Colorado State Meet 2024 Recap

Posted on November 3, 2024 by easthighxc

On Saturday Denver East sent both Girls and Boys Teams to the Colorado State Meet for only the 3^rd time in 25 years (2017, 2022, 2024), and was one of seven schools in 5A to have both teams be among the top dozen statewide. By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the best years in program history. While some of the more ambitious goals were not achieved, there was a lot for which to celebrate following the State Meet.

It was a beautiful afternoon for spectating and running at the Norris Penrose Center in Colorado Springs. With the Angels running in two of the last races of the meet, the Girls 5A race was competed under midday sun with temperatures in the low 60’s. Senior Rosie Mucharsky, in her last race in Colorado leading the Angels, which she has done for every race of her East career, raced her way to the awards podium again with a 10^th place finish in 17:55, having worked her way up from 15^th at the 2-mile mark. Sophomore Corrine Kennedy executed her race plan perfectly, moving up from 78^th place at the 1-mile mark to a 56^th place finish in 19:28. Junior Julieta Ochoa moved up along side Kennedy much of the race, going from 79^th to 68^th to finish in 19:46. Sophomore Lola Carhart had one of the best races of her career, moving up from 85^th to 75^th place in 19:59, followed closely by classmate Avery Johnson in 20:05 for 89^th. Junior Scout Chomas was steady, finishing 93^rd in 20:10, and ninth-grader Lila Brown finished in 20:28 for 105^th in her state meet debut.

At the 1-mile and 2-mile marks, the Angel Girls were in 10^th place with a total of 292 points. The Angels closed well and moved into 9^th place with a total of 272 points at the finish. Colorado 5A Girls is a rough neighborhood, with five teams ranked in the top-20 nationally and a couple more ranked just outside the top 30. The 2024 edition of the Denver East Cross Country is certainly one of the two best in school history and would likely win state meets in more than half the nation.

In the Boys race, the Angels were again led by senior Jonas Scudamore, running in his 4^th State Meet – possibly just the second Angel boy to do so (though the archives are incomplete). Scudamore finished 17^th in his final race at Norris Penrose in 16:00. Behind him junior Henry Bennett left it all on the course, moving up from 63^rd at the mile to 49^th at the finish in 16:29. The rest of the Angel scorers, all running their first state meet, started out conservatively and moved up aggressively. Junior Isaiah Springer went from 126^th at the mile to a 93^rd place finish in 17:06, senior Ben Brown went from 129^th to 112^th in 17:22, and sophomore Emery Wagner went from 131^st to 117^th in 17:28. Rounding out the finishers for the Angels were juniors Jackson Gertge in 18:17 for 146^th and Abraham Morginsky in 18:39 for 151^st.

As a team, the Angel Boys were in 17^th place of 20 teams at the mile mark with 408 points, then moved up to 13^th with 348 points at the 2-mile mark, and finished with a total of 332 points to finish in 12^th place overall. The Angel Boys had flown under the radar most of the year, not running their top line-up until championship season. The Angels proved that they more than deserved to be at State, beating teams from every other region at the State Meet and undoubtedly surprising many followers of the sport around Colorado.

Looking ahead, those Angels going to the Nike Southwest Regional will continue to train daily. For now, anticipate practice at 4pm, but given the weather forecast and earlier sunset, adjustments may be made. Please check Coach Kohuth’s office window for details of practice plans.

5A Region 4 Recap

Posted on October 25, 2024 by easthighxc

The drive to the 5A Region 4 Championship was a bit of an adventure, as the charter bus got pummeled by such high winds the driver felt the need to slow substantially and drive with the hazard lights blinking as he navigated the team through a dust storm on I-25. Conditions were modestly better when the Angels arrived at Spring Canyon Park in Fort Collins, though winds of 25-35mph were going to insinuate themselves into the racing as well as the drive. Maybe some predictably unpredictable Colorado autumn weather was just what the Angels needed to fly further into championship season.

It takes a top-4 finish to qualify for the Colorado State Meet Championship – as a percentage of teams qualifying, no sport in the state is stingier in qualifying for State Championship competition.

