (48^th, 19:49) and Kyle Kojima (56^th, 20:01). These performances added up to a 6^th place team finish for the Angel JV Boys.

The depth of the JV Girls team has made them the most resilient, as they raced to a 4^th place team finish. Junior Avery Ash led the way for the JV girls with her 14^th place finish in 22:12. Senior Bri O’Meara and ninth grader Meara McBride were within a close distance of Ash the whole way, eventually finishing 16^th and 17^th in 22:27 and 22:34 respectively. More Angel ninth graders were in pursuit of that pack, with Quinn Dunkin finishing 28^th in 23:08 and Daniela Maldonado-Ramos finishing 50^th in 24:06. Senior Eleanor Goldstein stayed close to Maldonado-Ramos with her 55^th place 24:20 run. 

Having closed out the Invitational season, the Angels look ahead to the Championship season, grateful for a few extra days to heal before the DPS League Championships on Weds Oct 12. The Invitational season has shown that Denver East is ready to achieve all of its Championship season goals once firing again on all cylinders. 

Tomorrow night is our Chipotle Fundraiser! 33% of purchases made between 4:00pm-8:00pm at the 2500 E Colfax Ave, Denver, CO (Colfax & Columbine) Chipotle will go to the time if you show the cashier this email/post.

Runners: feel free to get your Chipotle order after practice on Monday and bring it to our team picnic on the sunken lawn on the south side of the East HS building. If Chipotle is cost prohibitive, but you want to picnic with your team, please see either Coach Kohuth or Coach Spano for assistance. No one should miss the picnic due to expense.

Parents, family, alumni and East XC supporters: please show this email to a cashier to get your dinner and support the team.

Order online and pickup Chipotle for your fundraiser by using the Promo Code 4GKDP2E on the Chipotle app or website. Please note that fundraiser online ordering is only valid through pickup during your fundraiser’s scheduled date, time, and assigned restaurant. Ordering delivery for fundraisers is not permitted at this time. 

The Nike Southwest Region Championship is on Saturday, November 19, at the Coyote Run Golf Course in Mesa, Arizona. Denver East will enter Girls and Boys Teams (we compete as a club, not as a school) and athletes may also race individually. This has been a fun way to extend the cross country season past state meet. Coaches Kohuth and Scudamore will continue to organize practices for those competing. Athletes and their families arrange their own travel plans; however, we will try to coordinate by communicating which hotels families and athletes have booked as well as trying to schedule a team dinner the night prior to the meet. For families considering sending their athlete without a parent or guardian, we will share which families are traveling to Arizona so that you may consider coordinating your student’s travel plans. Information on the meet is available on the attached link. Please do not register for the meet before discussing with Coach Kohuth whether you plan to compete as part of Denver East’s entry – we need to make those entries together. There is a course walk-through from 4pm to 5pm on Friday, November 18. All races and awards should be completed by 12:30pm on Saturday. Please reach out to Coach Kohuth or Coach Scudamore if you have any questions.

Google sheet to share transportation info between parents, runners and coaches

NXR Meet Info

You can access meet results at runsignup.com/Race/Results/137005#resultSetId-343565;perpage:100

Denver East currently has three former Angels running at the collegiate level – coincidentally, all in New England.
Laurel Kruger (Class of ’18) currently leads the Smith College Pioneers. Smith College, an NCAA Division III member, is currently ranked #2 in the New England Athletic Conference. Kruger has led her team to two team victories so far this season, individually winning both the Wheaton/Babson Invitational and the Smith Invitational. She was named the conference cross country runner of the week following her first win.

Will Daley (Class of ’20) led the Dartmouth Big Green to a 2 nd place finish behind the NCAA Division I #20 ranked Virginial Cavaliers. Daley took 7 th overall with an 8K time of 23:58 on the famous Franklin Park course at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown.

Julia Schor (Class of ’21) has taken 2nd overall in consecutive meets (the Wesleyan Cardinal Invite and the Little Three Championship) supporting the Amherst College Mammoth to consecutive team wins. The Mammoth are currently ranked #13 in NCAA Division III.
We will update the team with these athletes’ accomplishments after they complete their championship seasons in November.

Fun facts:
In the last eight years, East alumni have run for Oklahoma State, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, Metro State, and Columbia University.

Laurel Kruger is the older sister of Charlie Kruger, last year’s Unified Cross Country State Champion. Laurel joined East XC her sophomore year; that season her person record (pr) was 23:46 at Liberty Bell. She graduated high school with a pr of 19:23 at the Thornton Invitational and finished 114 at the Colorado State meet her senior year. She finished 82nd at last year’s NCAA Division III cross country championships. She now has a track 5K pr of 17:38.

Will Daley also joined East XC as a sophomore; his sophomore cross country pr was 16:51, and he finished 76 th at the Colorado State Meet that year. He graduated with high school pr’s of 15:17 for 5K, 4:17 for 1600m, and 1:55 for 800m, highlighted by a 4 th place finish at the Colorado State Meet at 1600m his junior year (his senior year track season was cancelled due to the pandemic). Last track season he ran 13:57 for 5K on the track for Dartmouth.

