Warrior Lincoln Park

Friday, 9 October 2026

2026 results

The 2026 Warrior Lincoln Park meet returned to the traditional venue at Lincoln Golf Course after a one year rain-induced sojourn to the sidewalks and roads around Central Grand Junction high school. The times this year weren't as fast as those at that short course, but they were fast. Most Summit runners had season’s bests, several had all‑time personal bests, and a couple even bested their times from the short course last year.

This race was going to be great feedback on where we stood against several of our top 4A competitors. Strong teams from Colorado Springs, as well as a couple of our regional rivals, would be there. On the boys' side, the prime competitors would be Palmer Ridge, Durango and host Central Grand Junction. On the girls' side, I anticipated the primary challenge coming from Steamboat Springs, but also wanted to see where we stack up against the Palmer Ridge and Cheyenne Mountain girls.

I expected the girls to have the much bigger challenge. I thought our boys would dominate the race, as I felt Palmer Ridge's ranking was too high, based off what I thought was a somewhat short and fast course at Roy Griak. I was very wrong. Turns out the Palmer Ridge boys were very deserving of the high ranking they received both in MileSplit and True XC Rankings. And the ranking of the Steamboat Springs girls in MileSplit was too low, as I expected.

True XCR rankings before WLP

Open Races

Leading off before the varsity races were the girls and boys open races. There we set an immediate tone for the day with some fantastic racing. We only had four girls in the open race. Not enough to score a team score, but they did superbly. Maddy Heil and Lucy Taylor both got on the awards podium, with Maddie finishing in 6th and Lucy 12th. Maddy scored a huge 1 minute 28 second lifetime personal best. Lucy was 51 seconds faster than Liberty Bell. Iyla Kuruvila and Rheya Ryan were 39 and 26 seconds faster than Liberty Bell.

Summit dominated the open race with a score of just 29 points, compared to Grand Junction in second with 52 points. Dominic Ryan won, followed five seconds later by John McDonald in second. Also scoring single digit points were Danny Butler in fifth and Harrison Gieber in seventh. Carter Lieberman rounded out the top, scoring five in 14th place. Harrison, Carter, Thomas Drummond, and Sten Phaf all had new lifetime personal bests.

Girls Varsity

This would be a rematch with Steamboat Springs from the Summit Stinger a week ago, as well as facing very strong teams from Palmer Ridge and Cheyenne Mountain for the first time this year. Could the Summit Girls defeat Steamboat Springs on a much faster and flatter course? Would the introduction of other teams that we will see again at State shape the outcome?

The girls got off to a good start with a lot more bright yellow jerseys near the front at 800 meters than at Eagle Valley. Kayla Broecker faced strong competition for the individual win, including Addison Michalak from Palmer Ridge and last year's state champion - who edged Kayla at Norris Penrose by a few seconds - Reagan McRae.

Through the first half of the race, there was a pack of six girls, including Elsa Engeseth from Steamboat Springs. By the two-mile mark, the pack was stretching out with Kayla and Reagan at the front. Lily Benbow was the next Summit runner through the two‑mile mark with the other girls relatively close behind. The race was still too close to call, but Summit seemed to be in good position.

Kayla pulled away from Reagan in the last half mile for an eight‑second victory. Lily passed several runners in the second half of the race to place 9th overall. Milla Phaf, Ashley Adkins, and Sophie Dinse placed third through fifth for Summit.

Summit won by 18 points over Steamboat Springs in a score of 75 to 93. Cheyenne Mountain followed with 105 points and Palmer Ridge with 157.

Cheyenne Mountain and Palmer Ridge both had a couple girls with very subpar performances. Steamboat was missing their normal fourth or fifth girl, Whitney Warnke. At State, it can be expected that all three teams will perform better. But so can Summit. Most of the Summit Girls had very strong days, but not all.

Besides Kayla's crucial win, Lily Benbow had an outstanding race. Her 18:40 was 12 seconds faster than the Liberty Bell, 8 seconds faster than Desert Twilight, and she is the only Summit runner so far this year to run faster than at the short race last year at Grand Junction. Milla Phaf had a very strong race to finish as Summit's third runner. She was running with Lily for the first 1.5 miles and held on to be only six seconds slower than at Liberty Bell.