Based on seasonal best times, the Angel boys looked like the 5^th best team in the region – about 30 points behind the supposed 3^rd and 4^th best teams in the region. None-the-less, the general feeling from the team and coaches was that the Angels had a solid chance of moving on to the State Meet. Due to injury, illness, and some coaching decisions, the fastest five of the Angel boys had only raced together once all season – at the league meet, where the Angels had run a deceptively strong race, so optimism was not unfounded. The Angels were already counting on their senior ace, Jonas Scudamore, to win the meet, so to reduce the team score by 30 points, the 2^nd through 5^th runners on the team each needed to finish an estimated seven places better than projected for the Angels to advance to State. The Angels runners did all that and a lot more to barrel their way through the proverbial door and into the State Meet. Up front Scudamore ran in the lead pack without taking the lead until about 1200m left to race. While the other top runners didn’t make it easy, he was able to secure his second Regional championship over the final 500m in a course record time of 15:45. The rest of the team made steady work of moving up from their early race positions to finish 9-15 places better than expected. Over the first mile, junior Henry Bennett was running near 15^th place, moved up to 11^th by the 2-mile mark, and eventually finished an impressive 7^th place in 16:22. Junior Isaiah Springer and senior Ben Brown positioned themselves around 25^th place going through the mile; the pair moved into near 20^th place by the 2-mile mark. Brown then held on for 20^th in 16:55,while Springer had a deadly finish, moving all the way up to 14^thin 16:42. Sophomore Emery Wagner was probably as far back as 40^th in the early going; he steadily moved up to eventually take 25^th in 17:10. Those five Angels totaled 67 points – 50 points fewer than projected and 41 points fewer than needed to punch a ticket to State Meet with a 3^rd place finish. Colorado 5A #9 ranked Fort Collins won the team title, followed by Rocky Mountain High School with an identical total to East, prevailing on the 6^th runner rule. Colorado 5A #10 ranked Fossil Ridge was a point back of East, taking the 4^th and final spot for State Meet, ahead of Erie High School with 108 points. Speaking of 6^th runners (the sentence before last), East’s 6^th through 9^th runners were asked to race more aggressively than they are accustomed, as they were to be the team’s insurance should something happen to one of the first five (did anyone else see Emery stumble and then recover with 120m to go?). It turned out that the Angels were in good hands had something unfortunate happened up front. Junior Jackson Gertge finished 49^th in 18:11(a personal best!) and junior Abraham Morginsky 50^th in 18:14; had any runner other than Scudamore dropped out, East would still have qualified for State with Gertge or Morginsky’s finishes. Had any runners other than Bennett or Scudamore dropped out of the scoring five, Kyle Kojima (54^th, 18:25) and Mason Harper (55^th, 18:28) would have provided enough scoring support for the Angels to have qualified for State. It is impossible to remember a time when East has had a Boys Team race when all nine runners had really, really good days.

There was a little less drama (but for the persistence of crazy wind) in the Girls race – at least for the Angels who had already shown throughout the season that this team was more or less guaranteed to advance to State. In this context, the coaches had asked the girls to practice getting off the starting line a little more aggressively than has been their custom, since there really will be no choice but to be a bit more aggressive from the gun to achieve the team’s goals at State. It looked like many of the girls did indeed get off the line a bit more aggressively and still managed to move up positions throughout the latter miles of the race.

Up front, senior Rosie Mucharsky gave up at least 8 seconds to the NXN/Footlocker Nationals qualifier from Riverdale Ridge over the first mile of the race, closed that gap to 5 or 6 seconds by 2 miles, and then waited until a final furious 200m kick to make up the rest – coming a fraction of a second short to take second place with a time of 17:31; since this was just a rehearsal for State, good lessons were learned. Both runners were substantially under the old course record. Meanwhile, sophomore Corrine Kennedy ran her way into the top-15, running 19:13 for 13^th place. Julieta Ochoa and Avery Johnson moved through at least a half dozen girls after the first mile, working their way up to finish in the top-20 with finishes of 16^th and 17^th place in 19:48 and 19:52 respectively. Junior Scout Chomas was 19^th in 19:58, having also moved her way up into the top-20 in the second mile of the race. Together those five totaled 67 points, which was fewer than projected, and took second place behind Fossil Ridge High School who are currently ranked #16 in the nation.

The Girls Team display of depth was even more emphatic than the boys – in fact, any combination for the nine East Angel finishers would have produced a score low enough to have qualified for the State Meet. Sophomore Lola Carhart trailed Chomas by just 4 seconds in 20:02 for 22^nd, ninth-grader Lila Brown ran a personal best 20:18 for 25^th place, junior Mary Clare Nussbaum was 27^th in 20:23, and ninth-grader Paola Ochoa finished in 21:06 for 37^th. All of the girls but for Mucharsky had run this course at the beginning of the season, and while the conditions were not identical, the girls posted improvements of anywhere from 50 seconds to 3 minutes on the same course since the beginning of the season.

