Announcements

10/28 Announcements 

Hopefully your transition back from fall break has been great! We've been busy in the varsity XC front, qualifying a full girls team to the state meet this Saturday and two boy runners as well. The meet is in Colorado Springs (at the Norris Penrose Events Center) on Saturday. Boys run at 9 AM and Girls at 10:20 AM if anyone wants to come and cheer. We have a bus leaving at 6:15 AM on Saturday with limited space, so let me know if you would like to ride the bus and are not currently running or an alternate for the State meet.

I do have a few final pieces of business:

1. Our banquet is next week Tuesday at 6 PM in the Curtis Ballroom in the Landmark. This is to celebrate accomplishments over the season and to specifically recognize special award winners, varsity letter winners, and senior award winners. I'm going to include a "how I receive these awards" section below and will also send out an email tonight to people who are going to receive an award. That said, if you are interested in coming you need to sign up today or tomorrow morning to be guaranteed food. We need to order food tomorrow afternoon and if you're not signed up I can't guarantee you get to eat!! The signup is here.
   
   

2. We have our second annual TurCreek Trot on Thanksgiving this year. If you're interested in running, the signup page is here. If you are interested in volunteering, we need help! Volunteer links are here. The race is super fun and it is a great opportunity to get out and run before you sit down to eat. We have pies donated for the winners and all proceeds go to help out our XC program. Please come out for a great race and a fun experience!
   
   

3. Corn!! I am so close to our corn goal. We are at 155 cans of corn (I counted this afternoon), which means that I'm still 25 cans short of our 180 can requirement. Please get me a few more cans of corn before November 11th. These are for the Thanksgiving baskets that athletics provides for needy families in our district.
   
   

I think that's all the updates that I have and hopefully I see you at the TurCreek Trot, if not at State or my office with more cans of corn first! I may send another email reminding you about off season opportunities and to let you know how we do at State... And probably another to remind you when preseason track starts. And probably another when summer camp signups opens... The fun never ends!!!

How do I get a varsity letter?

1. Run in 2/3 of the varsity races this year.

2. Run a time that would beat most of the runners in the varsity race in 2/3 of the races this year.

3. Run at time that beats half the varsity runners in the league meet.

4. Run on a regionals team that places in the top 3 in the region.

5. Run at the State meet.

You need to hit 1 of these 5 criteria. For almost all of the runners who get a varsity letter, the criteria that was hit was either #1 or #3. If you want to know the times that would have qualified you on the league meet, you can look on the milesplit page for the results of the Centennial League meet.

How do I get a senior award?

    Participate in ¾ seasons of cross country (you need to get participation to qualify). One of those 3 seasons needs to be your senior year season.

How do I get a special award?

    Do something that warrants getting a special award. Each coach gives out one special award, additional awards are given for most valuable runner, most improved runner, and best new runner to the team. Each of these awards are based on decisions made by the coaching staff and not strictly based on numbers, but that does have weight to the decision.

10/6 Announcements

This is the last week of XC for most runners. It is amazing to me how quickly things go. In any case, we will have our final pasta party and runner recognition this Wednesday in West Cafe for all athletes and then everyone will run in the League meet. Varsity runners will continue on to Regionals. Here are the announcements:

1. League is at Aurora Sports Park this year. The race times are:
   1PM Boys Varsity
   1:30 PM Girls Varsity
   2:00 PM Boys JV
   2:30 PM Girls JV
   Boys varsity will be excused from periods 4 - 8, Girls varsity and Boys JV periods 5 - 8, Girls JV periods 6 - 8. Please let me know ASAP if you cannot make this race as I have to put early dismissals in today.

2. This WEDNESDAY (10/8) will be our subvarsity send off during our pasta party. We will have a dessert bar and will have some recognitions from the coaches. Everyone is welcome! This also means that we will not have practice for runners whose seasons end at the League meet (the coaching staff will do their best to talk to those athletes who are continuing during the League meet).

3. If you are interested in continuing training through the fall, Coach Swartz has a running club. Here is his message:
   Cross Country Athletes, your season doesn’t have to end yet. Join Trials of Miles TC postseason training and race one more time! More information at https://trialsofmilestc.com/programs/ or talk to Coach Swartz! 

4. If you are interested in attending the awards banquet on 11/4, please sign up using this link. The cost to the athlete is free, but additional people attending are $30. We will be recognizing varsity letter winners, senior award winners, and special award winners. Invitations to people who are receiving those awards will go out during fall break, but any runner is more than welcome to attend!

5. Are you looking for something to do this Thanksgiving? Want to be a little active before the big feast? Then out to our second annual TurCreek Trot! Last year was super snowy, but still really fun! We will be running the same course that we did for the invitational this Thanksgiving morning. Early bird pricing is $27/runner through Nov 1st; prices increase to $30 after that and we'll accept registrations right up until race day! Register by Nov. 10th to be guaranteed a t-shirt. See the attached flyer for registration link and details. If you don't want to run but want to support, we are also interested in getting a few volunteers to help course marshal and set up. 

