2026 Results

Challenge made, challenge accepted, challenge overcome. 

The boys and girls both had significant challenges at this year's Summit Stinger. The boys would be missing Jay McDonald and Lucas Remeikis, our top two finishers so far this year, as they were both on official college visits. The girls would be facing what we have come to learn is a very formidable Steamboat Springs team. Could the boys win for the third year in a row without a top two? Steamboat Springs had beaten the Summit Girls decisively at Eagle Valley. Could the Summit girls make the substantial improvement upon their Eagle Valley performances to defeat Steamboat Springs and also make it three in a row at the Stinger? 

I somewhat jokingly said I would only hang up team champion banners in the weight room – that I wouldn't hang up a second‑place team banner. Both the boys and girls accepted the challenge and set out to earn team champion banners. 

We were again blessed with beautiful weather, temperatures in the 60s that were beginning to drop in the shade on the climbing side of the course. During their warmups, the high schoolers cheered the middle schoolers whose races started the afternoon. The Summit middle school girls won, and the boys were second. 

Boys

The boys started. The virtual meet pre-race projections predicted a very tight race between Summit and Central Grand Junction with the strong Denver South team projected as third. In fact, the virtual meet had Summit edging Central Grand Junction by just one point – 44 to 45. The Watts twins from Central Grand Junction were predicted to mix it up with our top finishers. In the end, that is precisely what happened.

The lead pack on the first climb of the Stinger consisted of twins Broly and Brendan Watts from Central Grand Junction and brothers Johnny and Levi Ryan, plus Owen Fallon, from Summit Plus. Central Grand Junction's Gordon Robinson and Denver South's Bear Marlin were also nearby. 

After two more climbs of the stinger and the final descent to the finish line, Broly and Brendan finished in first and fourth place, exactly as predicted. While Summit's order changed slightly, with Johnny and Levi Ryan placing second and third, and Owen placing fifth. Brooks Mulica had a fantastic race to finish eighth overall and be Summit's fourth runner. Pre-race, he was only predicted to place 15th. Cooper Levi also had a fantastic race, possibly his best so far of the season, to close out our scoring as our fifth man in 13th place overall.  

He was followed just four seconds later by Dominic Ryan, the third of the Ryan boys. Crosby Hume was next in 19 minutes and 41 seconds, meaning six Summit Boys placed under 20 minutes on this exceptionally hard course. Josh Smith was just three seconds over in 25th place, with Danny Butler another nine seconds behind in 29th. Freshmen Harrison Gieber, Carter Leberman, and Sten Phaf got their first tries at three laps of the Stinger, and along with Thomas Drummond, all finished well within the top half of the field. 

Jackson Boyd had the best performance of anyone in comparison to Liberty Bell. He was only 29 seconds slower than on that very fast course, showing the remarkable improvement he has made this season. 

All that is to say that the boys more than stepped up to the challenge, winning by 20 more points than predicted, beating Central Grand Junction 31 to 52. One new Team Champion banner is going up on the weight room wall!

The depth/quality of our racers is shown by the fact that our 5th‑place runner finished in 13th overall, ahead of the 1st runner from all but 4 of the 20 teams. 

Digging deeper into the statistics, we can compare performances at the Stinger to last year and to earlier this year at the much faster Liberty Bell Race. Levi Ryan had a huge 61‑second improvement upon last year. Danny Butler had the next biggest improvement at 34 seconds. Thomas Drummond had a 20‑second improvement, and Johnny Ryan an 12‑second improvement. Compared to Liberty Bell, Sten Phaf and Dominic Ryan had the best performances after Jackson Boyd - being less than two minutes slower than on the fast Liberty Bell course. 

Girls

The girls knew Eagle Valley hadn't been their best race and that they could potentially beat Steamboat Springs if they raced much better. They were disheartened to have been beaten so badly by Steamboat Springs at Eagle Valley. But instead of becoming dispirited, they focused, remained positive, and continued to work towards improvement. To win, every place would matter. In the end, that couldn't possibly have been truer. 