The East Angel Girls and Boys will conclude the Colorado High School Cross Country season on Saturday, November 2^nd, at the Norris Penrose Event Center. The 5A Girls State Championship race is at 12:20pm and the Boys at 1:40pm – more information will follow on the website. We are also happy to report that our DPS friends at Northfield qualified both their boys and girls teams for State, and Denver South qualified their boys. We are near certain this is a new record for DPS schools qualifying at the 5A level in the current championship format. Our league is strong.

Rim Rock Classic Invitational Recap – 2024

Posted on October 4, 2024 by easthighxc

The twenty-six East Angels who made the trip to Lawrence, Kansas for the Rim Rock Farm Classic Invitational were greeted with what were probably the best conditions for the meet in many years – sunny skies, fair temperatures, and a dry course. Rim Rock Farm is Midwest cross country: grass, forest, soft surfaces, with a fair amount of vertical and a couple iconic covered bridges. The experience is worth the long drive.

Denver East Cross Country has a history of flexing its strength early in this meet in the JV Girls race, and this year was no exception. It was emphatic. The Angels scored a mere 26 points to win the meet; in fact had the other 15 teams combined to compete as a single team, the Angels would have come out ahead by five points. As the first mile was coming to a close, ninth-graders Lila Brown, Paola Ochoa and Ainslie Mohr were trailing three girls from the team that would eventually finish second. Over the next mile Brown moved up to second place while Ochoa and Mohr moved up to fourth and fifth. As the runners approached the most challenging hills at the beginning of the third mile, Brown took over first place, eventually winning in a time of 20:33, with Ochoa and Mohr taking 3^rd and 4^th respectively in 20:47 and 20:52. Meanwhile, fellow ninth-grader Emma Maldonado-Ramos, who was probably no further up than 50^th place at the mile, moved her way through the field over the next two miles to finish a very impressive 6^th in 21:34, while sophomore Grey Jenson employed a similar strategy to take 14^th in 22:23. Senior Rae Tatel moved her way up to grab a spot on the awards stand with her 25^th place finish in 23:01. Junior Daniela Maldonado-Ramos took 54^th of 190 runners in 24:07.

In the Boys JV race, juniors Abraham Morginsky, Kyle Kojima, and Mason Harper led the Angels to a 5^th place finish of 26 teams. Morginsky had arguably the best race of his career, moving up to 11^th place in a time of 17:55. Kojima is getting stronger with each week, and on Saturday finished 17^th in 18:32, while Harper closed well to take 24^th in 18:48. Junior Alexandros Mays took 36^th in 19:27, and sophomore Zachary Smiles closed out the scoring in 89^th in 20:41.

The Girls Varsity race was loaded up front with girls who will compete for some of the top collegiate programs in the country in the coming years. Of these, Denver East senior Rosie Mucharsky finished 5^th in 18:05. The rest of the girls team employed a strategy of running the first mile way back in the pack and moving their way up, which for the most part worked out well. Sophomore Corrine Kennedy finished just off the top-25 podium with her 27^th place finish in 19:24. Juniors Julieta Ochoa and Scout Chomas were next across the line for the Angels, finishing 45^th and 50^th in 19:39 and 19:48. Sophomore Lola Carhart continues to close the gap between herself and these teammates, on Saturday finishing 60^th in 20:01. Junior Mary Clare Nussbaum finished 110^th in 21:09. The Angels were 2^nd of 26 teams, finishing only behind the top ranked team in the state of Nebraska. (Last year the Angels were 2^nd to the top team from Kansas – a team that eventually qualified for Nike Nationals).

The Boys Varsity race was the last for the Angels on Saturday. Senior Jonas Scudamore posted a slightly faster time than the year before on his way to an 8^th place finish in 15:49. Junior Henry Bennett ran to a 56^th place finish in 16:48, with senior Ben Brown (66^th) and junior Isaiah Springer (71^st) not far back in 16:56 and 16:58. Toby Penner closed out the scoring for the Angels with his 156^th place finish in 18:01, followed by juniors Jackson Gertge (18:44) and Micah Gallantz (19:01) in 174^th and 178^th respectively. The Angels scored 346 points to take 14^th of 27 teams.