6. CORN! I'm still in the market for something like 150 cans of corn!! Bring them to 107a in west (PS — I'm going to keep sending these emails until I get to 180 cans...)

9/29 Announcements 

1. This week's meet is at Fariview High School, the Pat Patten Invitational. It is on Saturday in the morning. Here are the race times:
   Citizens' Mile - 9:00
   Boys Varsity - 9:30
   Girls Varsity - 10:00
   Boys Open/JV - 10:30
   Girls Open/JV - 11:05
   Awards - 11:45
   If you're interested in running the "Citizen's Mile" let me know ASAP. It is not for athletes, but parents, siblings, etc. are more than welcome to run. I just need to figure out how to register. Coaches are eligible to run as well!!
   
   

2. Our service project was a big hit. I'll be putting up pictures taken by Ms. Karpel soon. If you need hours (for NHS, etc.) just let me know and I can sign off on those. Thank you all for your hard work.
   
   

3. This Friday is Spirit Night. Cross Country will have a booth and we need help manning it. This is something else that I would be willing to sign off volunteer hours for. We will also NOT have a pasta party because of everything that is going on for that.
   
   

4. Our season is rapidly coming to a close for all non-varsity athletes. Our final meet will be next week Thursday (10/9). Varsity races start at 1 and all the races should be wrapped up by 4 PM, but I'm waiting on a finalized schedule to be sent out. Most athletes will miss a little bit of school and varsity will miss the afternoon. 

   1. We will have a all-runner send off the Friday after league right after school (10/10). There will be snacks and games (assuming good weather) and more information to come.

   2. Our awards banquet will be held after the season is over on Tuesday 11/4. This will be to recognize award winners like seniors who have participated for 3+ years, varsity letter winners, and special award winners. All runners are welcome to attend (and more information will be coming out about that).

   3. We typically keep 9 - 13 athletes for our post season races. These are regionals (10/23) and, hopefully, State (11/1). Nine athletes run at regionals and seven run at state, but we like to have more involved as alternates and to experience the process.

5. We are at 7 cans of corn on the corn counter! Only 173 more cans to go! Drop off any corn at Coach Dusto's office in 107a.

9/23 Announcements

1. The Dave Sanders Invitational is this Friday. The race is at Clement Park, next to Columbine HS. The race times are:

a. 3:00 and 3:05 for Varsity Boys/Girls

b. 4:20 and 4:25 for JV Boys/Girls

c, 5:40 and 5:45 for Open Boys/Girls

2. We will let athletes know what division they are in tomorrow (Wednesday) at practice. If you are in the varsity or the JV division, you will need to get out of school early. We are NOT going to dismiss the open early, as it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to get to Clement Park. Parking can be difficult so try to car pool and/or park at Columbine HS for the later races (they still have school during the earlier races). There is a Dave Sanders remembrance at 2:30 if you would like to attend.

3. Service Project is this Saturday. All community members are welcome. We are going to start at 9am and meet at the state park (they are still getting us the details). The goal is to do some trail work and cleanup so you/your athlete should bring work gloves, water and long pants as we will be using tools out in nature. There is a free "Outdoor Day" celebration in the park afterward that we have been invited to over at swim beach. I am really excited to get back in the park after a few years of not being there so please make sure that you attend! We need to give back to our community and the park that we use almost daily during the season.

4. There will be optional practice on Saturday before the service project meeting at 7am outside of Stutler (East/School side).

5. Thanksgiving Baskets are right around the corner. Cross Country is in charge of corn (as per usual). We need to supply roughly 2 cans of corn/athlete to get to 180 cans of corn! Please bring your corn to Coach Dusto's office (107a) and place them in as tidy a pile as possible so as to not piss off his officemates.

9/14 Announcements 

Great job at Liberty Bell yesterday! We did great both from an individual standpoint and with our team. This week, we have a week off for most of our runners as our varsity will be traveling out of State. Just a few announcements:

1. We will have an optional practice on Friday. I haven't figured out when so more information to come.

2. For those traveling, we will have a meeting in 92W at 6PM on Monday. 

9/8 Announcements

First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for helping me get our invitational squared away. It was the biggest that it has been since I've been coaching here and it went off without any problems (that I know of at least!!). A huge shout out to my coaching staff and the parent volunteers that made it happen, I know that it wouldn't have happened without your help and I REALLY appreciate you!!!

A few announcements for the week:

1. We did an awesome job this week, placing in the top 10 in each division that we competed in! That is great news and gets me excited for what we can do in the second half of our season. Shout outs to Ryan Lunde, Chloe Gillis, James Baumgartner, Laney Gillis, Tommy Rude, and Chelsea Wu for all taking 3 or more minutes off their times from time trials. Way to go!!!
   
