Rain was in the forecast for Colorado, but through the morning on Saturday conditions could not have been more pleasant for the cross country race at Lyons High School with sunny skies and mild temperatures. The three loop course at the St. Vrain Invitational facilitates a great spectator experience and it was great to see so many “Guardian Angels” on the course to support the team. St. Vrain is a quintessentially southwest US style course with an almost exclusively dry hard packed dirt surface, few trees to provide any shade, and a couple moderate hills; it resembles the Colorado State Meet course more than any other on the Angels’ schedule and always attracts many of the best teams in the state.

The Girls Varsity lined up to race first. All the Angels teams demonstrated grit coming off an unfortunate starting line assignment on the far outside. Sophomore Corrine Kennedy seems to be gaining confidence by the week and looks ready to be a future leader of the team as she got off to a good start; she was able to hold on to 29^th place of the over 200 runners in the large schools division race in 19:57. Junior Julieta Ochoa moved up to just a single position back of Kennedy with her time of 19:59 on a course that does not give up sub-20 minute times easily. Junior Scout Chomas dropped a time of 20:27 for 44^th and sophomore Avery Johnson 20:32 for 47^th. Sophomore Lola Carhart had one of her best races of the season, going 20:37 for 51^st. Junior Mary Clare Nussbaum continues to be a consistent contributor to the team and crossed the finish in 21:09 for 77^th. The East Angel ninth-grader brigade was again led by Lila Brown who was just ahead of Nussbaum in 70^th in 21:00, while her classmates Ainslie Mohr, Paola Ochoa, and Emma Maldonado-Ramos went 83^rd, 120^th, and 132^nd, in 21:26, 22:35, and 23:00 respectively. Even with senior Rosie Mucharsky on the sidelines cheering on the team, the Angels managed to finish 6^th of 25 teams, of which four are nationally ranked.

In the Boys Varsity race it looked as if senior Jonas Scudamore had got himself mixed up in a team trial for US #3 ranked Niwot High School. The Cougars put up a perfect score of 15 points as they had the first six runners across the finish line while Scudamore settled for 9^th in 16:06. Behind him, senior Ben Brown and junior Isaiah Springer had arguably the best races of their season, running 17:04 and 17:08 for 34^th and 40^th over the challenging course. Sophomore Emery Wagner ran 17:48 for 77^th, while junior Jack Gertge threatened his personal best time running 18:11 for 105^th. Juniors Mason Harper and Abraham Morginsky finished nearly together in times of 18:39 for 125^th and 126^th, while their classmate Kyle Kojima ran 18:59 for 139^th. Junior Alexandros Mays was the last across the line for the Angels running 19:20 for 153^rd. The Angels, again not quite at full strength, took 10^th of 25 teams.

Sophomore Abby Forsberg led the Angel Girls in the JV race, running 23:36 for 40^th. Her classmate Grey Jenson put up another very solid performance, running 23:42 for 44^th place. Junior Daniela Maldonado-Ramos (24:08) was next for the Angels in 52^nd. The Angel Girls JV finished 8^th of 14 scored teams. The JV Boys were led by freshman Tre Even who finished 47^th in 19:32, a personal best! Juniors Alex Wilkerson and Tomas Cole ran 20:34 for 73^rd and 20:59 for 86^th respectively, while sophomore Zevi Shiroff ran 21:08 for 91^st and freshmen Finley Knight and Elliott Sense ran 21:22 and 21:28 for 97^th and 99^th in the 238 runner race. The JV Boys were 7^th of 19 scored teams.

This weekend the Varsity and JV1 teams will travel to Lawrence, Kansas for the Rim Rock Invitational. Ninth and 10^th graders will race the following Tuesday at the Pat Amato Frosh/Soph Invitational and everyone else at the Pat Amato Invitational on Friday, October 4. Link to full results for St. Vrain

Please remember to upload your photos to the team memento account: https://albums.memento.com/eastXC2024

While most of the boys and girls varsity team members took a week off from racing, the rest of Denver East Cross Country headed up to the Thornton Invitational, where valuable racing experience was gained over a course that has traditionally been a fast one for the Angels. There were more than a few personal bests run on Friday and top JV runners got experience racing at the varsity level. Link to results.