For these runners, the trip to Kansas marked the end of the invitational season as the teams prepare for the City League Championship, Regional Championship and State Meet. The remainder of the team is wrapping up the invitational season at the Pat Amato Invitational races this week and then will also focus on the City League Meet on October 16.

Volunteer at Hot Chocolate Race

Use this link to sign-up to volunteer if interested: Hot Chocolate Run

St. Vrain Invitational Recap

Posted on September 22, 2024 by easthighxc

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

Thornton Invitational Recap

Posted on September 8, 2024 by easthighxc

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.

Recap: Arapahoe Warrior Invitational

Posted on September 1, 2024 by easthighxc

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.

RECAP: Colorado State Cross Country Championship – 2023

Posted on October 29, 2023 by easthighxc

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.)

RECAP: Colorado 5A Region 3 Championship

Posted on October 26, 2023 by easthighxc

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.

5A Region 3 Championship Recap

Posted on October 9, 2020 by easthighxc

5A Region 3 Championships – October 8, 2020

After some races there is a feeling of exaltation. After other races there is a feeling of disappointment. Following the 5A Region 3 Championships at Monarch High School on a warm smoky day, what most of the Angel harriers seemed to be feeling was relief. The East Girls, as expected, qualified for the Colorado State Championship Meet with their 3^rdplace finish, and the East Boys, competing with only single runner with previous Regionals experience and not a single senior, demonstrated the tenacity that will make them a threat in the Region in the years to come.

The Girls got to race first in Louisville, over a deceptively rough course described by Coach Kohuth as “a grinder.” Pomona High School super-soph Emma Stutzman took off from the start and never looked back on her way to an easy and highly anticipated individual win. The lead chase pack consisted of East senior Laura Romero, a couple runners from Broomfield High School, and a runner each from Legacy High School and Fairview High School, with East senior Julia Schor trailing not far behind. This pack would not breakup significantly until the final 1000m of the race with Romero taking 3^rdplace in 19:20 and Schor 6^thin 19:35. Senior Maya Winfield, who along with senior Abby Howard, had also started in the first wave, came through with a strong 15^thplace finish overall in 20:55 with an evenly paced effort. With 3 runners finishing in the top-15, East looked to be in good shape. However, as has been the case with trying to watch these wave start races this year, what was transpiring farther back in the race was hard to decipher. The 2^ndwave, which included East junior Annabel Filippini and senior Maya Nussbaumer, had taken off at a scorching pace and the lead runners were clearly making up ground on much of the back half of the 1^stwave. East’s runners seemed to have held their competitors close, but two teams (Broomfield and Fairview) had clearly placed more runners in the top-20 and it appeared there were at least 3 teams in the hunt for the final state qualifying spot. To add to the confusion, the initial results shared by the timing company failed to correct for the wave starts. Coaches Fehrman and Scudamore huddled over their phones and manually added up the scores themselves with anxious athletes asking “did we qualify?” The math looked favorable for the Angels, and there was great relief when delayed official results showed that Howard’s 32^ndplace (21:48), Filippini’s 35^th(22:01) and Nussbaumer’s 37^th(22:14) were good enough for a 91-point total and the 3^rdand final qualifying spot – 12 points ahead of 4^thplace Boulder and 13 points ahead of 5^thplace Ralston Valley.

For the Boys Team, only junior Eamon Nussbaum would race from the first wave, while the rest of the team started with the second wave. Nussbaum, nursing an injury for the last 2 weeks, ran near the back of his wave and moved up nicely to secure a 16^thplace finish in 17:35. Back in the 2^ndwave, sophomore Ben Hopper demonstrated poise as he moved steadily up into the middle of the pack to take 31^stin 18:24. Led by junior Charlie Kruger, the rest of the East Angels would move up from the very back of the 2^ndwave, picking off runners who could not stay with the aggressive pace up front. Similar to the week prior, junior Jack Kreikels would out sprint Kruger in the final stretch, this time taking 36^thin 18:58 to Kruger’s 37^thin 19:00. Ninth grader Grant Elliott, also nursing an injury in the week leading up to the race, finished 44^thin 19:34, while fellow 9^thgrader Kai Luna finished 49^thin 19:54. The Angel’s 7^thplace finish would officially bring this strange season to an end for the Boys. While the Regional finish was a bit humbling, the team exceeded pre-season expectations. The entire team returns in 2021, and the East Boys look likely to defend their DPS League title for a 4^thconsecutive year and well positioned to threaten for a State qualifying spot.