Ashley Atkins continues to have extremely strong races and was in our scoring five for the second race in a row. Her time of 19 minutes, 31 seconds was 26 seconds faster than Liberty Bell – the biggest improvement in our top five. Sophie Dinse and Lucia Templeton ran almost as fast as at Desert Twilight, while Leah Noble ran 15 seconds faster. Paige Ratliff was within 10 seconds of her season best run at Liberty Bell.

The team score between Summit and Steamboat was very close through each team's first three runners.

Kayla's one point gave us a three point lead over Steamboat's first runner - Elsa Engelseth's four. Lylah Keller at five points compared to Lily Benbow with seventh points narrowed our lead to one. After three runners, we were tied as Steamboat's Evie Fisher was one place ahead of Mila.

The depth of a team is the most critical factor to victory. Team championships can't be won with a great two or three runners alone. The fourth and fifth runners are as - or more - important than the first and second. Only at fourth and fifth did we pull away from Steamboat Springs, placing nine points ahead of them at each position.

The runners in our third through seventh positions have varied all year. The important thing is that we have depth and that runners are ready to step up into those scoring positions when other runners have off days. We haven't yet had a race where all of our top seven runners had great days. We have been able to win anyway. That speaks to the importance of everyone training hard to improve and being ready when needed.

All of the Summit runners were asked to have a "task" of their choosing in mind for this meet - something to work on, something to improve, that will help us perform to our best at State. For some that might have been getting out faster. For some it was to stay stronger in the middle. And for some it was to have a faster finish. The girls did a great job working on these tasks and put us in a stronger position for a top finish at State. In addition to being first out of 36 teams, they also defeated four top-10 ranked 4A teams in the state.

Boys Varsity

I will admit to being overconfident going into this race. All of our top runners were racing for only the second time this season. I thought we would win comfortably. And I thought that would be important to make a statement to the selectors for possible at‑large bids to Nike Cross Nationals. The Palmer Ridge boys were ranked second in several polls, but I thought their ranking was somewhat inflated due to performances at the new, flat and fast course at Roy Griak. I was wrong.

At the 200‑meter mark, Jay McDonald and Lucas Remeikis were near the front, but the rest of our runners were much further back than I liked. I hoped this was due to a very fast start by other runners and that our athletes would soon be moving up. However, at the half‑mile mark, although Jay and Lucas were still near the front, our other runners were still mixed in a very fast and large pack. It was impossible to tell which team was leading, but it was clear we were not dominating.

At 1.5 miles, there was a lead pack of Jay and Lukas plus Broly Watts from Central Grand Junction and Rocco Enea from Durango. The next four runners in a row wore the white jerseys of Palmer Ridge!! This was alarming. With runners in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth position out of 250 racers, Palmer Ridge was going to be very difficult to beat - even with the potential of having two in the top four ourselves.

At the 2.5 mile mark, Benjamin Olds and Axel Mason from Palmer Ridge had passed Rocco Enea from Durango. This put them in an even stronger position. Coach Eva Hagen, the Summit athletes that had already raced, and the Summit parents were all imploring our remaining athletes to do their best. I was shouting that every position would count.

Jay McDonald and Broly Watts had a slight lead over Lukas Remeikis, with Benjamin Olds and Axel Mason closing. At the finish line, Jay pulled away for a narrow win. Lukas placed third, just missing going under 15 minutes. Owen Fallon had arguably his strongest race of the season, much better than the Summit Stinger, to be third for Summit and 11th overall. Johnny Ryan was just two spots back in 13th and Levi another three in 16th.

Fortunately, there was a gap to Palmer Ridge's fifth runner in 28th place. That was what enabled us to win by a much smaller than expected margin.

Jay and Lucas placing first and third was huge and gave us a five‑point lead through our and Palmer Ridge's first two runners. Palmer Ridge won the battle at the third and fourth positions, placing seventh and eighth place to our 11th and 13th. Our lead shrunk to one point through three runners and Palmer Ridge took a four point lead through four runners. It was only because our fifth runner, Levi Ryan, was 12 points ahead of their fifth runner that we were able to secure the narrow eight point victory.

This again illustrates how important the depth on a team is and how the 5th place runner is often the most important in tight races. Not everyone has to have an outstanding race, but if we can be solid through five, we have the potential to do very well in any meet.

Comparing to previous races, it is clear that we continue to improve, and almost everyone had excellent races.

Jay was only one second slower than at the comparably fast but lower elevation course at Desert Twilight. Lukas was 17 seconds faster than at Desert Twilight and 11 seconds faster than at Liberty Bell for a new season best. Owen and Johnny also had new season's best at two seconds and nine seconds faster than Liberty Bell.