The Open Boys and Girls races were the first on the course. For the boys, freshman Rodney “Tre” Even had a breakthrough performance, running 20:24 for 36^th place of 277 runners. Even’s classmates Vincent Newland and Weston Dodson were the next across the line for the Angels in 20:50 and 21:09 for 46^th and 57^th respectively. Junior Tomas Cole and sophomore Zivi Shiroff completed the scoring for the Angels crossing in 21:20 and 21:28 for 62^nd and 69^th place. With a total of 225 point, Denver East finished 6^th of 20 teams.

In the Open Girls race, senior Ivy Parish took the win in her season debut, running 21:20. Senior Yelena Konowal ran 24:45 for 21^st. Ninth grader Poppy Hirsch (37^th, 25:21) and senior Franny Hebbard (39^th, 25:25) were the next across the line for the Angels. Ninth grader Audrey Hinshaw (47^th, 25:55) was yet another newcomer to the team showing significant improvement this week. Those five Angels put up a total of 118 points to take 3^rd of 18 scored teams.

In the Boys Varsity race, juniors Micah Gallantz and Jackson Gertge led the Angels with substantial personal bests of 18:34 and 18:38 respectively to finish 80^th and 81^st.  Fellow junior Kyle Kojima slipped under 19 minutes for the first time this season as well, running 18:55 for 104^th. Sophomore Zach Smiles continues to show great week over week improvement and ran 19:25 for 125^th in his varsity debut. Junior Alex Wilkerson, also tasting this level of varsity competition for the first time, ran 20:54 for 169^th. Together this JV-1 group totaled 494 point for 21^st place of 23 varsity teams.

It was yet more ninth graders leading the way for the Angels in the Girls Varsity race. Paola Ochoa (20:40), Ainslie Mohr (21:17), and Emma Maldonado-Ramos all ran to huge personal bests to take 19^th, 33^rd, and 68^th. Sophomore Grey Jensen ran 23:36 to grab 95^th place, while junior Helen Love took 104^th in 23:46, sophomore Abby Forsberg 117^th in 24:10, and junior Daniela Maldonado-Ramos 119^th in 24:15. The first five Angels totaled 283 points for 9^th place of 22 varsity teams, demonstrating East’s great depth in running its JV-1 squad against varsity competition.

Twenty-one Angel runners showed up Saturday to scout next week’s course, the iconic Liberty Bell Invitational. Liberty Bell marks the midpoint in our invitational schedule when things really start to heat up (the competition rather than the weather). Liberty Bell is known for scorching fast mid-season times and the Angels are starting to look ready to deliver. No fewer than five nationally ranked girls teams and three nationally ranked boys teams will be competing in addition to the majority of top-10 ranked teams across 4A and 5A in Colorado. Division assignments, bus information and line-ups for the Varsity, JV, and Open races will be posted here later in the week. East will not send any athletes to the Denver West Cowboy Invitational, so we can all scratch that off our calendar as we focus on Saturday’s races.

Senior team bEast mode shirts have arrived and will be distributed on Monday to those who have paid. If you ordered a shirt and have not yet paid, please do so. If you did not order a shirt but would like one, please email Jennifer Reich (jareich424@gmail.com) and she can let you know if we have any inventory.

Another warm August day greeted the East Angels at deKoevend Park on Friday afternoon as they gathered for the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational. This would be another very competitive meet with nearly 2000 athletes divided among three divisions of racing. Full results.

Those underclassmen not running varsity get their own race at this meet, and this can be a real opportunity to highlight a team’s 9^th and 10^th grade talent. For the Angels, sophomore Zach Smiles led the way for the boys, posting a second personal best for 5000m in as many weeks despite the challenging conditions, taking 79^th of over 300 runners in 20:50. Freshmen Weston Dodson (91^st, 21:27) and Vincent Newland (93^rd, 21:29) and sophomores Zivi Shiroff (107^th, 21:50) and Jackson Ruedi (110^th, 21:52) made up the rest of the scoring five for the Angels who totaled 466 points for 18^th place of 24 scored teams. With two ninth graders in the top-20 for the Angels, the Denver East girls were even more impressive, with Lila Brown taking 17^th in 22:07 and Ainsley Mohr grabbing 20^th in 22:14. Their classmate Emma Maldonado-Ramos crossed in 24:32 for 62^nd, followed by sophomores Grey Jensen (66^th, 24:57) and Abby Forsberg (71^st, 25:04). The Frosh/Soph girls totaled 216 points for 9^th place of 18 scored teams.