Julia Schor’s 9 th grade pr was 21:49 at the Denver West Cowboy Invitational. She graduated with high school pr’s of 18:48 for 5K. 5:16 for 1600m, and 2:16 for 800m when she finished 6th at the Colorado State meet. She finished 141 st at last year’s NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship and ran 5:11 for the mile as a first-year college student.

Random fact:
The coach of the aforementioned Virginia Cavaliers was Coach Scudamore’s college coach 30 years ago!

Bus for Pat Patten We will have a bus on Saturday for the Pat Patten Meet. Please arrive on Detroit St around 6:45 – 6:50am. The bus will leave at 7:00am. All athletes are running at Pat Patten.

Team Potluck tonight: Remember we have a team potluck tonight at 6:00pm at 1655 Filbert Ct, Denver

Bring enough for around 8 people. 

Freshmen: main dish

Sophomores: side dish or salad

Juniors: Dessert

Seniors: Drinks/chocolate milk

Friday Practice: We will have our pre meet practice at 3:45pm on Friday at Central Park. Meet at the place on the map below where the starting line would be. Students do not have school on Friday, so we will run our pre meet at Central Park to become more familiar with the City Championship course. City Championships are on Oct 12 and all XC athletes will be running at City.

We need a few more volunteers for the Hot Chocolate Run: This is a great way for runners to get service points and/or just hang out with your friends.

If you want to volunteer at the Hot Chocolate run this Sunday (10/2) 5:30-11am at Wash Park please fill out this form! We need at least 8 volunteers but if more are interested just let Lillian know. Sign up for Hot Chocolate Run

Bring your uniform with you to school on Wednesday! Meet at 3:45 in your uniform at the big E in front of the school.

Hot chocolate run:

If you want to volunteer at the Hot Chocolate run this Sunday (10/2) 5:30-11am at Wash Park please fill out this form! We need at least 8 volunteers but if more are interested just let Lillian know. Sign up for Hot Chocolate Run

It was a busy and exhausting week for the Angels who competed in three meets in two states, and managed a lot of disruptions to normal routines.

On the course, the Angels first competed on Tuesday at the North Viking Invitational on the Case Willis Golf Course. The East coaches really like this course – a true cross country course that is 100% grass with challenging hills. They like it so much they have generally brought athletes to workout there even if the plan was not to race – which was the case for most of the athletes racing varsity. Senior Ben Hopper ran the strongest workout of the boys team, while ninth grader Abraham Morginsky was a highlight for the Angels with his 50th place finish in 21:06 – the 4th best finish of any freshman in the race. Junior Anna Rothman-Haji ran the best race of the East Girls with a 23:04 for 17th place. The Denver East Girls really flexed their depth in the JV Girls race, where they finished 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 7^th and 20^th, giving them an easy team win. Senior Eleanor Goldstein (24:46) led the way for the Angels, followed by ninth grader Daniela Maldonado-Ramos (25:08) and a trio of sophomores: Ella Terch (25:36), Grace Taub (26:10), and Yelena Konowal (27:30). The JV Boys were led by sophomore Donovan Aggeler (21:27), freshman Mason Harper (21:33), and sophomore Noah Shurz (21:39) with 8^th, 9^th and 10^th place finishes, followed by juniors Carson Lerner (22:29) and Linus Cole (23:08) in 19^th and 28^th respectively. The team’s 67 points was good enough for 2^nd place of 13 teams.

Over the weekend, the Angel Varsity and JV1 teams took the long drive across the eastern half of our fine state and nearly the entire length of Kansas to get to the Rim Rock Farm Invitational. University of Kansas’s Rim Rock Farm cross country course is one of the most iconic in the nation, and the Angels were thrilled to return for the first time since 2019. The meet attracts 300 schools from seven states, with the Angels competing in the prestigious Gold Division. JV raced Friday evening under nearly perfect overcast conditions. The course is a challenging one, with the worst of the hills–Cemetery Hill– coming 2.5 miles into the race. The East JV Girls were not the most aggressive team off the starting line, but by the time they had crested Cemetery Hill, they had buried their competition. Sophomore Lila Cypers led the charge kicking to a 3^rd place finish in 21:30. Ninth grader Mary Clare Nussbaum covered the course in 21:44 for 5^th place, followed closely by junior Avery Ash (21:46) and senior Helen Miller (21:28) in 6^th and 7^th. Senior Bri O’Meara closed out the scoring for Angels with her 10^th place finish in 22:04. The Angels scored a mere 31 points for a dominating win.