As is normal, a couple of racers didn't fully anticipate or respect the difficulty of the Summit Stinger climb and started too aggressively. That meant there were a couple of racers ahead of Kayla Broecker the first time up the climb. That didn't last long. By the second time up the Stinger, Kayla was climbing with what were deemed to be her two biggest challengers: Lyla Keller and Else Engeseth from Steamboat Springs. Shortly behind them were two runners from Denver South and Summit's Lily Benbow. 

Following them, the Summit and Steamboat Girls were alternating and intermixed with runners from other teams. It was clear the Summit Runners were racing much better than at Eagle Valley, but the race would be extremely close. 

Lily Benbow had a fantastic race and passed Elsa Engeseth in the trailing meters of the third lap to place fifth overall. Sophie Dinsey and Leah Noble rebounded from rough outings at Eagle Valley to place third and fourth for Summit. And Lucia Templeton had a fantastic race to be our fifth and final scoring runner. Shortly behind her, Ashley Adkins placed sixth in what turned out to be a crucial performance. 

The final score was Summit 50 points, Steamboat Springs 50 points. It came down to the tiebreaker. The team with the fastest six‑place runner would win the tiebreaker. That was Summit's Ashley Adkins, who placed 19th, compared to Steamboat's 28th. Not only that, but Ashley placed ahead of Steamboat's fifth runner, displacing her and adding one point to their score. Without that, it would not have gone to the tiebreaker, and Steamboat would have beaten us by one point. 

In races that tight, every point, every position counts. As another example, if Lily Binbow had not passed Elsa Anguseth in the end of the race, Steamboat would have beaten us by two points. 

Instead, two Team Champion banners will be hanging on the Weight Room walls.

The statistics reveal some tremendous performances. Six summer girls ran faster than last year. With Lily at a huge 2:25 faster for that crucial fifth place. Followed by Maeve Niemkiewicz in 2:02 improvement. Lucia Templeton was next in a 69‑second improvement, followed by Kayla Broker at 36 seconds, Ashley Atkins at 34 seconds, and Leah Noble at 11 seconds. 

A comparison to Liberty Bell is also revealing in that Maeve Niemkiewicz, Lucy Taylor, Maddie Heil and Rhea Ryan were all less than two minutes slower. Autumn Larson, in her first cross country season, is really starting to improve. She was 47 seconds faster than at Liberty Bell!

Crucial Detail!!

On Monday of this week, Mile Split published an article titled “Hey Meet Directors: Make Courses Harder". I wrote the author saying that the Summit Stinger certainly qualifies and suggested highlighting some of the toughest courses in America. He agreed. 

I set up the course exactly like last year. I measured it with a wheel and GPS and both said it was 57 meters short. With a course as difficult as the Summit Stinger, no one would complain about it being slightly short. Nobody sets a PR at the Stinger. However, with the possibility of the Summit Stinger being in a national article, I wouldn't want it to be jokingly called a cheater course for being a bit short. I adjusted the back end of the course just a bit to add 60 meters. 

60 meters would add roughly 20 seconds at race pace. Consider that when comparing to last year's times. 

And... just as I finished writing this, Eva alerted me that the article is published. Here it is! 

Is This the Hardest Cross Country Course in America?

Summit High cross-country sweeps challenging Summit Stinger race at Copper Mountain

Coach Column: The Summit Stinger Was Again a Big Success

Results

Women's Team

Men's Team

Women's Individual

Men's Individual

The permanent results link is here: https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/216223 

The finish line video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4-LFwnFW70  (High School)

and here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq1Xc4AXVnQ  (Middle School)

More great photos by Dillon Benbow here. Please upload yours there.

2026 Summit Stinger at Copper

WHEN:  Friday, 2 October 2026

WHERE:  Fairway 11, near the Alpine Lot, Copper Mountain, CO

WHAT: The world's toughest and highest grass high school XC course!

TRANSPORTATION: Car pool to the race. Arrive at least one hour before your heat.