Having held on to a couple cards the week before, the Angels played their aces in the varsity races at Arapahoe. The boys were led by senior captain Jonas Scudamore (3^rd, 16:09) and junior Henry Bennett (17^th, 17:04) making strong seasonal debuts. Sophomore Emery Wagner looks stronger by the week, and finished 58^th in 18:04, followed by junior Abraham Morginsky (90^th, 19:09) and senior Tobias Penner (92^nd, 19:11). Jackson Gertge (120^th, 19:49) and Alexandros Mays (146^th, 20:43) made up the rest of the boys varsity, who finished 9^th of 28 scored teams with 245 points.

Senior captain and defending state champion Rosie Mucharsky picked up where she had left off, crushing what remaining competition she had over the final mile for a 38 second victory in 17:52, the fourth fastest time ever run on this course. Mucharsky was backed up by junior Julieta Ochoa, finishing 20^th in 20:07, sophomore Avery Johnson (25^th, 20:19), and junior Scout Chomas (32^nd, 20:47).  Sophomore Lola Carhart rounded out the scoring for the Angels with her 52^nd place 21:45 run, followed by junior Mary Clare Nussbaum (56^th, 21:49) and ninth grader Paola Ochoa (79^th, 22:20). Colorado 5A #10 ranked Denver East totaled 129 points for 4^th place, finishing only behind three teams also ranked in the top-10 in the state.

The meet was capped off by the Junior/Senior Open race. Highlights for the Angels in the boys’ race included the seasonal debuts of juniors Micah Gallantz who finished 12^th in 19:30 and Kyle Kojima who finished 19^th in 20:03. Junior Alex Wilkerson looked like a potential future varsity contributor with his 38^th place finish in 20:49. Juniors Tomas Cole (67^th, 22:31) and Caleb Smiles (69^th, 22:34) made up the remainder of the scored boys, who totaled 157 points for 8^th place. Junior Meara McBride led the East Junior/Senior girls in 24:09 for 28^th place, followed closely by her classmates Helen Love (29^th, 24:18) and Daniela Maldonado-Ramos (37^th, 24:44). Seniors Yelena Konowal (41^st, 24:52) and captain Rae Tatel (45^th 25:07) rounded out the scoring for girls who had 139 points for 5^th place.

Much of the Angels varsity will take next week off from racing as they get ready for the toughest stretch of the invitational season. The rest of the team will get to take on the Thornton Invitational, a traditional meet for the Angels appearing a month earlier than we are accustomed. Unlike the last two races, the Thornton Invitational is generally a meet that will deliver some fast times – so something for which our athletes should look forward.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, September 3 – All day fundraiser at Mici Italian on 7th and Colorado. Be sure to mention you are with East Cross Country and use code GIVEBACK when ordering online.

Wednesday, September 4 – Athlete Potluck at Toby Penner’s, 2380 Fairfax. 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

Denver East Cross Country runners ran historically great performances on Saturday at the Colorado State Cross Country Championships. 

All week the forecast for Saturday had been for cold temperatures, which definitely came to fruition. All season the forecast for the Girls 5A Championship had been that Air Academy High School senior Bethany Michalak (US ranked #4) would run away with the title. Michalak, with a seasonal best more than 40 seconds better than the next fastest runner in the race, predictably went to the lead from the gun, hammering out a blistering 5:11 first mile. East junior Rosie Mucharsky, who had won the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede on the same course at the beginning of the season, had mostly fallen out of conversations speculating on who would win the state meet title after a series of less impressive races in the middle of the season. Mucharsky went through the first mile Saturday with a pack of runners trailing Michalak by 17 seconds. Heading up and then down the course’s primary hill, the bottom of which is just past halfway in the race, Mucharsky looked to be in great position for a top three finish while Michalak, still with a 16 second lead, started to show some cracks in her running form. Over the final mile, Mucharsky and a second runner from Air Academy quickly closed the gap on the leader, whose early pace was causing her to falter badly. With less than 800m to run it was clear that Mucharsky would run past the early leader; she took the lead near the creek crossing (about 400m from the finish) and won the state title by a stunning 17 seconds in a personal best 17:28. 