   

2. Liberty Bell is this Saturday. This is the largest meet that we will go to for the year (for perspective, we had 44 teams at our race, this meet has 96 teams...). It is held at Heritage High School. If you thought that parking last weekend was bad, this week will probably be worse. Make sure that you arrive early to ensure a spot. We will set up our team camp on the soccer field between the start and finish lines (map and directions are on the website). Also, we were selected to be in the Sweepstakes division for both boys and girls! This means our schedule is:
   7:45 Boys Varsity
   8:15 Girls Varsity
   9:58 Boys JV
   10:02 Girls JV
   11:16 Boys Open
   11:20 Girls Open
   This is the first race that we don't have a freshman/sophomore division, but we do have a JV division. Varsity is the top 7 runners, JV is the next 7 runners. I'll be checking in with runners in the different divisions today and tomorrow to let them know where they are competing.
   
   

3. Next week we have an "open" weekend for all of the runners except our top 12. The top 12 will be competing out of state in California at the Woodbridge Invitational. I will reach out to athletes who are in or close to that top 12 to see if they are interested in attending. There is a cost associated with this, and it will be around $720/athlete, which covers airfare, meals, registration, hotels, car rentals, and incidentals.
   
   

4. We are at the midpoint of our season. From here, we will race 2 more times before the League meet (on 10/9). At this point, the season will be over for all non-varsity runners (really anyone below the top 11ish runners as 9 run at regionals). Any athlete that wants to continue to participate is welcome to, but they will not have the opportunity to race with us at regionals and state (hopefully!) unless they're in the top group. Coach Swartz has an off-season running club that I will forward you more information on when it gets closer, though, if you want to continue to race in the fall/early winter.

9/1 Announcements

1. Great job on Friday at the Arapahoe Invitational. We did awesome, scoring in the top half of all the races in each division. Our girl's varsity was the top finisher with a 3rd place finish. Also, shout outs to Emily Cohen for winning the girls varsity, as well as Kylee Hu, Mattie Sheehan, Isaac Lim, Bree Hruska, and Thomas Gilbert for top 10 finishes in each of their respective races. Another shout out to all the athletes who stayed to the finish of the day to support. It was a long one with lightning delays, but you guys really make this a supportive team culture and I really appreciate you!! Way to go!

2. We have a pasta party this Friday in IC cafe after practice

3. Our boys nutrition talk is this Wednesday from 5:30 - 6ish in the Campus Library. All/ Only male athletes are welcome and expected to attend.

4. This week is our home invitational! This is a huge meet with roughly 40 teams in attendance. This is the largest attendance we've had since pre-covid times. We need a ton of help to make this go smoothly and are still looking for some volunteers. Click on this link to help out!! Creek Invitational Volunteering

5. Race times for Saturday are as follows:
   Boys Fr/So      8:30
   Girls Fr/So      8:35
   Boys Varsity   9:15
   Girls Varsity   9:20
   Boys Open     10:00
   Girls Open      10:05
   Awards           11:00  

6. Parking will be a bit of a challenge. Plan on getting there well in advance and parking in the "West" (really south) student lot if you are arriving for the later races. There is a football game, gymnastics tournament, ACT, and something else I can't remember going on. It will be PACKED. Don't plan to park in GV unless you're there before 7 AM as those spots will go FAST!

7. Our gear is in!! Here is some gear info:
   Hello Creek XC Families!
   
   Most of the XC team gear ordered through the team store has arrived!  The only item we are still waiting on is the long-sleeve blue t-shirts.
   
   We will be passing out gear at the Creek Invite meet this weekend, on Saturday 9/6.
   
   At the Creek Invite, we will also have items for sale if you did not yet get to purchase gear.  We will have SOCKS, HATS, SWEATSHIRTS and T-SHIRTS!
   
   Thank you for supporting our amazing Creek XC Team! 

8/27 Announcements: 

1. Possibly due to weather, the Arapahoe invitational has changed the order of the races. Here is the new time schedule:

• 4:00 Open Fresh/Soph BOYS

• 4:20 Open Fresh/Soph GIRLS

• 4:50 Open JR/SR BOYS

• 5:10 Open JR/SR  GIRLS

• 5:40 Varsity BOYS

• 6:00 Varsity GIRLS

This means that we will be getting FR/SO AND JR/SR athletes out early. FR/SO athletes will get out of 7th and 8th, JR/SR athletes will get out of 8th to make sure they have enough time to get there. The form you need to fill out is: Cross Country Advance Release Form.Additionally, make sure that you follow the parking rules below:

ATHLETE, COACH & SPECTATOR PARKING: We are expecting close to 2,000 runners this year, and parking at deKoevend is limited. Please be sure your athletes and parents know they should plan ahead and arrive early to find a parking spot. Here are the parking options:

1. Free parking for spectators is located in the parking lot off of University or in the surrounding neighborhoods 

Parking and athlete drop-off are NOT ALLOWED at Goodson Rec Center or Cherry Hills Assisted Living. We will have parking lot attendants and signage, but please do your best to communicate the parking options to your runners and parents. 