On Saturday, October 17, the Girls will look to repeat their top-10 Colorado 5A finish from a year ago. The Colorado State Meet returns to the Norris-Penrose Event Center where the Girls will race at 4:45pm in a meet limited to 4 waves of 25 athletes. Among other changes to this year’s meet, spectators and all but 2 coaches will be limited to the Bear Creek side of the course. Follow the website for more details on the race and spectating options as we learn more.

Click here for complete results: 5A Region 3 Championships – Results

Cohort 1 Quad Recap and Race Results | Virtual Running Club

Posted on September 27, 2020 by easthighxc

Recap and Race Results

South-Green Mountain-Golden-East Varsity Quad Meet

On a perfect morning for racing, Denver East, Denver South, Golden High School and Green Mountain High School took on each other and a road course around City Park deliberately designed to produce fast times for the final regular season race of the year.

In the Boys race, Green Mountain star senior Graham Tuohy-Gaydos put on quite a performance running the 6^thfastest time in the history of the state of Colorado for a high school boy, blazing to a time of 14:57. This is only the 7th time a high school boy has run under 15 minutes in Colorado and one of only three times a high schooler has run that fast on a course other than the net downhill Liberty Bell/Heritage High School course. Golden’s top runner took second place a full 65 seconds behind, in 16:02 – a time that wins most races in Colorado. East junior Eamon Nussbaum would again lead the Angels – he continues to knock on the threshold of breaking 17 minutes, this time running a very respectable 17:06 for 6^thplace. Ninth grader Grant Elliott and sophomore Ben Hopper would work their way up the pack in the final mile together, as has become their habit, finishing in personal bests of 17:49 and 17:50 respectively for 11^thand 12^thplace. Junior Jack Kriekels also finished strong, placing 14^thas he equaled his personal best of 18:02. Ninth grader Kai Luna bested his high school pr by a full 30 seconds, running 18:22 for 18^thplace. Coming up from the second wave of runners, juniors Charlie Kruger ran 18:26 for 20^thplace, Owen Congdon 18:42 for 26^thplace, Allan Harder 18:55 for 27^th, Josh Bruggeman 18:56 for 29^th, and ninth grader Conner Beardsley 19:04 for 30^th– all personal bests! Green Mountain dominated the team competition, scoring an impressive 25 points. Golden was 2^ndwith 45 points, followed by East with 61 and South with 91.

The Girls race served up some fast competition as well. Angel senior Laura Romero stayed with South’s undefeated junior Sara Wexler for 4800m before launching her kick over the last 200m to win the individual race for East with a time of 18:56. Senior Julia Schor came up not far behind for 3^rdplace in 19:12. Meanwhile, a pack of girls from South moved up nicely over the last mile to grab places 7^th, 9^th, 11^thand 12^th, which would be good enough for the team title with 41 points, to 46 points for Golden and 53 for East. Maya Winfield was 10^thplace for East in 20:12, Annabel Filippini 18^thin 21:08, and Maya Nussbaumer 21^stin 21:15. This was the East Girls first loss of the season and first loss to a DPS rival in several years.

On Friday, East’s Varsity teams will head to Central Park for the DPS League Championships. The young and surprising East Boys Team heads to the meet as a slight favorite to take the title for the third straight year ahead of preseason favorite South. The East Girls Team, at full strength, will be co-favorites with the South Girls as the Angels try to secure their fourth straight team title. For the individual titles, George Washington’s sub-16 minute runner Charlie Welch looks poised to take his first league title after an 8 year streak of East runners taking the title, with East ready to place as many as three runners on the All-City 1^stTeam led by Eamon Nussbaum. East’s Laura Romero and Julia Schor will battle for the individual title against Northfield’s Riley Buese and South’s Anna Weller, while Maya Winfield and Abby Howard will look to join them on the All-City Team.

Thank you to our volunteer course monitors, Wendy Kriekels, Patrick Winfield, Wendy Hoffer, David Harder and Laurel Kruger. We have the best parents and siblings!

Complete Results: Boys Results Girls Results

Keep running with the Virtual Running Club

While covid ended most people’s xc season early, it doesn’t mean we have to stop running and having fun. The VRC welcomes cohort 1 and 2 runners as their seasons come to an end. We have some fun community 5Ks coming up and, of course, a Halloween 5K with costumes! Click here for more info and how to join the VRC: Virtual Running Club (Cohort 3)

Denver East High XC

Denver East High School Cross Country Team

Category Archives: Recaps