The 2023 Angel Girls Cross Country Team was already the fastest in school history (18:57 average time for top-5 runners). On Saturday they became the top-finishing team at State Meet of any Denver East squad in school history with their 7^th place finish. Off the start line, most of the Angel girls were conservative in their approach, and through the first mile all were probably outside the first 100 runners with the exception of Mucharsky and senior Grace Todd who was just outside the top-50. At the mile mark, the Angels were in 12^th place as a team with Todd in 52^nd, ninth graders Avery Johnson and Corrine Kennedy in 103^rd and 104^th and sophomore’s Julieta Ochoa and Scout Chomas in 105^th and 106^th. These Angels stayed active through the challenging second mile, and the Angels had moved up to 7^th as team, dropping their team score from 316 at the mile to 244 point at 2-miles, with Todd in 44^th, Kennedy 77^th, Johnson 78^th, Ochoa 80^th, and Choma 86^th. This pack would continue to close through the finish, the team score dropping another 37 points as Todd finished a career best 37^th (19:20) in her third State Meet, Kennedy 55^th in a personal best 19:37, Johnson 64^th in a personal best 19:49, Ochoa 78^th in 19:57, and Chomas 83^rd in 20:03.  Senior Sophia Shiroff finished 132^nd 21:42 in her second state meet.  Of the six teams ahead of the Angels, four are nationally ranked – confirmation of the accomplishment of their finish in what is probably the toughest division of any state meet in the country. 

Two Angel boys, junior Jonas Scudamore (110^th in 2021, 34^th in 2022) and senior Connor Beardsley (119^th in 2022), toed the line for the final championship race of the day; both had the best race of their careers. As opposed to the 5A Girls race, the leaders of the 5A Boys race went through the first mile in a relatively tame 5:01 with no gaps between runners in the field. Scudamore came through the mile in 5:02 and 16^th place. As the leaders came down the hill, Scudamore was among the group of about 11 runners who had started to move away from the rest of the field, and by the 2-mile mark, Scudamore had moved up to 8^th place; he battled back and forth for 7^th place over the third mile before closing strong up the  final hill into the stadium and through the final straight away overtaking two runners and taking 6^th place in 15:42. Meanwhile, Beardsley had established himself in the top-50 runners from the first mile (45^th, 5:08) and held on through the finish, crossing in 47^th in 16:36, just a handful of seconds off his personal best and definitively better than his 12^th place regional finish had predicted. 

More East Angel Cross Country History:

Rosie Mucharsky is the first East Angel to win a Girls Cross Country title. The only other top-7 finishes: Dana Price, 4^th place in 1979 (the second girls state meet), and Kali Steven, 5^th place in 1988. 

Only three boys have finished better than Jonas Scudamore at the Colorado State meet since 1968: Ashi Geberkidane (1^st in 2012); Cerake Geberkidane (3^rd in 2012, 1^st in 2013); and Harrison Scudamore (5^th in 2016 and 2017). From 1953-1967, a total of nine Angel boys finished in the top-7 at the State Meet. 

And looking ahead:

We will celebrate these performances, our seniors, and all of the team this Sunday at our team banquet. Please buy your tickets now! https://east-xc-banquet-tickets-2023.cheddarup.com

For athletes training for the Nike Southwest regional, we will continue to meet at our usual practice times unless otherwise posted on Coach Kohuth’s door. Workouts will also be posted on FinalSurge. (You can add your intention to go and travel details here.)

By almost all measures, the Denver East High School Angels had a successful afternoon of racing at the Colorado 5A Regional Championship over the Northwest Open Space Park course in Northglenn this past Friday.

