2023 RESULTS

Liberty Bell was exciting as always, and our performances, especially the team performance, was outstanding!

The girls placed 10th in the Sweepstakes and were the first 4A team! That compares to 16th last year. Niwot looks to have a lock on first place, and Battle Mountain, Northfield, Discovery Canyon and Lewis-Palmer look strong. We look to have a real good shot at top 6 at State.

The boys placed 16th in the Sweepstakes and were the fourth 4A team! Last year the boys were 4th in Division 1. (Would have been first if Dom's time from the Sweepstakes were included.) The three 4A teams ahead of the boys - Coronado, Cheyenne Mountain and Eagle Valley are three of the top 4A teams in the State. Niwot, Battle Mountain and possibly Thompson Valley appear to be in the mix - meaning the boys look to have the potential of placing top 7 a State.

The conditions this year were more difficult than the ideal conditions last year. I wager they cost on average about 20 seconds in slower times due to the higher temps and dry, loose gravel. Despite this we had great team improvements.

The average time of the top 5 girls improved by 26 seconds, dropping from 19:36 to 19:10. That is a substantial improvement.

The boys dropped their scoring 5 average time 15 seconds, from 16:34 to 16:19. The 1-5 splits for both the boys and girls was reduced - which is fantastic - based on the stronger performance of the crucial 4 and 5 runners.

That is the third year in a row both the boys and girls improved their average time! Those strong team performances were based on a lot of great individual races. The details can be perused in the tables below. I'll hit a few highlights here.

Everybody improved substantially from Battle Mountain, of course. I like running a difficult course like Battle Mountain before Liberty Bell to build strength and mental toughness. Liberty Bell then feels fast and quick in comparison. 

Jens had the biggest improvement on the boys side, a huge 4:11. Lila and Josie improved by 4:57 and 4:36 respectively!

All of our returning top 5 boys ran faster than last year, which is fantastic, especially given the aforementioned tougher conditions. Josh improved a big 51 seconds, Cain a minute even, Carter 40 seconds, Gavin 46 seconds and Jens a huge 1:47. These 5 boys all also PR'd (set a new personal best time) improving upon their fastest time from last year, which was the fast course at Grand Junction Regionals for most of them. Will joined this club, having not run at Liberty Bell last year but besting his Grand Junction time.

Ella, Cece and Claire were close to last year's times, with just Avery improving - a huge 57 seconds. This moved Avery up to a solid #3 for the girls. She was followed by excellent freshman performances by Ashley and Lily. Avery also beat her time from Grand Junction for a new PR.

These times made some major alterations to our top Liberty Bell and overall school records. The new top Liberty Bell times are below, and the all time records are in the Records tab.

Liberty Bell Highlights include:

• Josh moving into the #2 spot, just 10 seconds behind Dom's time from last year, with his tremendous 12th place finish.

• Jay earned the #3 spot, and fastest time by a SHS freshman, with his 24th place finish. Jay was the second freshman at Liberty Bell.

• Will achieved the fifth fastest time, and fourth fastest individual with his 16:04 inaugural effort at Liberty Bell.

• Our top 6 boys - Josh, Jay, Will, Carter, Cain, Lukas and Gavin - ran within the fastest 26 SHS times ever at Liberty Bell.

• Ella placed second overall (currently the third fastest time in the nation) again, this time to 3A State Champion and 12th place finisher at NXN, Isabel Allori. Although 9 seconds slower than last year, this can be considered a better race given the slower conditions. Ella is the only girl to ever run under 17:00 twice at Liberty Bell.

• Lindsey is now the second fastest SHS runner ever at Liberty Bell!

• Avery, Ashley and Lily ran the 8th, 9th and 10th fastest SHS times ever at Liberty Bell.

• The top 5 girls are all in the top 10 SHS runners at Liberty Bell. The top 3 boys are in the top 4 SHS ever.

Overall and class record highlights:

• Josh now has the second fastest SHS XC time ever. Faster than 2023 State Champion Liam Meirow. That is also the fastest time ever by a SHS Junior.

• Jay is now the fourth fastest SHS XC runner ever, just two seconds slower than Liam. He is now the fastest freshman by 39 seconds!

• Will's new PR puts him at 7th all time and 4th junior.

• Carter moved up 7 positions to 16th all-time and is currently the 8th fastest sophomore.

• Cain slots in right behind Carter at 20th all-time and 9th sophomore. Gavin is close behind at 31st and 11th Sophomore.

• Lukas is another freshman high on the board, at 22nd all time and 6th freshman. 

• Owen cracks the top 50 all time and 17th freshman.

• Ella now has the fastest junior time by almost 2 minutes.

• Lindsey is now the fourth fastest SHS runner ever and has the third fastest senior time, with second well in reach.

• Avery jumped all the way from 23rd to 12th ever and is now the sixth fastest junior.

• Ashley and Lily made a splash at 20th and 22nd on the all time list and 9th and 12th freshmen.

Top SHS Times at Liberty Bell

SHS first competed at Liberty Bell in 2018.

WHEN:  Saturday, 9 September 2023, 8:30 a.m. start

WHERE:  Heritage High School, 1401 W Geddes Ave, Littleton, CO US 80120

The course is flat, net downhill and fast!. ~ 50% asphalt on residential streets, 50% crushed limestone smooth bike path on the High Line canal. 