RACE TIMES: 

4:00 Middle School Boys

4:03 Middle School Girls

5:00 High School Boys 

5:30 High School Girls

ASAP (~6:00) - Senior Recognition

6:00 Citizens (3 laps) and Youth (1 lap) Race

6:05 Awards

COURSE RECORDS:

Boys - Jay McDonald, Summit High School, 2025, 17:09 

Girls - Ella Hagen, Summit High School, 2024, 19:34

RACE WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/summitk12.org/summit-stinger/home 

WAIVER: Please print and sign the waiver below and bring to practice. Or complete the online version.

LIVE RESULTS: www.kandutiming.com 

Virtual Meet Team Scoring Projections from seasonal PRs before the Summit Stinger

"Flyover" map: https://www.hellodrifter.com/routes/summit-stinger-by-michael-hagen 

The climb factor for a course is the percentage of your energy used in hill-climbing compared to the energy expended running the flats.

This course has a climb factor of 6% over 3.2 mi, which means that the energy expenditure for the run is equivalent to running a flat 3.4 mi.

Climb factor is provided courtesy of Ben Crowell, who both authored climb factor's scientific paper and wrote the open source software for it. You can read more about it here .

Volunteers Needed!

Parents, Friends and Relatives - Please sign up to help here! We are also looking for mountain bikers to lead out the front runners.

Both middle school teams won, too!

SHS course Records at the Copper Mountain Cup

Here are a few great photos. Many more are here. Go ahead and upload your favorites!

2025 Summit Stinger at Copper

WHEN:  Friday, 3 October 2025

WHERE:  Fairway 11, near the Alpine Lot, Copper Mountain, CO

WHAT: The world's toughest and highest grass high school XC course!

TRANSPORTATION: Car pool to the race. Arrive at least one hour before your heat.

RACE TIMES: 

4:00 Middle School Boys

4:03 Middle School Girls

5:00 High School Boys 

5:30 High School Girls

6:00 Citizens (3 laps) and Youth (1 lap) Race

6:15 Awards

COURSE RECORDS:

Boys - Joshua Shriver, Summit High School, 2024, 17:43

Girls - Ella Hagen, Summit High School, 2024, 19:34

RACE WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/summitk12.org/copper-mountain-cup/home 

WAIVER: A parent must sign this waiver for every athlete -  https://waivers.edgeauditor.com/auto-setup/copper/889200

1. Click the link above, then click the 2025-2026 Copper Master Waiver image.

2. Click the Get Started button. (You have to click the image first, then the Get Started button.)

3. Select “Individual” – even if multiple kids from one family are running.

4. On the “What is your date of birth?” section enter the date of birth of the ATHLETE - not the guardian filling out the waiver.

5. Almost all racers are under 18, so there will be a “Guardian Required – A guardian is required to sign for any participants under 18” pop-up. Click “OKAY”. 

6. Complete the  “Guardian Information" and "Participant Information." From the "Which group are you with" drop down, select Copper Stinger XC Race.

7. Read through the waiver, initial at the bottom and click “Continue”.

8. Electronically sign for the participant and parent and click Finish.

LIVE RESULTS: http://www.rapidresultstiming.com or scan this QR code:

Girls and Boys Team Champion Award Banners

Individual Awards

Handmade, by Jillian Benbow, awards and t-shirts to the top individuals.

2024 summit stinger results

Summit took the sting out of the Stinger. It was a great meet, with both boys and girls (and SMS boys and girls) winning and Josh (and Jay and Will) and Ella breaking the course records by big margins.

Most importantly, it shows your work is paying off and you are continuing to get fitter, compete stronger and race faster.

The highlights have to be Josh breaking the previous course record by 54 seconds and Ella breaking Isabelle Allori's (4th at Nike Cross Nationals last year) course record by 44 seconds.

Jay was also 34 seconds and Will 11 seconds under the previous course record! The perfect weather (cool, calm and shade on the Stinger) surely contributed. But these were still outstanding performances.