Junior Kai Luna steadily moved his way up through the top-10 runners in the Boys JV race, competing for the win in the final straight away, eventually coming a mere 3 tenths of a second short of the win with his 2^nd place 17:36.6 finish. Seniors Garrett Johnson (18:08) and Charlie Keglovitz (18:27) both cracked the top-25 with their 9^th and 19^th place finishes respectively. Sophomore Ben Brown crossed the finish in 18:46 for 27^th, junior Finn Egan 37^th in 19:05 and sophomore Finley Steed in 19:23 for 51^st. The Angels totaled 85 points for 3^rd place – the best finish for an East Boys JV team at this meet. 

The Angels returned to the Farm on Saturday for the Varsity races. The East Girls would once again be led by sophomore Rosie Mucharsky who stuck with the lead pack for an 8^th place finish in 19:11. Junior Sophia Shiroff finished 32^nd in 20:16, followed closely by ninth graders Scout Chomas (38^th, 20:23) and the late charging Julieta Ochoa (52^nd, 20:37). Junior Sasha Bull closed out the scoring with her 58^th place finish in 20:49, followed by ninth grader Kairine Brown (93^rd, 21:41) and Evelyn Higgins (95^th, 21:45). The Angel Varsity Girls made the podium for the first time at this meet with a 3^rd place finish of 22 of the best teams from the Heartland. 

Sophomore Jonas Scudamore led the Varsity Boys for the first time in his career, breaking into the top-25 of all finishers with his 23^rd place finish in 16:29. Senior Quinn Higgins was just a handful of seconds back with his 30^th place finish in 16:37. Freshman Henry Bennett moved up to 59^th in 17:06, senior Ian Logan held on to 77^th in 17:19, and junior Connor Beardsley rounded out the top-5 Angels with his 89^th place finish in 17:26, followed closely by seniors Harry Hittle in 93^rd and 17:28, and Ben Hopper in 95^th and 17:31. The Boys varsity finished a solid, if somewhat humbling, 11^th of 25 teams in the Gold Division. 

As things were finishing up in Kansas, the Angels remaining in Colorado were taking the course at the Northfield Nighthawk Invitational. In the Varsity Girls race, the athletes that had powered the JV teams at the North Viking Invite on Tuesday paced the varsity teams on Saturday. For the Girls, it was senior Eleanor Goldstein to be first across the line for the Angels with her 24:29, 51^st place finish. Daniela Maldonado-Ramos was 56^th in 24:47, Grace Taub 58^th in 24:54, senior Siena Berry 62^nd in 25:12, and sophomores Yelena Konowal 70^th and Rae Tatel 91^st in 25:56 and 27:54 respectively. Abraham Morginsky led the Varsity Boys in 20:02 for 41^st, with Noah Shurz (20:24) 51^st, Mason Harper (20:40) 55^th, and sophomore Ben Parish (21:02) and Donovan Aggeler (21:08) 70^th and 71^st. The Angel Boys took 10^th of 16 schools and the Girls 9^th of 12 schools –  East’s JV2 teams holding their own in varsity competition. The remaining JV runners finished even better as teams in the Open Division, with the Boy taking 6^th of 11 teams and the Girls 4^th of 8 teams. Scoring for the Boys were Linus Cole (20^th, 21:30), freshman Jonathan Martin (27^th, 22:04), junior Isaac Ely (34^th, 22:14), and freshmen Cash Griffin (41^st, 22:31) and Ved Mohare (46^th, 22:53). For the Girls it was junior Emma Pieracci (24^th, 26:25), ninth grader Thea Shaff (38^th, 27:57), senior Lillian McGlothlen (47^th, 28:58), ninth grader Liza Cathey (51^st, 29:22) and sophomore Lucia Artley (53^rd, 29:38).

Since the Washington Park Invitational a month ago, the Angels have run a gauntlet of incredibly competitive meets against State and Nationally ranked teams weekly, while the JV has been asked to race at the varsity level at smaller meets three times in the last two weeks. The Invitational season concludes for the Angels on Saturday at the Pat Patten Invitational in Boulder (Viele Lake Park). The level of competition does not let up – of the 22 teams competing, the majority are ranked in the top-10 of their respective divisions in Colorado, including a couple nationally ranked teams. The Angels approach the season with the philosophy that tough competition forges tough competitors, and that this relentlessly challenging invitational schedule will prepare the team for the Championship season – a mere 2 weeks away!

Please mark your calendars. The team end of season banquet will be Sunday December 4 from 1:00-4:00. Details to follow.

Practice will start today at 3:45 in the back of the Auditorium.

Pat Patten Invitational | Saturday, Oct 1, 2022

Unavailability form: This will be the last invitational before our City League Meet on Oct 12. If you can’t participate in the Pat Patten Invite, please fill out this Unavailability Form

Location: Viele Lake XC Course, Boulder, CO

Parking/Buses:

Buses drop off on Knox Drive. Buses can park in Fairview’s lot on Greenbriar Drive or behind Southern Hills Middle School. Parents must find neighborhood parking. Please be respectful. We are working on getting a bus for this meet. Stay tuned for more info…

Schedule

Varsity: Boys 9:30, Girls 10AM 

Open: Boys:10:30, Girls 11:05 

Awards at conclusion of races~ 11:45

Course Map: