2023 Results

As expected, we had a lot of great races and a lot of PRs, that produced excellent team results. The girls varsity placed 2nd out of 25 teams and was the first 4A team. The girls junior varsity placed 7th of 16 complete teams. I am positive that is the highest our JV girls have ever placed in a meet of this caliber. That speaks volumes of the improving depth of the team and is something to be very proud of.

The boys, with just five boys total racing at this meet, placed an excellent 10th our of 27 teams and were the 4th 4A team. This compares to last year, where with nine boys racing they placed 9th of 26. The boys varsity was missing 3 of the normal top 5 and 4 of the top 7. It was a very young team, with four freshmen boys filling the ranks. The freshmen boys stepped in superbly, leading to a 4th place 4A finish.

Details are in the tables below.

New Personal Records - 

11 of the 13 girls set new season's bests or personal records, with Ashley being just 2 seconds away from a personal record. The course was very congested for the first two miles. With unimpeded running, I'm sure many would have been even faster. Adaline had the biggest season's best of the day, a massive 1:07 faster than Liberty Bell. There were 3 more double digit improvements over Liberty Bell. Lila improved by 33 seconds, going under 24 minutes for the first time at 23:42. Lily improved by 24 seconds to go under 20 minutes for the first time in her career, at 19:58. Cece improved 18 seconds, almost going under 21 minutes at 21:03. Cora didn't race at Liberty Bell, but had an incredible 3:53 second improvement over her previous fastest time which was run at Eagle Valley. That put Cora under 24 minutes for the first time ever.

3 of the 5 boys set new personal records. Leading the way was John with a huge 1:02 improvement and new PR of 18:24. Owen improved his fastest time by 33 seconds, down to 18:18 and Lukas knocked off 3 seconds to go sub 17:30 at 17:28.

Compared to Last Year - 

The course seemed to run a bit slower than last year, with only one of our returning six runners recording a new course personal best. Perhaps the slower times were partly attributable to slightly warmer temps when the sun came out, perhaps the course congestion, with a much larger field than last year, and perhaps the course was simply marked a bit longer. 

The one course personal best was a huge one, with Avery running 1:03 faster than last year, continuing the improvement trajectory that really took off last spring during track.

Top Places - 

Ella earned her fourth win of the year. She was pushed by Elena Torres of Loveland and Kiki Vaughn of Boulder. Lindsey ran to an excellent 4th and Avery to 18th. Lily and Ashley were the second best 4th and 5th place runners of the entire meet, behind strong 5A team Chaparral's 4th and 5th, with Ashley ending our scoring at 35 points. Adaline ran to 7th place in the JV race.

Josh was with the lead pack through the first mile. The fast pace combined with the effects of a lingering cold took their toll and he fell off the pace in the second mile before stabilizing in the third. Jay placed an outstanding 7th and all five boys scored under 100 points, with John dipping under at 99.

All Time Top SHS performances at Pat Amato - 

We really rewrote our Pat Amato top times lists (see below). The girls put 5 new times in the top 10. That's quite remarkable considering this was our fifth time at this meet. Ella now has the top three times, followed by four girls entering the top 10! Lindsey at #4, Avery at #7, Lily at #8 and Ashley at #10.

Jay went straight to the top of the SHS performances at Pat Amato, with his 15:50 ten seconds faster than Dom's 16:00 from last year. Josh, despite an off race, put another time in the top ten and now has three of the top ten times. The other freshmen boys all now are in the top 23.

Note: Milla went down hard in the first half mile due to the extreme congestion and was kicked hard in the head. She headed to the medical tent. This was a great disappointment for all of us, as we are sure she would have set some new marks as well. Fortunately her injuries aren't too severe and she should be back for Rifle.

Conclusion - 

Both the boys and girls look to be on track to possibly our best placements at State ever. Several of our Region rivals (Battle Mountain, Eagle Valley, Central Grand Junction, Grand Junction) raced at the very short Warrior Lincoln Park race. That race wasn't even a full 3 miles, much less 5k. Their team rankings are thus now greatly artificially inflated. 

The uncorrected rankings put the SHS boys at 9th in State 4A and 3rd in Region 1. I am optimistic that with our improvement curve and if everyone is healthy, we can place 2nd at the Regional Championship (and give Eagle Valley a real fight for first) and top 6 at State.

The girls are currently ranked 2nd in the Region at 4 points behind Battle Mountain, 52 to 56. The girls are ranked 4th in the State, with Durango (who also raced at WLP) in 2nd and Battle Mountain 3rd. The second through fifth ranked teams are incredibly close, with Durango at 200, Battle Mountain at 206, Summit at 210 and Northfield at 214. I believe Northfield is actually our strongest competition of those.