The excellence continued on the full girls and boys' team scores and times. The girls defeated a strong Manitou Springs team (ranked #2 in 3A) while the boys had a dominating win over Holy Family and Heritage.

All the top teams (including Summit) were missing a few key runners, but it was still an excellent showing. This is most evident in our top 5 and top 7 average times.

The boys top 5 average time of 18:23 was 1:41 FASTER THAN LAST YEAR! The top 7 average time was 1:50 faster than last year! True, Josh and Will didn't race in 2023, but Johnny, Carter, Lukas, Levi, John and Gavin didn't race this year.

The girls top 5 average time of 22:07 was 2:25 FASTER THAN LAST YEAR! The top 7 average time was 2:18 faster than last year. Similarly, Ella, Lindsey and Darby didn't race last year, but Ashley didn't race this year.

Ella, Lily and Sophie are now the first, second and third fastest SHS girls ever on the Stinger, with Avery and Paige close behind in fifth and sixth.

Josh, Jay, Will and Owen are now the first through fourth fastest SHS boys ever on the Stinger, all four running faster than the previous best time run by Dominykas Remeikis. Cain slots in at sixth, just a second slower than Dom, with Malachi an impressive seventh.

Reiterating on the second paragraph, while cross country training requires delayed gratification and long term goals, your consistency and work are paying off and you are on track to great performances at State and NXR! 

Keep up the great (and hard) work!

Cody Jones wrote a great article in the Summit Daily: Summit cross-country team unfazed by challenging home race at Copper Mountain Resort

2024 Summit Stinger at Copper

WHEN:  Friday, 4 October 2024

WHERE:  Fairway 11, near the Alpine Lot, Copper Mountain, CO

WHAT: The world's toughest and highest grass high school XC course!

TRANSPORTATION: Car pool to the race. Arrive at least one hour before your heat.

RACE TIMES: 

4:00 Middle School Boys

4:03 Middle School Girls

5:00 High School Boys 

5:30 High School Girls

6:15 Awards

COURSE RECORDS:

Boys - Ryan Olree, Denver South, 2022, 18:37

Girls - Isabel Allori, Liberty Common, 2022, 20:19

RACE WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/summitk12.org/copper-mountain-cup/home 

WAIVER: A parent must sign this waiver for every athlete -  https://waivers.edgeauditor.com/auto-setup/copper/3ff2ok  

1. Click the link above, then click the 2024-2025 Copper Master Waiver image.

2. Click the Get Started button.

3. Select “Individual” – even if multiple kids from one family are running.

4. On the “What is your date of birth?” section enter the date of birth of the ATHLETE - not the guardian filling out the waiver.

5. Almost all racers are under 18, so there will be a “Guardian Required – A guardian is required to sign for any participants under 18” pop-up. Click “OKAY”. 

6. Complete the  “Guardian Information" and "Participant Information." From the "Which group are you with" drop down, select Copper Stinger XC Race.

7. Read through the waiver, initial at the bottom and click “Continue”.

8. Electronically sign for the participant and parent and click Finish.

LIVE RESULTS: http://www.rapidresultstiming.com or scan this QR code:

We changed the name from the Copper Mountain Cup because:

1. Copper has a pro ski race called the Copper Mountain Cup and they wanted to avoid confusion.

2. To highlight that the race is hosted by Summit High School.

3. To accentuate the challenge of the race, featuring the 22% grade climb of "The Stinger"!

A couple courses are a bit higher, but are flatter. Some courses might have more total vert, but are at lower altitude. Some might have rougher surfaces. (Actually, we view the soft golf course grass as one of the top features of our race.) We don't think any high school course rivals ours for the combination of high altitude, total vert and steepness (22%) of the climbs. So until someone wants to argue otherwise, we are claiming to be the WORLD'S TOUGHEST high school XC race!

Check the times run by some top ranked runners that are 3 to 5 minutes slower than their PRs. Nothing makes it clearer how hard the WORLD'S TOUGHEST is than that.