1. We have optional practice on Saturday and Monday. We will be meeting off campus at 8 AM. On Saturday, we will meet at the Highline/Orchard Trailhead (past Koelbel Library on Orchard). On Monday, we will meet at Waterton Canyon. Give me or another coach a heads up if you're planning on attending so that we can keep an eye out for you.

2. If you are a female athlete that missed our nutrition talk last night a parent interested in what was covered please check out the link below!
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/17P9thjdVvCQXhJfbGdwF2FS7iJrxxg9d/view?usp=sharing

3. The boys nutrition talk will be at the Library after practice on Wednesday (next week). This is a talk for athletes.

4. Our home invitational is next week Saturday (9/6). It is a HUGE event and we need a ton of help. PLEASE consider volunteering to help and fill out this link:  Creek Invitational Volunteering

8/8 Announcements:

1. Watermelon Run is this Saturday (TOMORROW) at the Bluffs Park. We are asking that you try to get there around 7:30 am, unless you want a more thorough warmup (then get there earlier!). We are planning to start races at 7:50 am. We run a loop around (~4k) and then have our watermelon eating competition!! It's a lot of fun and open to anyone (family, friends, alumni, dogs, etc.). Just make sure that you get a sticker before you race! We will be done by 8:45 - 9 am.
   
   

2. Our gear store is open! If you want your XC gear to come in during the season, you need to purchase quickly. The store closes in a week.
   
   

3. Practice starts on Monday, 8/11, at 3:45 pm. We will be done between 5 and 5:30, depending on the training group your athlete is with. Make sure that your athlete has shoes to run in, a water bottle (filled!), and has put on sunscreen.  They don't need anything else. Once the school year starts, they should reach out to get an athletic locker rental or plan on leaving their gear in someone's car.
   
   

4. Parent night is this Tuesday, 8/12, in Shillinglaw Auditorium in the West building from 6pm - 8pm. If you've never been, it is right across from West Cafe (and you should park by the tennis courts off of Campus Dr.). We will be selling uniforms there and giving out a lot of information. Definitely worth attending if this is your first XC season and/or if you've got a lot of questions.
   
   

5. We also have a "spike night" at Runner's Roost on Colorado and I-25 on Thursday after practice. This is a great opportunity to get a new pair of shoes (because most of you need them!) and support Runner's Roost. They help us out with timing at time trials and our meet, so it would be great to get some shoes to help them out as well. You get a discount on any running shoes at Runner's Roost, you just need to make sure you identify yourself as a Cherry Creek HS athlete.
   
   

6. Our website, creekxc.com, is the best place to go for information. I will continue to update it throughout the season. You can also check out our Remind or our Instagram (@cherrycreekxc).
   
   

7. Finally, if you want to add email addresses to our list, this is the form to do so.

Week of 8/3 Announcements:

1. Preseason will be 3:30 - 5:30 PM at Belleview Field and is open to all athletes. We will have our first fun run, the Watermelon Run, this Saturday (8/9) at The Bluff's Regional Park. Hope to see you there!! Please arrive by 7:30am, race starts at 7:50am. Carpool if possible! Creek families, alumni, current athletes are all invited to participate. 

2. Make sure you're working on registration! I'll send out an email to people who have successfully registered as soon as I get the list from Athletics.

3. Join the remind (if you haven't already done so)! text @ccxc2025 to 81010

4. We will be aiming to provide pre and post lift snacks for our athletes available in room 92W. Please consider purchasing some fuel for our athletes at the link found below: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y8YDGU3JM9FZ?ref_=wl_share

Summer Camp Announcements from the week of 7/21:

1. We will NOT have camp this Friday. The park is closed and a lot of our coaches are out of town. We will have camp the following Monday.

2. If you didn't get your t-shirt, I will have them on Monday of next week. If you won't be there, come find me during the schoolyear and I will give you your t-shirt.

3. Our camp ends next week Friday. We will have a preseason camp the following week from 3:30 - 5:30 PM for athletes competing in cross country. This is free and open to any Cherry Creek High School athletes. I will send out more information but I wanted to get that on your calendars.

4. We will have lift on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

5. We will NOT have an off-site run this Wednesday.

6. Athletics is open for registration for the XC season. You can register here. You need to have a valid physical (one that doesn't expire during the season) in order to complete registration. This is due before the start of the XC season (8/11) in order to participate.