Brooks Mulica, Cooper Levi, and Crosby Hume continue to improve significantly. All three were faster than at Liberty Bell and Desert Twilight. Cooper had the biggest improvement among our eight varsity racers with a 48‑second improvement over Liberty Bell and 36 seconds faster than Desert Twilight.

Going into this meet, one ranking system had Palmer Ridge ranked second in the 4A, with Durango at 6th and Central Grand Junction at 7th. Post-meet that looked to be accurate, with CGJ edging out Durango.

The "task" at this race for many of the boys was to finish strong and move up in the last mile. Fortunately for us, they did.

Looking forward to regionals, a task for many of them will be to get out faster in the first 400 meters. We need to accomplish this to perform well at state. We will certainly address it in training.

Conclusion

The Warrior Lincoln Park meet was a significant test—a test that was much more challenging than expected on the boys' side. Both boys and girls did what they needed to do to pass. Both teams will need to improve substantially to place well at State and NXR. Eva and I are confident they will.

Dillon Benbow with some AI assistance prepared this interesting assessment:

Girls (Summit 75, Steamboat 93)

Steamboat ran the better races. All five of its scorers PR’d, averaging 24 sec faster than their PRs, while Summit had only two PRs among its five scorers and averaged 5.7 sec slower than its PRs. Summit won on front-end quality and a good spread. Kayla Broecker won the race in 17:32.18, 10.5 sec off her best, and Lily Benbow was 9th with a PR of 18:40.02. Ashley Adkins also PR’d, by 27 sec, in 26th. Milla Phaf and Lucia Templeton were 5 to 7 sec off their bests, and Leah Noble and Sophie Dinse were 31 and 48 sec off theirs. With Steamboat's Warnke at her PR, the score would have been 77 to 80, still Summit.

Potential: If Summit’s girls had run their bests, the score would have been Summit 59 to Steamboat 99. Their top five would have averaged 18:42.77 instead of 18:55.70, about 13 sec per runner faster. Dinse accounts for the most. Her PR is 18:48.00, so at that mark she would have moved from 27th to roughly 10th. Steamboat has no gap by this measure, since Warrior is already each scorer’s best.

Boys (Summit 44, Palmer Ridge 52)

Summit’s front four was excellent. Jay McDonald won in 14:51.45, 1.9 sec off his season best, and Lukas Remeikis was 3rd with a PR (−10.9). Owen Fallon and Johnny Ryan, 11th and 13th, ran faster than their season bests. Levi Ryan was 8 sec off his PR. The standouts were deeper in the lineup. Brooks Mulica, a freshman, ran a PR in 24th, and Cooper Levi ran a PR by 20 sec in 32nd, as Summit’s 8th finisher. Crosby Hume was 16 sec under his season best.

Palmer Ridge was close behind. Their top four averaged 15:20.36 to Summit’s 15:19.16, and Paulson and Hall both PR’d. Their 5th man, Kaleb Hanks, ran 24.7 sec off his best at 16:36.89, which cost them the race. Summit’s 5th runner was Levi Ryan at 15:54.00.

Potential: If Summit’s boys had run their bests, the score would have been Summit 36 to Palmer 55. Their top five would have averaged 15:17.26 instead of 15:26.13, about 9 sec per runner faster. Jay’s PR of 14:39.80 is 12 sec faster than he ran, and Johnny Ryan’s PR is 22 sec faster. If both teams had run their bests, it would be Summit 36, Palmer 48. Palmer alone at its bests would have scored 45, one point behind Summit’s actual 44. The win depended on Hanks’s down day, while the girls’ win did not depend on anyone else.

The file below has all the statistics!

Warrior Lincoln - 2026

In "Dual Meet" scoring, the girls improved to 431 wins to 14 losses. The boys improved their "Dual Meet" record to 422 wins and 25 losses. (All of those losses came when we were missing at least one of our top runners. The boys are undefeated when running the full top 7.)

WHEN: Friday, 9 October 2026

WHERE: Lincoln Park Golf Course, Grand Junction

WHAT: Super flat and fast (still)

TRANSPORTATION: 3 hour drive. Bus departure time from SHS is 12:15 p.m.