The WORLD'S TOUGHEST is the perfect race to develop toughness in your runners before their crucial Regional and State competitions. If they conquer this course with a positive growth mindset and don't fret about not setting PRs, they will be set up to race strong when it really counts.

Or maybe we should call it the WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL!! The photos below were taken a couple days before the 2022 race.

2023 results

A great article in the Summit Daily summarizing Summit's performance: Summit cross-country outlasts challenging home course; girls place 1st and boys take 2nd

We had a lot of great races, resulting in the girls team placing 1st and the boys tying for 1st and placing 2nd on the 6th place tie-breaker. And all of that without Josh, Will, Gavin, Lindsey and Ella! It was great to see a pack of four Summit boys leading the first lap of the Stinger and a big pack of girls running together as well.

One way to pick out great performances is comparing times to previous races and last year's Copper Mountain Cup. Compared to Eagle Valley two weeks ago, the average girl's time on our much tougher Summit Stinger course appears to be about 2:30 slower. Using that marker, Lily, our first place girl had a great race at just 2:11 slower than Eagle Valley. Also outstanding were Mila at just 1:48 slower and Lila at just 1:54 slower! With that great race, Mila stepped into our top 5 for the first time this year and helped secure the girls win.

Only three girls raced this year's Summit Stinger and last year's Copper Mountain Cup. Avery had a huge 1:30 improvement from last year and Cece knocked another second off last year, which was a big breakthrough race for her.

Lily, Avery, Ashley, Cece and Mila all placed in the top 10 SHS times run at the Stinger!

The boys look on average to have been about 2:00 slower than Eagle Valley, which is excellent given the difficulty of the Stinger. On that basis, Lukas clearly had a breakthrough race being just 1:04 slower. (The pacing help from Jay surely helped. At Rifle, we will have several pacing groups.) Max also stepped up big, being just 1:07 slower than Eagle Valley. Cain also clearly took to the Stinger well, being just 1:34 slower than EV.

Only 4 boys raced the Stinger this year and last, and three had huge improvements. Jens was a huge 2:40 faster, Carter was 1:51 faster and Cain 1:04. Owen finished in our top 5 for the second time this year and helped secure the first place tie.

Like the girls, the top 5 boys - Jay, Lukas, Cain, Carter and Owen - all recorded times in the top 10 ever run by SHS athletes at the Stinger.

Full results with lap splits are here: https://www.itsyourrace.com/results.aspx?id=14823

Photos 

Click here for more!

2023 Summit Stinger at Copper

WHEN:  Saturday, 30 September 2023

WHERE:  Fairway 11, near the Alpine Lot, Copper Mountain, CO

WHAT: The world's toughest and highest grass high school XC course!

TRANSPORTATION: Car pool to the race. Arrive at least one hour before your heat.

RACE TIMES: 

10:00 Middle School Boys

10:03 Middle School Girls

11:00 High School Boys 

11:30 High School Girls

12:00 Awards

RACE WEBSITE: https://sites.google.com/summitk12.org/copper-mountain-cup/home 

RESULTS: https://coppermountaincup.itsyourrace.com/Results.aspx?id=14823 or scan the QR code below.

Top Entries

2022 Race Review

No PRs were run, of course! Especially with the course being 39 meters longer than last year. (A little detail I didn't raise before the race! ☺ )

There were several outstanding performances, though, by runners who rose to the challenge of competing on the World's Toughest High School Cross Country Course!

Most Improved clearly goes to Claire Jackson! Not including her time, the girls were on average 3:10 slower than St. Vrain, one of the slower courses we have raced on. But Claire raced fantastically and was only 40 seconds slower than at St. Vrain. Her performance reduced that average deficit compared to St. Vrain from 3:10 to 2:45. Claire has been placing about 8th or 9th within the team at most meets, but made a stellar jump to 4th at Copper. Well done! Claire raced in the JV division at Copper. Had she been in the varsity division, we would have placed second and been close to first instead of placing third on the tie breaker. It looks like Claire will be a great aid in our bid to qualify for State. 

