Central Grand Junction

Friday, 10 October 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.