RACE TIMES:

4:00pm - Course Preview
4:15pm - Middle School/Open Boys & Girls 3K
4:45pm - Girls Open/JV
5:30pm - Boys Open/JV
6:00pm - High School Girls Championship (8 runners per team)
6:40pm - High School Boys Championship (8 runners per team)
7:15pm - Awards Ceremony at Lincoln Park Golf Course Area

Teams will not be allowed on the golf course until 4:00pm!!!

Team Tent Area will open at 3:30pm for set-up

PLEASE STAY OFF GREENS & TEE BOXES AT ALL TIMES!!!

Top 15 overall individual awards in Championship Races / Top 5 in Open/JV Races

Box Numbers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TOi5WSkxqreJfmfxG-UbnqjUD91wkXKTsapIQ1oWXxc/edit?tab=t.0

We are box 26 for boys and 6 for girls

Parking - There are two football games at Stocker Stadium on Friday (4pm & 8pm). Parking in the stadium and golf course parking lots will be very limited or full. Please instruct parents and bus drivers to park along Gunnison Street and the neighborhoods to the south of Gunnison Street and plan a little extra time to walk to the course.

New Course in 2026

It no longer has the loop that goes near the clubhouse, around holes 9 and 10. Thus, I believe it will be more on cart path, less on grass, than before. I think this might push it over to being better with supershoes than spikes.

Course Map Link: (Updated Course for 2026)

Photos

Please upload your photos to the Warrior Lincoln Park folder on the Google Drive.

Virtual Meet Predictions

2025 Race Recap

Incredible! There was something in the air, besides cool rain, Friday afternoon and evening at Central Grand Junction High School. Let's just say it took me a long time to update the SHS records. Every single runner ran a new Personal Best!! (See the new overall and grade level records, and personal bests, below.)

My initial, rash and fortunately reconsidered thought upon receiving the news that the race location, due to the most rain in Grand Junction in 50 years, was moving from the golf course to the high school was to cancel. The course description the Central Grand Junction coach sent me had me envisioning running multiple laps around the school parking lot. I'm not above rethinking hasty reactions. After some thought, and team members saying they still wanted to go, we decided to make the 3 hour drive west to the flat and low altitude course around Central Grand Junction high school. It was MOST DEFINITELY worth the trip!

The boys ran to another very strong win. Arguably our top performance of the year. In a varsity race with 28 teams and 213 finishers, our 8th runner placed 23rd! Yes, that means our 8th runner finished before the 1st runner from a lot of teams. 16 to be precise. Our 8th runner was ahead of the 3rd runner from every team and the second runner from all but two!

The girls had a strong race that sets up thrilling Regional and State Championships. In my view, the Cheyenne Mountain girls were second strongest in 4A, just behind (a seemingly weakening?) Timnath. I viewed Battle Mountain as a "sleeper" challenger for the State title and ranked them much higher in the coaches poll than other coaches. That inclination turned prescient enough, as Summit placed one point behind Battle Mountain (and two behind 5A Durango) and well ahead of Cheyenne Mountain. Cheyenne Mountain was missing one girl with illness, but her presence would not have closed the gap.

I’m confident the girls have the ability to beat Battle Mountain at Region, and then hopefully at State. Our initial start was pretty good, but when the course narrowed about 100 meters in, our position on the far right was disadvantageous and we got stuck behind runners, unable to pass on the congested sidewalk. I have a photo from about 400 meters into the course and there isn’t a single Summit girl besides Kayla in the top 35. That clearly cost several seconds at that point, and likely several more later. The field didn’t spread out for a couple Ks, hindering moving up. Once there was room to move, the girls moved up, with the top 5 ultimately all in the top 20.

We will work on getting out to a more aggressive start, and it won't be as crucial on the Region course, anyway, as the course is wide for 400 meters.

Individually, Kayla ran with wonderful "sure, why not, I'll lead" confidence for the first half or so of the race. At one point she fell back to 3rd, before passing two-time 3A State Champion (1600 and 3200) Effie Fletcher from Coal Ridge for second place, breaking 17 minutes. That's hugely significant for a freshman. Behind Kayla, as mentioned, Sophie, Leah, Lily and Milla were running as a pack to overcome their slow start. They moved up 20 some places in the second half of the race and finished separated by just one girl, Battle Mountain's Ruth Demino. Placing ahead of Ruth at Region and State, which is not just possible but highly likely, will make a huge impact on the team score. Behind those four, Lucy, Lucia and Ashley, who started even further back, also moved up significantly. Those three have the potential to displace other runners at Region, further helping our score.