Placing in the top 10 were Lauren at 7th with a fine 22:58 and Ella in 2nd with a 21:02. Ella's time was 10 seconds faster than last year despite the course being longer. Ella has placed second four times in a row now, to some of the top XC racers in the state and nation. At Copper she placed second to 3A 1600 and 3200 State Champion Isabel Allori for the second race in a row. (The other being St. Vrain.) Ella's pacing was perhaps a bit too aggressive on the first lap, but she continued battling hard, despite tripping and falling while passing a boy who wouldn't make room.

There is a second Most Improved recognition for the girls. Claire gets the most improved for the season. Cece gets the most improved compared to last year. Cece also had a great race, running a big 53 seconds faster than last year! Niamh is the runner up in that most improved competition, with a nice 19 second faster race. Again, all of these on a longer course.

Lando let the way for the boys in 14th. Most improved for the boys clearly goes to Donovan, who actually ran faster at Copper than at St. Vrain and was only 30 seconds slower than at Dave Sanders. Congratulations Donovan on a big breakthrough! Cain also had a fantastic race and was second for Summit. Carter wasn't completely recovered from illness but raced well. He and Gavin did a great job of running together and supporting each other. Memphis and Bryce also raced well, with times much closer to their St. Vrain times than the team average.

The boys placed a competitive 4th without Dom, Josh and Zach racing. (For Dom and Josh, see the Desert Twilight results.)

See your race splits below. For the most part, the splits were remarkably consistent. Although as we've discussed, consistent splits aren't necessarily a good thing. It can mean you ran too comfortably, well within your limits and you left performance on the course.

Summit Daily Article: Summit Tigers cross-country team battles challenging course at Copper Mountain

Full Results on MileSplit, including the outstanding Summit Middle School performances.

Full Results with Splits

Photos here! 

Please upload your photos.

2022 copper mountain cup

WHEN:  Saturday, October 1st, 2022

WHERE:  Fairway 11, near the Alpine Lot, Copper Mountain, CO

WHAT: The world's toughest and highest grass high school XC course!

RACE TIMES: subject to change

9:45 Middle School Coach’s Meeting at Start Line

10:00 Peaks League Middle School Boys Championship (race 7, score 5)

10:05 Peaks League Middle School Girls Championship (race 7, score 5)

10:20 Middle School Open - Boys and Girls (race unlimited, score 4)

10:35 High School Coach’s Meeting at Start Line

11:00 Boys Open (race unlimited, score 5)

11:03 Girls Open (race unlimited, score 5)

11:30 Boys Varsity (race 7, score 5)

11:33 Girls Varsity (race 7, score 5)

12:00 Awards

Girls Varsity:

Hagen, Ella

McCalla, Lauren

Avery, Adaline

Miner ,Cecelia

Eytel, Avery

Leffler, Darby

Girls Open:

Jackson, Claire

Nelson, Niamh

Boys Varsity:

Benedict, Gavin

Cunningham, Landon

Niemkiewicz, Carter

Steinweg, Cain

Thwaites, Memphis

Varble, Roan

Boys Open:

Dalzell, Liam

Oppito, Bryce

Phaf, Jens

Ramey, Donovan

Serafini, Kai

2022 Virtual Meet

Here are the projected team results - provided everyone enters and races to their current season best. Will we be able to use home field and altitude advantage to exceed the seeds? The girls are seeded first by a single point, with 5 teams within 7 points!! The boys were seeded 2nd until I removed Dom and Josh (running at Desert Twilight). That dropped us to 4th. Can we at least beat the Olathe Northwest team from Kansas with our altitude acclimation?

2021 Copper Mountain MileSplit results

10/2/21: Summit High School runners win inaugural hilly, home meet at Copper Mountain Resort. 

Freshman Hagen wins by nearly 3 minutes; junior Remeikis leads Tigers boys team in victory

2021Copper Mountain Cup Results with Lap Splits 

Mountain Course (Note: Race Direction is Counter-Clockwise)

Front Side Course (alternate in case of heavy snow/ice on Mountain Course)