2024 Regionals

The 2024 Regional Championship (and State Championship qualifier) will be hosted by Conifer High School at the North Area Athletic Complex (NAAC) just north of Golden.

Blue is first mile, green is third.  Where it turns from red to green, there is a pretty significant hill. I'll scout the course as soon as I can. From a satellite imagery reconaissance, it looks to be mostly dirt.

2023 Results

You raced great and we are very proud of you. Both teams were ranked third going into the competition, but I thought both had a very good shot at placing second. The boys raced great and earned that second place finish, beating Battle Mountain for the first time - of what is going to be many times now. The girls did just as well and almost beat Battle Mountain as well, finishing just four points behind. Conifer was a bit of a surprise, getting the victory. That was almost entirely due to their fifth runner racing superbly and finishing about 20 positions higher than projections. That just goes to reinforce what I say a lot - the fifth runner is often the most important one on the team.

For bragging rights, the boys can say they finished higher, but the girls can say they were closer (just 8 points!) to first place.

Looking to next year, we have a lot to be excited about. Based on returning runners, both the boys and girls are forecast to win Regions next year! Of course, that comes with the standard caveat that the crystal ball doesn't see incoming freshmen, transfers, injuries and who works the hardest next summer. The boys will be challenged by Eagle Valley and the girls by Conifer. Long time dominant Battle Mountain graduates their top 6 boys and top 3 and 5th girls, with a pipeline that doesn't look nearly as strong as ours.

The Conifer girls only graduate 1, so will definitely be a challenge next year. The Eagle Valley boys graduate 3, but have a lot of depth so will be very competitive again next year.

Still, next year is a great opportunity to not just sweep Regions, but place very high at State. If and only if we work hard in the summer and fall.

Looking deeper into the Regional results, the Summit boys had the first 2 Juniors (Josh and Will), 5th & 11th Sophomores (Carter and Gavin) - and Cain would be about 7th, and the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Freshmen (Jay, Lukas, John and Owen)!!

The Summit girls had the 1st, 4th and normally ~8th Juniors (Ella, Avery and Cece), 16th and 20th Sophomores (Claire and Darby), and 1st, 4th and 7th Freshmen (Lily, Ashley and Milla)!!

7 new PRs were earned! Lily, Ashley, Milla, Carter, Lukas, John and Owen all ran new fastest times ever! 

Full results on MileSplit.

Summit Daily article: Summit cross-country team qualifies for state meet for 2nd year in a row

Vail Daily article: Eagle Valley boys cross-country team wins first region title in program history

CHSAA coverage: 

4A Region 1 Boys, GRAND JUNCTION - https://chsaanow.com/news/2023/10/19/boys-cross-country-regionals.aspx

Battle Mountain’s Will Brunner won a hard-fought race at the Boys 4A Region 1 Cross Country Championship at Lincoln Park Golf Club on Thursday, as he narrowly edged out Mullen’s Jacob Sushinsky (14:46 to 14:47) down the stretch. Brunner’s Battle Mountain teammate, Porter Middaugh (15:08), rounded out the top three individuals and helped the Huskies to a third-place team finish.

Summit High School and Eagle Valley High each had three racers place in the top 10. Summit’s Joshua Shriver (15:25, placing fourth), Jay McDonald (15:44, placing sixth), and Will Bentley (16:19, placing 10th) each earned top-10 placements, as Summit finished in second among the teams with 72 points. Eagle Valley’s Cooper Filmore (15:32, placing fifth), Armando Fuentes (15:56, placing seventh) and Tyler Blair (15:57, placing eighth) also finished among the 10 fastest racers, and powered Eagle Valley to a first-place team finish with 47 points.

Samuel Garmany, from Central Grand Junction High School, finished ninth among the individuals (16:14). Unfortunately, though, that wasn’t enough for the Warriors to finish in the top five, as Grand Junction (108 points) and Conifer (116 points) nabbed the fourth and fifth spots.

4A Region 1 Girls, GRAND JUNCTION - https://chsaanow.com/news/2023/10/19/girls-cross-country-regionals.aspx 

Summit’s Ella Hagen recorded an absolutely scorching time of 17:08 on her way to securing the Girls 4A Region 1 Cross Country Championship at Lincoln Park Golf Club on Thursday. Hagen was soon joined by two of her Summit teammates – Avery Eytel (19:36) and Lily Benbow (19:37) – who also earned top 10 finishes and helped Summit finish third among the teams.

Over a minute after Hagen crossed the finish line, second-place finisher Lindsey Whitton (18:28) secured the silver. Like Summit, Battle Mountain also had three racers finish in the top 10, as Addie Beuche (19:26, placing 6th) and Presley Smith (19:31, placing 7th) followed close behind.

The Huskies would only finish second (59) among the teams though, as the Conifer Lobos narrowly squeaked by them to win first, with 56 points. The Lobos were led by Kate Horneck (18:37) and Audrey VanWestrienen (18:43), who finished third and fourth, respectively.

The remaining top-10 individual finishers were Mullen’s Genevieve Hockin (19:04, placing 5th) and Eagle Valley’s Ellie Shroll (19:40, placing 10th). Meanwhile, Central Grand Junction (120 points) and Evergreen (135 points) rounded out the top five teams.

Updated Season Bests

Top Results

Photos

Lot's more here!

2023 4A Region 1 Championship

WHEN:  19 October 2023

WHERE:  Lincoln Park Golf Course, Grand Junction

TRANSPORTATION: Release from classes is at 9:15. Departure at 9:30. Drive time is 2:45. We will stop on the way for lunch.

Estimated return is 9:00 p.m.

RACE TIMES: (note, our race times were advanced by 15 minutes as of 2023/10/12.)

