This week the East Angels completed their Invitation season and now look forward to the Championship Season beginning Monday, October 10, when East hosts the DPS Cross Country Championships at City Park.
Thornton Invitational: The Varsity capped off their season with strong runs at the Thornton Invitational – where they will return in three weeks for the 5A Region 1 Championship. Harrison Scudamore ran 15:42, a personal best and the ninth fastest time in Colorado this year, to finish second. Asher Hoyt continues to turn in some of the best freshman times in the state, running 17:15 for 37th place. Jackson Adams ran to a new personal best time of 18:54 – fully 52 seconds faster than his previous best. As has been their habit, the strong freshman trio of Kristain Laird, Elijah Bruggeman, and Liam Peck, came through the finish not far apart in 142nd, 151st and 159th respectively. Sophomore Alex Zonca knocked 28 seconds off his previous best time running 19:29. The boys finished 14th of 37 teams.
Samantha Skeen ran a seasonal best of 20:14 to lead the Girls Varsity at Thornton. Sophomore Lilly Cory finished only a few places back in 37th. Lindsey Weyant, Laurel Kruger, and Masie Moskowitz demonstrated some disciplined race tactics, moving up nicely in the second half of the race to finish 71, 87th, and 131st. Emily Turner finished right behind Masie in 132nd, and Allana MacRossie-Smith turned in a personal best of 22:42. The girls finished 11th of 35 teams.
Bear Valley: While the Varsity produced a handful of personal bests at Thornton, the JV runners produced more than 40 personal bests at the Denver West Invitational back at Bear Valley Park. To highlight a few of these great performances, in the Boys Varsity race freshman Riley Nickols led the way with a time of 19:38 for 9th place. Finishing 12th, 13th and 14th, David Spritzer, Jack Rocchio and Jack H Thompson all broke 20 minutes. Zakarias Abdulkadir was the 5th scorer for the Angels in 17th and the Boys finished 3rd of 5 teams in the Varsity division.
In the Girls Varsity race Sara Merman led the way with a personal best 22:53 for 6th place. She was followed across the line by Madeline Solomon, Audrey McGlothlen, and Maddie Scholtz in 7th, 8th and 10th. Mackenzie Whitehead-Bust (14th) was the final scorer for the Girls who finished 2nd of 4 teams in the Varsity division.
East Angel 9th graders dominated the Girls JV race. Isabella Sundstrom led the way with the outright win by nearly a minute and a personal best time of 23:31. Ellie McWhirter and Brianna Gooch followed in 3rd and 4th in personal best times of 25:25 and 25:28. The first five East Angel boys in the JV boys race – Nicholas Panagos (4th, 20:50), Mac Meeter (6th, 21:08), Carlos Carbajal (7th, 21:35), Theodore Kienast (9th, 21:41) and Henry Kaufman (10th, 21:51) – each ran personal bests as the JV boys team finished first of the three teams.
Dakota Ridge Invitational: Earlier in the week most of the team went to the Dakota Ridge Invitational at the Denver Botanic Gardens in Chatfield. Conditions were warm and the course is challenging, so great efforts were measured in how the athletes fought for top places rather than running personal best times. The Varsity Girls finished 7th of 15 teams. As they would go on to do again on Friday, Skeen and Cory led the way, on this occasion with 14th and 19th place finishes. Kruger, Weyant and Turner followed in 42nd, 46th, and 54th, and Serene Mather was the 6th Angel across the line in 56th.
The Varsity Boys were led by Hoyt with an 11th place finish. Laird (56th), Bruggeman (59th), Adams (62nd), Peck (78th), and Nickols (99th) followed, and Cole Finley-Ponds was the 7th Angel in the race with a 100th place finish. East finished a very solid 9th of 21 teams despite being without two of its usual front runners.
McGlothlen (16th) and Scholtz (18th) led the East JV Girls to a 6th place finish in the 18 team field. Merman (40th), Alicia Rey-Miller (77th), and Frances Fedele (119th) rounded out the scoring runners for the Angels. The team of Rocchio (48th), Thompson (49th), Spritzer (50th), Ryan Kauffman (59th) and Adam Rang (77th) were the scoring five for the JV Boys at Dakota Ridge, a race in which the team finished 8th of 19 teams.
There are no races the week of October 3 as East gets ready for the DPS Championships on October 10. The Angels are the defending team champions across all four divisions and last year also won three of four individual titles. The Angels will have their work cut out for them this year – South and North will bring stronger teams than they have the last couple of years. Parents should be signed up to volunteer at the meet (or should do so soon).
Denver East High XC 