The boys race wasn't so complicated. Basically, the boys got off to a great start, ran hard for 5000 meters in the cool rain and either held their positions or moved up. Placing all 8 runners in the top 23 of a 28 team race is simply stunning. Your hard training this summer and season, along with great pack running, determination and confidence are producing team running that is amongst the best in the entire nation. It was incredibly thrilling to be cheering 500 meters from the finish and seeing the first two digits on my stopwatch reading 12!! Everyone ran fantastically.

For a day, Jay had the fastest time in the nation this year! (Jackson Spencer from Herriman, Utah, who we will see again at NXR, ran a second faster the next day at sea level in California.) Jay now has the fastest high school time on Colorado soil - EVER!!

Lukas kept pace with Jay, Dylan Blair from Eagle Valley and Noah Thompson from Lewis-Palmer well into the second of the 2.5 laps. Well within sight, despite the setting sun and street lamps illuminating, Carter, Owen, Johnny and Crosby were running as a close pack, with the order of those 4 shuffling a bit over the course of the 5 kilometers. John and Cain were a bit behind them early but moved up many places in the second half with strong steady pacing.

It wasn't just the varsity racing that was impressive. Paige ran aggressively in the girls JV, leading for 2000 meters before ultimately placing 3rd. All the JV girls ran new season bests by over a minute, with Arlie over 3 minutes faster! The boys JV race was thrilling, with Cooper, Levi and Bodhi sweeping the top 3 spots. Cooper and Levi took turns leading well off the front from the gun. Bodhi was quite a ways back initially, certainly not in the top 10, but steadily and confidently moved his way up to the 3rd spot. Its wonderful to see determined racing like that. Bodhi made a strong case for Tenacious Tiger, as did Otis. Otis started near the back of the JV boys, but raced with grit that I've rarely seen in a freshman, especially a freshman that just started running. He ran all the way up to 41st place, well into the top half of the field. I was deeply impressed. Together with Thomas, who also raced with great intent, those five placed second as a team in the JV race. And it was only those 5 as that is all we had in the JV race. We are still a small team, and were missing a few boys. Those 5 boys placed second against much larger teams.

For those keeping track, dual meet scoring now gives the boys a record of 310 wins to 2 losses. The girls are now 230 wins to 34 losses.

Full results

Summit Daily Article: Summit High athlete sets Colorado statewide record for 5K race time as Tigers roll to podium finishes. All 27 of Summit’s athletes set personal bests at the meet.

Vail Daily Article: Eagle Valley runner blasts fastest 5K prep time in Eagle County history. Dylan Blair ran 14:28 at the Warrior Classic last Friday while the Battle Mountain girls took down the No. 2 team in the state

Overall and Class Records, and Personal Bests

27 Summit Runners. 27 New Summit Personal Bests. 'Nuff said!

Okay, a bit more... Most of these are improvements on Liberty Bell times. I.e., already very fast times on a very fast course. And 9 of the girls and 4 of the boys ran more than a minute faster than they ever have!

The Summit Cross Country overall and class records were vastly rewritten. Too much to cover everything, so take a look at them for girls and boys.

A few highlights:

The boys rank as the top 2, 5 of the top 7, 8 of the top 11 and 10 of the top 16 Summit boys ever! Imagine Liam Meirow, 2013 State Champion and sub-4 minute miler now being just the 8th fastest Summit High School boy!!
The girls are the 2nd, 8th and 8 of the top 15 Summit girls ever!!
Crosby is now the second fastest Freshman ever (behind Jay's time by 2 seconds!)
Cooper moved up from 18th to 4th fastest Sophomore. Levi advanced from 13th to 7th.
5 boys rank in the top 7 Juniors ever, with just Josh Shriver and Dom Remeikis breaking up the sweep.
Carter and Cain are now the 3rd and 5th fastest Seniors.
Kayla, Leah, Lucy and Lucia are the 1st, 3rd, 6th and 8th fastest freshmen girls ever. Kayla was already the fastest, Leah moved up from 8th to 3rd, Lucy from 17th to 6th, Lucia from 26th to 8th and Maeve from 44th to 30th.
Sophie is the 3rd fastest Sophomore and Paige moves up from 18th to 8th.
Lily, Milla and Ashley are the 2nd, 3rd and 5th fastest Juniors ever.
Lila moved up 5 positions to 18th Senior.