Those rankings are with Lindsey being able to run for us at Regionals and State, which we hope will be the case. With Lindsey, I believe our girls will win Regionals and have a strong shot at second in State. Without Lindsey, we may still be able to win the Region, but would have to consider top 6 a good result at State.

Top SHS Times at the Pat Amato Classic. 

SHS first competed in the Pat Amato Classic in 2018.

View and Upload more photos here.

Virtual Meet Prognostications

Based on PBs from this season. Full virtual meet results here.

Girls Virtual Meet

Boys Virtual Meet

Course Map

2022 Race Review

Normally I highlight a few standout performances. That is difficult today as everyone raced extremely well. How well? Normally, new PRs are set at Liberty Bell, and that's it for the season until Desert Twilight or Nike. This year 13 SHS runners set PRs at Pat Amato - all but 5 of our racers! True, it was ideal racing conditions, but it was at Liberty Bell, too. So all those PRs mean big improvements on the season through fitness gains gained by training hard. It should be noted that the 5 who didn't set PRs are our fastest runners, who laid down outstanding times at Liberty Bell and for whom continued improvements are harder to come by.

Dom was our leader on the boys side, finishing 7th overall. Josh was second, despite fighting a severely sore throat, and improved the most year to year - a big 39 seconds. Landon raced a strong race to finish third for us. Then the PRs started. Carter, Cain, Roan, Gavin, Jens and Memphis all PR'd. Jens ran 31 seconds faster than at Liberty Bell and Cain 22 seconds. 

Of immense importance, our team average (top 5) improved by a huge 1:01 from 18:11 last year to 17:10 this year. The top 7 average improved by an even bigger 1:48. That is a tremendous improvement year to year and especially shows that our crucial 4 and 5 are stronger this year - as well as our 6 and 7 for depth and back up. The boys placed 9th of 26 scoring teams (and 41 entered teams) and were the second 4A team, with just regional rival Eagle Valley placing ahead of us. (And it should be noted, as you can see from the results, that Zach and Will didn't race.)

Ella led the way for the girls, winning in 17:06, just 10 seconds off Riley Stewart's course record set last year. Lauren made it two SHS girls in the top 10 with a 7th place finish. Our 3, 4, 5 of Adaline, Cece and Avery ran extremely well, packing it up nicely and finishing within 10 seconds of each other. Darby and Paige were a strong 6 and 7, providing that depth that can be crucial at Regionals and State.

Ella and Lauren ran close to their Liberty Bell PRs, and everyone else tied (with Pat Amato not being as fast a course as Liberty Bell, that's a PR in my book) or broke their PRs! Chloe broke her PR by the most, running over a minute faster than at Liberty Bell. Claire was next with a 34 second PR, followed by Darby with a 28 second PR. All four girls who repeated from 2021 ran faster - at least 35 seconds faster, with Avery having a huge 1:26 improvement. Compared to the nominally harder St. Vrain course, every single SHS ran faster.

The girls top 5 averaged 19:40, a huge 1:28 improvement, on average, over last year. And the top 7 had an even bigger 1:46 improvement. With the 4 returners all improving, and the addition of Lauren to our top 5, we are a much stronger team than last year. The girls finished 6th of 22 scoring teams (and 42 entered teams) and were the first 4A team.

I'll be running some numbers and checking the results of other races (the Warrior Lincoln Park race in Grand Junction) to update our regional chances. I'm increasingly confident, given good races, of the girls qualifying for State. I think the boys will as well, but given the strength of the boys in our region (4 of the top 11 [out of 66 4A teams] in the latest Coaches Poll are in our region) there is less leeway.

Check all the 2022 times that are at the top of the SHS performances at Pat Amato.

Summit Daily Article

Summit cross-country team betters personal bests, notches top finishes at Pat Amato Classic in Northglenn

Team Scores

Top Individuals

New PRs!

Photos

All kinds of photos are here!

WHEN:  Friday, 8 October 2021

WHERE:  Northwest Open Space, Northglenn, CO

TRANSPORTATION: Release from class - 10:15, Depart - 10:30. 90 minute drive time. Estimated Return - 6:30

OUR RACE TIMES:

1:30 Boys JV/Open

Liam

Jens

Gavin

Donovan

Memphis

2:00 Girls JV/Open

Chloe

Claire

2:30 Boys Varsity

Dom

Landon

Josh

Carter

Cain

Bryce

Roan

3:00 Girls Varsity

Adaline

Avery

Ella

Darby

Lauren

Cece

Paige

3:30 Awards

We are in Box 7 for all races.

Teams Attending

Top Entries

2021 SHS Results at the Pat Amato Classic. 

10/10/21: Summit runners set meet records at Pat Amato Classic

2021 Pat Amato Photos