Race Review

This was a competitive race! It was good to mix it up with some top 5A teams we don't see that often, on a legit (read: harder, not road race) XC course. The girls were "only" 12th of 28 and the boys "only" 17th of 34, but take a look at some of the teams ahead of us:

For the boys there was, per the Coaches Poll released the day before: 5A #2 Mountain Vista, 4A #1 Niwot, 5A #9 Fairview (I think they will be moving up), 5A #5 Rock Canyon, 3A #1 The Classical Academy, 5A unranked (that might change) Erie, 5A #8 Denver East, 4A #3 Battle Mountain. The only 4A teams ahead of us were Niwot, Battle Mountain, Mead and Severance. Josh didn't race and Zach didn't, to protect his hip, race full out. Conservatively we could have lowered our score by 100 points or more. That would still put us a fair bit behind Mead, however.

For the girls, there was 4A #1 Niwot,  5A #5 Mountain Vista, 5A #6 Fossil Ridge, 5A unranked (they will be moving up) Fairview, 5A #8 Denver East, 4A #2 Battle Mountain, 3A #2 The Classical Academy. The only 4A teams ahead of us were Battle Mountain and Mead. The girls finished ahead of 4A #10 Silver Creek.

Both the boys and the girls placed ahead of a bunch of 5A and 4A teams.

Full race results on MileSplit.

Cody Jones' article in the Summit Daily: Summit cross-country rebounds after record breaking performances last weekend

MileSplit article: Downs Kicks Late, Allori Wins Battle: St. Vrain 4A/5A Recap

Colorado High School Sports article: St. Vrain, The 4A Story

Individually Jens had a big improvement of 2:50 over Cheyenne Mtn. Other boys with improvements over Cheyenne Mountain were Memphis, Gavin, Cain and Carter. Everyone was slower than Liberty Bell, of course, but Cain was only 41 seconds slower. That shows continued big improvement! He was the only boy under a minute slower, although Memphis was an even minute.

All but two girls were faster then Cheyenne Mtn, with Darby having the biggest improvement at 1:07. That also indicates great improvement, as I feel the Stampede course is slightly slower. Two other great races are hinted at by Adaline being within a minute of her Liberty Bell time at just 51 seconds over and Lauren close at just 1:02 over.

One great advantage of a race that records times and places at multiple spots on the course is that you can see how your position changed as the race progressed. Looking at the placings below, it is pretty easy to see who perhaps started too slow (they moved up markedly as the race progressed) or too fast (they moved back as the race progressed). Those that started too slow may need to gain more confidence and take more risk. Those that started too fast may need to improve their fitness (train more and harder) or mental toughness. 

Those that held a consistent place shouldn't necessarily take heart!! Holding a placing doesn't necessarily mean you raced well. It may mean you raced comfortably and were able to hold your place with relative ease. It doesn't necessarily mean you fully challenged yourself, raced to your near potential and embraced racing at that necessarily "uncomfortable" effort to achieve your best. Examine your splits and contemplate. Be honest with yourself. Did you push yourself to your limits by racing uncomfortably hard, or did you race short of your potential comfortably?

I purposely chose to run the much harder and very competitive (loads of strong 5A teams) St. Vrain race a week after Liberty Bell to regain a sense of how hard "real" cross country is and remind everyone that we need to continue to train hard to do well at Regionals and get to State.

You did great and I think you appreciate that success in cross country doesn't come easy. While "only" 12th and 17th place today, both teams were in the top few 4A teams. We are on a good path to improvement. With continued hard work and a week or two off from racing for our more senior runners (the Freshman stand to benefit more from extra race experience), you will continue to get stronger.

Top SHS times at St. Vrain

Since 2022 was the first time we competed in the St Vrain Invite, the top times are identical to the 2022 SHS race times - until next year!

WHEN:  Saturday, 17 September 2022

WHERE:  Lyons High School, 100 McConnell Drive, Lyons, CO 80540

TRANSPORTATION: 5:45 show time, 6:00 departure. ~ 2 hour drive. Estimated return is 3:30 pm.

COURSE RECORDS:

High School Girls: Allie Chipman - Mountain Vista (2015) 17:55

High School Boys: Cerake Geberkidane - Denver East (2013) 15:15, Paul Roberts - Lyons (2014) 15:15

SCHEDULE:

8:25 - HS Girls Varsity 2A/3A - Run Unlimited, Score 4

9:00 - HS Boys Varsity 2A/3A - Run Unlimited, Score 4

9:30 - HS Girls Varsity 4A/5A - Run 10 Score 5

10:00 - 2A/3A Varsity Awards @ East Grandstand

10:05 - HS Boys Varsity 4A/5A - Run 10, score 5

10:30 - HS Girls JV

11:05 - HS Boys JV

11:35 - 4A/5A Varsity Awards @ East Grandstand

SHS RUNNERS:

Girls Varsity

1 Ella Hagen 10

2 Lauren McCalla 9

3 Adaline Avery 11

4 Avery Eytel 10

5 Cecelia Miner 10

6 Paige Wescott 12

7 Darby Leffler 9

8 Claire Jackson 9

9 Niamh Nelson 10

10 Logan Reid 12

Girls JV

1 Chloe Davis 12

2 Maisy Cook 12

Boys Varsity

1 Dominykas Remeikis 12

2 Joshua Shriver 10

3 Zach McBride 12

4 Landon Cunningham 12

5 Carter Niemkiewicz 9

6 Cain Steinweg 9

7 Gavin Benedict 9

8 Roan Varbel 11

9 Memphis Thwaites 12

10 Jens Phaf 10

Boys JV

1 Bryce Oppito 10

2 Donovan Ramey 9

3 Liam Dalzell 12

SHS RECORDS:

This will be our first time racing in the St. Vrain Invitational, so we will be setting our first set of records!

DOGS:

Please note - the race organizers sent a message, in bold, that NO DOGS ARE ALLOWED ON LYONS HIGH SCHOOL PROPERTY!

Teams Attending

St. Vrain is a very competitive meet with many schools (Niwot!) that we don't often race against. Battle Mountain is the only other team from our region.

Virtual Meet

This are screenshots of the top runners. Go to MileSplit to see the complete Virtual Meet. Not everyone shown is entered or will race.

Course Map AND PARKING

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1VTwZjYifoKUOLutJ31Qaffd0tDTZcciE&usp=sharing

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Not all times, including ours, are updated.

Click below for directions to Lyons High School