On what was another unseasonably warm day, the Girls Championship race was the first of the afternoon. Despite having beat all the teams in the field earlier in the season, based on seasonal best times the Angels were predicted to finish third behind the teams from Boulder High School and Fairview High School. As expected, junior Rosie Mucharsky established herself at the front of the pack early. About midway through the race, Mucharsky urged her Boulder competitor and pre-race co-favorite to pick up the pace with her. With 1000m left to race, the two had established a substantial lead on the rest of the field before Mucharsky pulled away over the last 600m to easily win in a time of 18:18. Senior Grace Todd put herself inside the top-10 from early in the race and a strong finish propelled her to 8^th place in 19:24. The rest of the East Angel pack hung further back in the field in the early part of the race with the quartet of sophomores Julieta Ochoa and Scout Chomas and ninth-graders Corrine Kennedy and Avery Johnson barely in the top-40 as they approached the mile mark. There may have been a few palpitations among the coaching staff during that first half of the race, as quick calculations of the team scores indicated the Angels might have been as far back as 5^th place as a team. But by midway, it was apparent the Angel runners knew what they were doing. The pack steadily made its way up through the field; with 1000m to race, all of East’s scorers had moved inside the top-25, and it was just a question of whether East would place 2^nd or 3^rd – with any team in the top-4 moving on to the State Meet. Ochoa and Kennedy moved all the way up to 16^th and 17^th place in 20:02 and 20:04 respectively; Johnson finished 22^nd in 20:26 and Chomas 26^th in 20:38. Senior Sophia Shiroff was just another 20 seconds back in 33^rd place, closely followed by ninth-grader Lola Carhart who had a strong finish to her season, finishing in 21:01 for 34^th ; junior Lila Cypers took 45^th in 21:27. The girls from Boulder won the meet with 35 points. East totaled 64, Fairview 84, and Broomfield High School grabbed the final qualifying spot for the State Meet with 113 points. 

The Girls Team, having accomplished its primary mission of qualifying for the State Meet, got to celebrate as the East Boys raced next. The front of the Boys race unfolded much like the Girls; a large early pack thinned down to four runners by 2-miles and then just the two pre-race favorites, East junior Jonas Scudamore and Fairview High School’s top runner, with 1000m left to race. Scudamore had the better finishing kick of that pair over the last 300m, winning by 2 seconds with a time of 15:49, securing his third trip to the Colorado State Meet. Meanwhile, most of East’s attention was focused on senior Connor Beardsley who battled pole to post to be one of the top-15 individuals in the race and punch his ticket to the State Meet; it looked like it would be close with just 1000m left to race, but Beardsley closed superbly to grab 12^th place and comfortably move on to his second State Meet. Junior Ben Brown finished 42^nd in 18:04, sophomore Kyle Kojima 47^th in 18:16 (a personal best time), and ninth-grader Emery Wagner 48^th in 18:23, to close out the Angels scoring five. Junior Beckett Nelson-Gardner race to a 61^st place finish in 19:04, sophomore Abraham Morginsky 65^th in 19:10, and seniors Finn Egan and Linus Cole closed out their high school cross country careers with 72^nd and 89^th place finishes in 19:27 and 21:06 respectively. While falling short of preseason hopes of qualifying for State, the 5^th place finish and 142 points exceeded pre-race expectations for this young team that had been depleted of a number of its top runners due to injury. 

The #7 ranked Denver East Girls will race in 5A State Meet Championship at 1pm on Saturday at the Norris-Penrose Center in Colorado Springs. Scudamore and Beardsley will compete in the Boys 5A Championship at 2:20pm. 

The Angels will have a bus making the trip down to the meet, leaving at 9am from East. Students interested in making the trip to support their team should let Coach Kohuth know. 

Important Dates:

10/28: Colorado State Cross Country Meet

11/5: Denver East Cross Country Celebration Banquet and Awards (please get your ticket by Oct 30)

11/8: 2-Mile race at Niwot High School (fun for all levels; a good tune-up for going to Nike SW): https://runsignup.com/Race/CO/Longmont/2Mile4REAL

11/18: Nike SW Regionals, Mesa, Arizona (all levels of runners welcome; talk to Coach Scudamore or Coach Kohuth by October 28. If you are attending, add your information here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TMKeXkeXxPzJoBTt3jbuccx9cXFMHQDl5WxTCbPcx0w/edit?usp=sharing 

July 23-25: Mark your calendars for East Summer Training camp at Snow Mountain Ranch.