Course Elevation Profile:

Elevation Gain - 72 ft

Elevation Loss - 128 ft

Minimum Elevation - 5,434 ft

Maximum Elevation - 5,521 ft

TRANSPORTATION: Bus departure time is 6:10 a.m. Show time is 6:00 a.m. Drive time Saturday morning is 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 40 min.

Estimated return is 3:00 p.m.

LIVE VIDEO: MileSplit will livestream video of the finish line here.

OUR RACE TIMES:

Varsity runners, pending practice attendance and performance, will be as below.

Division Placement

We are in the Sweepstakes! Boys and Girls!

4A Region 1 schools in green, other 4A schools in yellow.

TOP SEEDS

By PR times listed in MileSplit

Map to Heritage High School

Course Map

Course Profile

2022 Race Review

Wow! Where do we begin? I suppose with the two new school records! At SHS, we aren't satisfied with a new school record, we set two on the same day!

Dom ran 15:09 and improved his best time, set last year at the Garmin Running Lane National Championship by 26 seconds. His 15:09 school record is 38 seconds faster than he ran at Liberty Bell last year and bests Liam Meirow's previous school record set in 2013 by 20 seconds. Of note, Liam went on to win the State Championship that year! Dom's time is also in the top 25 ever run at Liberty Bell, #8 in the State and #1 in 4A!

Ella ran 16:46, 1:29 faster than last year! That lowered the school record of 17:25 set by Whitney Anderson in 2004 when she won the State Championship by 39 seconds! It was an improvement of 61 seconds on her PR set last year at Desert Twilight. It is the 4th fastest time ever run at Liberty Bell. Her time puts her at not just #2 in the State and #1 in 4A, but also #2 in the nation!

More important, from an overall aspect, was the outstanding team performance.

EVERYONE improved on their Cheyenne Mountain times, setting new Season Bests. Some of the biggest improvements:

• Chloe improved by 4:47

• Niamh improved by 2:30

• Claire improved by 2:18

• Darby improved by 2:15

• Cece improved by 1:44

• Avery improved by 1:40

• Paige improved by 1:33

• Lauren improved by 1:17

• Ella improved by 1:08

• Adaline improved by 0:56

• Jens improved by 4:13

• Memphis improved by 3:03

• Gavin improved by 2:29

• Carter improved by 1:53

• Donovan improved by 1:44

• Cain improved by 1:38

• Zach improved by 1:18

• Lando improved by 1:17

• Josh improved by 0:54

EVERYONE ran faster than last year at Liberty Bell, including:

• Ella improved by 1:30

• Avery improved by 1:20

• Niamh improved by 1:18

• Kai improved by 3:23

• Bryce improved by 2:03

• Zach improved by 0:59

• Dom improved by 0:38

• Josh improved by 0:26

All but two set all time PRs! (Including out of state low elevation races.)

• Avery PR'd by 1:20

• Ella PR'd by 1:02

• Adaline PR'd by 0:29

• Niamh PR'd by 0:09

• Cece PR'd by 0:07

• Kai PR'd by 3:09

• Zach PR'd by 0:53

• Dom PR'd by 0:26

• Josh PR'd by 0:14

Results as of 4:00 pm on Sunday still aren't complete, so I have no times for Maisy and Claire.

The boys Top 5 average time improved by a big 0:37 compared to last year. That's an average improvement of 37 seconds per runner! Even more significantly, the Top 7 (important for team depth) improved by a bigger 1:19.

The girls Top 5 average time improved by a huge 1:09 and the Top 7 average time by 1:19!

Significantly, big improvements are happening in the all important 3rd through 5th positions, where faster times impact the team score more than improvements at 1st and 2nd. (See - the standard deviation bell curve and here.)

The girls were 16th of 22 teams in the Sweepstakes division but more importantly the first 4A team! Last year we were in Division 2, this year they skipped Division 1 and bumped the girls all the way to the Sweepstakes.

The boys were 4th of 23 teams in Division 1 and would have won if Dom's time (he ran in the Sweepstakes) were included! In fact, if we had run in the Sweepstakes we would have been very close to Eagle Valley for second 4A team. Our first 3 boys were faster than Eagle's first 3 and our 4th just one second behind their 4th. It was only at 5th that they were significantly ahead. We will have to wait for the mega-merge to see if we would have beaten Eagle Valley.

The boys ran 4 of the top 10 SHS times ever at Liberty Bell. The girls ran 5 of the top 9 and 9 of the top 20 SHS times at Liberty Bell.

Summit Daily Article: Summit’s Ella Hagen and Dom Remeikis shatter school records at Liberty Bell Invitational

MileSplit Article: Clawing To Victory At Liberty Bell

Twitter: U.S. #1 and #2!

Photos

Please add your own here.

Regional Competition 

The teams highlighted in yellow are in our 4A Region #1.

2021 Press Coverage

9/12/21: Summit freshman girl wins at Liberty Bell Invitational. Led by Remeikis’ personal record, Tigers boys take third place at competitive meet.

9/12/21: Blazing At The Liberty Bell Invitational

2021 Photos

More are here.