• 2:00 pm - Course Preview 

• 2:45 pm - Boys 4A Region 1 Championship Race 

• 3:15 pm - Girls 4A Region 1 Championship Race 

• 4:15 pm - Awards

• 5A Regional races at 4:15 and 4:45

SCORING:

Varsity - Run 9, Score 5, Displace 2

Top 4 Varsity Boys/Girls Teams advance to State.

Top 15 Varsity Boys/Girls Individuals advance to State.

Course Map

Study this well and start visualizing the race! Note where the 1 and 2 mile marks are. The middle part of the first mile is a dirt cart path. Almost all the rest is grass, most of it short fairway grass. The loop around the green at the top center is about halfway - and a good spot to sneak a peak at where your competitors are. The 1 mile mark on the far east is also about 800m from the finish on your second time through.

2023 Regional and State forecast

Girls Regionals Forecast

Girls STATE Forecast

Boys regional Forecast

Boys State Forecast

Adjusted forecasts

The projections below are revised to account for the very short and fast Warrior Lincoln Park course. I added approximately 30 seconds to the PR times of top runners who raced there. Those teams were Eagle Valley, Battle Mountain, Grand Junction, Central Grand Junction, Palisade, Steamboat Springs and Rifle. The girls scores are compiled without Lindsey, in case she is not allowed to compete for Summit.

2022 4A Region 1 Championship

Race Review

Wow, our team was amazing! That was inspired racing and so exciting to watch. We are all so proud of you. Everybody raced so hard and so well and did what you needed to do.

In case you haven't heard, not only did both teams qualify for State, but they both placed second, earning beautiful Regional runner up plaques for the SHS trophy case - on which all of your names will be engraved.

More results later, but quickly:

- 5 girls and 7 boys set new personal records!

- I told the team before the race that nobody had to be a hero - that if everybody ran B+ races we would qualify for State. In my book, everybody had A- races or better!

- While we didn't have to have heros, my nomination for hero of the day goes to Zach, who ran through immense pain to secure our second place finish.

- The boys placed second on the closest possible tie breaker. Battle Mountain and we both had 65 points, so the tie breaker went to the sixth place finisher for both teams. That was just a one place difference - 33 to 34. And even seventh place was a one position difference, with our 35 edging out their 36. It couldn't possibly have been closer.

- The boys competition amongst the top boys teams was amazingly close, with Battle Mountain and SHS at 65 points, Eagle Valley at 68 and Central Grand Junction at 70. No one can doubt now that 4A Region 1 is definitely the most competitive in the State.

- The girls also exceeded expectations, at least of some, by placing a healthy margin in front of Mullen - and much closer to Battle Mountain than I'm sure a lot expected. BM 35, SHS 65, Mullen 83.

- There is a very good chance that we could have two top 10 teams at State!

Press

State bound: Summit cross-country team qualifies for state, notching 2nd place finishes at regionals

Battle Mountain girls win 12th straight region cross-country title

Photos

See the carousel below and a bunch more here

Results

WHEN:  Thursday, 20 October. 5:00 pm first race start

WHERE:  Lincoln Park Golf Course, Grand Junction

TRANSPORTATION: We will travel the evening before the race to be rested and fresh. Departure will be at 2:30 after school on Wednesday. Estimated return time is 10:00 p.m. on Thursday. Bring pajamas, toothbrushes and the other things you normally would for an overnight in a hotel. Bring cash for dinner Wednesday and lunch and dinner on Thursday.

RACE TIMES:

4:00pm - Course Open for Warm-ups and Course Preview

5:00pm - Boys Region Championships Race

5:30pm - Girls Region Championship Race

6:15pm - Awards

Top 4 Varsity Boys/Girls Teams advance to State.

Top 15 Varsity Boys/Girls advance to State.

SCORING:

Varsity - Run 9, Score 5, Displace 2

4A Region 1 Preview 

10/11/22 by Alan Versaw in Colorado High School Sports

2022 Pre-Regional Rankings

Based on individual best times in 2022

Regional Adjustments for 2022 XC Season

There was a slight reshuffling of schools for XC in 2022. Among the changes, strong 4A XC teams Air Academy, Centaurus and Erie are now in 5A. 

And the resulting reshuffling to balance regions? Minimal for our 4A Region #1. But the minimal reshuffling might make it a bit easier for our girls and boys to advance to the State Championship.

1. Golden and Green Mountain are out.

• The Golden girls placed 3rd at Regions last year and Green Mountain was 5th. (Summit was 7th.)

• The Golden boys placed 7th at Regions and Green Mountain 9th. (We were 5th.)

2. Bear Creek and Rifle are in.

• Rifle moves up from 3A. Bear Creek moves down from 5A.

• The Bear Creek boys placed 9th in their 5A region while the girls were 12th (last).

• Rifle boys were 5th in their 3A region while the girls only had 3 runners.

Read the article: https://coloradopreps.com/new-classifications-for-cross-country/ 

2022 Pre-Season Regional Rankings

Based on the best 2021 times of "returning" runners only. This does NOT include incoming Freshmen, transfers, runners who don't return, and of course is only historical. It doesn't reflect who trained hard in the summer and who didn't.

2021 Regionals

2021 Regionals Results and Photos

10/24/21: Hagen and Remeikis place 4th at regionals to qualify for state championship. Summit boys place 5th, girls take 7th

Full results on MileSplit.

Check the number of seniors on many of the teams, in particular the Glenwood Springs, Eagle Valley and Steamboat Springs girls and Central Grand Junction, Eagle Valley and Mullen boys. 

Our boys and girls teams were the only teams not to have any seniors other than the Battle Mountain girls. And our girls team had no juniors, the only team so young.

We didn't make it to State as teams this year. 

That will change next.

2021 Photos