2022 Season Review

1. PRs - All of our varsity runners PR’d this season! A few highlights, a 31-second PR for Dom, 35 seconds for Josh, 53 seconds for Zach, 3:09 for Kai. 62 seconds for Ella, 42 seconds for Adaline, 40 seconds for Cece, 1:31 for Avery!

2. Course Records - Ella set new course records at Rifle and the Regional at Lincoln Park Golf Course.

3. School Records - Two new school records!! Dom ran a new school record of 15:09, lowering the previous record set by State Champion Liam Meirow in 2013 of 15:29. Ella ran 16:45, lowering the school record of 17:25 set by 2004 State Champion Whitney Anderson. 5 of the top 8 boys SHS times ever run were by this group - Dom, Josh, Will, Zach and Landon. Two Freshmen, Carter and Cain, are in the top 25. In addition to Ella’s school record, Lauren has the 6th fastest girls time. Adaline and Cece are in the top 20, Avery 23rd and Paige 26th.

4. Wins, Team and Individual -  The girls won the Rifle meet. It was our first win in several years I believe. Note: We enter very competitive meets. There are a lot of meets we could have won, but we prefer to challenge our team with stronger competition. Ella won 5 meets, including Battle Mountain, Pat Amato and Rifle. Dom just missed on winning CMS. Josh was second at Rifle despite running tempo the first two miles to help Carter and Cain learn to pace.

5. Freshman - Our improved performance was buoyed significantly by our strong Freshman. Lauren was consistently our number two runner placing very well - a low stick in XC parlance. Darby and Claire, and Carter and Cain, frequently placed between 5 and 7th, providing much needed depth and setting a baseline for even bigger roles in coming years.

6. Copper Mountain Cup 

   1. More than doubled numbers

   2. Thanks to parents for help with concessions, timing, lead bike and course marshaling

7. Regionals - The highlight of the year. Both teams placing second, to very strong Battle Mountain teams. The boys tying and missing out on the tie breaker by 1 place. This goes to show the importance of every single runner on the team. If just one runner had placed 5 positions back, we would have been 4th, not 2nd.

8. State Records

   1. Overall - Dom ran the fastest SHS time ever at State, his 16:18 being 9 seconds faster than Liam’s time in 2013. Ella has the second fastest SHS time at State, 23 seconds slower than Whitney Anderson’s 17:25 in 2004, although that was on a 3.0 mile course. Ella has two more years to beat it outright.

   2. Josh, Will and Landon ran the 9th, 10th and 11th fastest SHS times at State.  Lauren the 10th fastest girls time. 

9. State Championship - Fantastic! 6th place girls and 10th place boys. Boys a bit hobbled by injury and illness. The teams we tied or beat at Regionals placed 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Ella is our third State Champion!

Looking Forward

1. NXR - 8 girls and 4 boys going. Awesome! 

2. Initiatives for improvement

   1. Switch Out the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede for a different race for the sake of variety. I'd like to do one new race every year.

   2. Have one weekend off (Homecoming? Dave Sanders?)

   3. Desert Twilight - It will probably be the same weekend next year - September 30th. So we will discourage Desert Twilight next season and focus on NXR as our out of State team trip.

3. Middle Schoolers - A great program with strong 8th graders this year - girls and boys.

4. Summer Training - Will start mid June. Probably June 19th.

5. Summer Camp - Mid July. Possibly the 17th to 23rd. Possibly at Snow Mountain Ranch. A lot of miles and also a lot of fun.

6. Winter Training - We will take two weeks off of structured training after NXR. SDP training will begin on 5 December. M/W/F and some Saturdays.

7. Track - Begins 27 February. Less than 4 months away!

8. Goals for 2023

   1. Young team

      1. Just two seniors next year - recruit!!

      2. Solid Junior Class

      3. Small but mighty Sophomore class

      4. Promising incoming Freshman

      5. Again - Recruit - Pizza for Recruits

   2. Win Regions

   3. Place top 5, both teams, at State

   4. Team Goals 

      1. Gradually grow a larger team. You never know who may develop into a champion runner.

      2. Get the teams into the Championship race at NXR. Will require placing top 5 at State, and that will require commitment.

1. Freshmen - 3 Freshman Girls in top 22. Lauren at #2 in 18:48 at Liberty Bell, Darby at #13 and Claire at #22. Carter and Cain crossed the line together at Regionals. Their 17:43 is the 5th and 6th fastest freshman times. Gavin isn’t far behind in 13th. It will be fun to watch this freshmen group over the next 3 seasons. They will improve dramatically and be huge contributors in coming seasons.

2. Sophomores - 3 Sophomore girls in the top 9. Ella at #1 with her 16:45 school record, Avery and Cece at #8 and #9. They ran within seconds of each other all year. Josh and Will now have the 1st and 3rd fastest Sophomore boys times, bracketing Dom’s Soph effort.

3. Juniors - Our lone Junior girl, Adaline, ran the 9th fastest SHS Junior time ever with a great performance at Regionals. Our lone 11th grade Boy, Roan, set the 16th fastest Junior time.

4. Seniors - Paige ran the 9th fastest Senior time with her outstanding Regional Race. Dom’s school record is the fastest senior time and Zach and Landon set the 5th and 6th fastest Senior times and the 7th and 8th fastest overall SHS times. We will miss this group greatly. They have been the mainstays the last 3 years.