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 2 got its first real taste of serious competition at the Ram Clash on Tuesday night. The course near the APEX Center in Arvada gave us a little bit of everything from road and sidewalk, to dirt hills, wood chips, and single track – true cross country. The racing started off with a speedy first mile in the boys race, but the Angels collectively used some strong second miles surging on hills to really put themselves in positions to race in mile three. While heat affected some of the boys performances, some solid closing at the finish yielded a second place team finish, and top-20 finishes by David Anderson (4^th), Elliott Brumbaugh (13^th), Jameson Leigh (14^th), Jay Cory (16^th), and Marcus Burnett (20^th).

Running in the second race, the girls followed their typical pack strategy that has carried them to a lot of success so far. Collectively taking the first mile at a more controlled pace, everyone moved up consistently throughout the race and it was looking like we were going to run away with the win as Sophia Charles (1^st) ran to the win, Sasha Bull (2^nd) held off a late charge for second, and Grace Burnett (6^th)  was just edged out to finish 6th. In a surprise though, some of the wave 2 runners paced through the wave 1 runners, and despite placing 6 more runners in the top-20, Bri O’Meara (11^th), Claire Ely (13^th), Alia Quinby (14^th), Helen Miller (16^th), Ellie Goldstein (17^th), and Clara Artley (19^th), we were edged by just 2 points in the final scoring 31-33 by race host Green Mountain.

But with a pair of second place finishes and some really fast times, we have a lot to celebrate about today, and to look forward to going into our final race of the season on Saturday against Northfield.

Complete Results:

Boys Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=222993

Girls Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=223006

Finally, the East Angels got to start competing. This week’s Varsity and JV-1 teams traveled to the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede to preview the State Meet course against some of the toughest competition in 5A. In fact, of the 20 teams entered, the Girls 5A race featured five of the top-10 teams in the preseason poll and two of the top-10 boys teams battling it out over 5 hilly kilometers on a warm August day in Colorado Springs.

The Girls JV were the first to take to the course. While the JV race was not officially scored, it looked to be a close battle between runners from Denver East, Cherokee Trail, and Fossil Ridge. The Angels had three of the first twelve runners to cross the line, led by sophomore Lilia Scudamore in 22:31, followed closely by senior Lily Cory in 22:43 and sophomore Alana Marie Barros in 22:47. Senior Emily Turner crossed the line in 23:33, ahead of Grace O’Meara, Reese Brogden, and Ellie McWhirter, who each broke 24 minutes over the tough course.

The Varsity Girls race immediately followed the JV. Sophomore Abby Howard and junior Anna Lucy Buddenhagen led the Angels to a 9^th place finish of the 20 teams, finishing in 37^th and 42^nd place respectively with times of 21:52 and 22:01. Junior Elena Thoman finished in 22:30 for 60^th place, while sophomores Maya Nussbaumer and Julia Schor rounded out the scoring in 54^th (22:52) and 59^th (23:02). Making her high school debut, Ellison Mucharsky-O’Boyle finished in 66^th in 23:31.

Later in the afternoon, it was the JV Boys turn to toe the line. After more than three tough miles, junior Ballard Kauffman would be the first Angel to cross the line, in time of 20:09. Sophomore Cyrus Jenkins-Nieto would closely follow in 20:14, and senior Jack Thompson would be the next Angel to finish, in 21:39. Junior Taylor Lucas and 9^th grader Nick Virnich would also come in under 22 minutes.

For the Varsity Boys, it was juniors Will Daley and Asher Hoyt moving up smartly in the second half of the race to snag podium finishes of 9^th and 10^th place with times of 17:10 and 17:11 respectively. The next three Angels came across the line separated by only 13 seconds, as sophomore Xander Pacini finished 69^th in 19:09, junior Elijah Bruggeman in 72^nd in 19:12, and 9^th grader Eamon Nussbaum in 79^th in 19:22. Junior Riley Nickols survived a fall during the race to finish in 93^rd in 19:46, and Jack Beardshear finished 111^th in 20:34. The Boys, like the Girls, finished 9^th of 20 teams.

The following day, East’s JV-2 scrimmaged against Golden High School and Green Mountain High School at the 10^th annual Ram Run 5K hosted by Green Mountain –  where the Angels in attendance saw more hills over 5K than they might see at all the meets for the rest of the season combined. Top performances were turned in by Paul Buffington in 24:04, Kerra Hendrickson in 24:59, Alia Quinby in 25:03, Marcus Burnett in 25:04, Alex Schor in 25:24, and Clara Lorenzo in 25:49. Coaches Miller, Fehrman, and Scudamore also ran the course well. A special shout out to parent Renee Supplee who not only came to pick up the tent, but also dropped a 24:48 for 5K!

Next weekend brings us the Washington Park Invitational on Thursday for most of the team, while Varsity and JV-1 go to the Centaurus Invitational on Saturday.