4 more members of the 2024 summit Milers club!

Josh, Carter, John and Owen earned 2024 Summit Milers Club status. Josh and Carter are repeat members - Josh for the third year and Carter the second. Freshmen John and Owen earned their first Milers Club entries with their huge PRs. I love distance runners! Give them a standard to achieve something and they set out to do it!

(Thanks to Dillon for the photos that I used for these graphics.)

Niwot Results

Conditions for distance running were ideal again and the DISTANCE TEAM again capitalized in a big way. 

• 4 New 2024 Summit Milers Club inductees. 

• The DISTANCE TEAM set a total of 22 PRs! 

• Josh ran a (likely) State Championship qualifying time in the 1600.

• Lindsey ran (likely) State Qualifying times in the 800 and 400.

• Ella solidified her 1600 qualification with a 3rd in the State time.

We started the day with the girls 4x800 of Lily, Cora, Ashley and Avery.  In what was intended to be a warm up run and workout, the quartet placed 3rd, contributing 6 points to the teams 9th place finish.

The 1600s were loaded at Niwot. Ella ran a gutsy race, pacing with Nike XC national champion Addy Ritzenhein for 1000 meters and finishing in 4:46.45 for a Colorado #3 time that is just 2 seconds from her 2023 State Championship winning time. That's a pretty good marker for March after a winter of XC skiing.

Lily (1.7") and Adaline (7" and 15" season best for a 4 spot jump to 13th on the all-time list) ran PRs in the 1600. Claire ran a 16" season's best and Cora ran a super debut 1600 that places her 11th on the Senior list.

Lindsey's 59.96 in the 400 ranks her as the 2nd fastest SHS girl in the 400 ever, behind State runner up and U of Wyoming runner McKenna Ramsey. Lindsey followed up with a 2:18.05 800 that makes her the third all time 800 runner and 2nd senior, again after McKenna. McKenna's school record of 2:15.53 may not stand much longer.

Avery ran a huge 800 PR (5" in the 800 is huge!) that places her 5th on the junior list and 7th all time. Ashley ran a 4" PR that places her 15th all time and 7th freshman. Lily made her high school 800 debut and entered the record books as 18th all time and 8th freshman. Claire ran an immense 10" PR to move up to 12th in the Sophomore rankings. 

To recap the girls 800 - one State Qualifier and 4 PRs out of 5 races!

We wrapped up the meet with three girls in the 3200. I viewed this mostly as a training/experience opportunity. I didn't expect to see Avery (another PR) and Ashley run so well in their 3rd races of the meet and PRs in the 800, or Cora following her debut 1600 with a strong debut (and thus PR) 3200.

Like the girls, the boys 4x800 was intended as a warm up, yet the team of Carter, Cain, Owen and John placed 7th and gained us a couple of team points. Carter was healed after his hurdle mishap at Fort Collins and raring to go, opening with a 62" first lap.

4 boys earned Summit Milers Club status! I started the Milers Club this year, and chose standards that retroactively only 9 Summit boys (5:00) and 10 Summit girls (5:45) had ever achieved. The standards may not have been high enough! Already this season 7 athletes have achieved the standard. Josh, Carter, Ella and Avery earned 2023 Milers Club status and have already renewed for 2024. Notably, already 3 freshmen boys earned their Milers Club membership: Jay at Rifle and now John (4:56.44) and Owen (4:57.99) at Niwot.

Distance runners love working hard to achieve goals. Looking at performances to date, and the effort in practice, the Summit Milers Club membership should swell by several more runners this season.

I may have to create a Summit Milers "Elite' Club at 4:45 and 5:30 – and then have the team go after that! At this rate, even those times might need to be more challenging.

Josh ran spectacularly in his first outdoor 1600 of the season. His 3" PR in 4:21.40 is the top SHS Junior time ever, very likely a State qualifying time and currently places him 13th in the State and 5th in 5A.

Josh and Jay followed the 1600s with "speed work" 400s. Josh's 52.98 (with a block start!) is only 1.7" from a State qualifying mark and the fastest SHS time of the season. It places him as #5 on the SHS All-Time list.

Jay followed his "off" 1600 with his own block start (they were quite good for distance runners) 400 that places him #4 in the Summit Freshman rankings.

The 400s are thought of as sprint events, but the Summit Distance TEAM currently holds the top two girls and #1 and #5 boys spots. I believe in a lot of speed work for track season and it appears to be working.

The boys wrapped up their day with the 800s. Carter led the way in a season debut of 2:14.07. He will surely break his PR from last season soon. John was a tad slower than his PR after his Milers Club 1600. Cain ran super aggressively for a 10" PR in the 800 that places him 12th on the Summit Sophomore rankings. I was really impressed by how he went for it and how hard he ran. Owen followed shortly behind in his debut high school 800 that placed him 11th on the Freshman list. Daniel, newcomer to track, ran a 10" PR after his first 800 last week in the Rifle JV meet.

We made significant inroads all over the SHS Top Times lists. Those can be seen here: Girls / Boys

Summit Daily Article: Summit track and field chases down state qualifiers, school records and top marks in Niwot. Summit sophomore Faith Fox resets her own school record in the 300-meter hurdles

Full Results are here. 

Updated Season Results

Click the tab to switch between girls and boys results.

Dillon Benbow posted a bunch of great photos here. Everyone is invited to post their photos. The upload folder will be the same all season. I'll move the photos into subfolders for each meet. Below are just a few.

State Qualification Update

Two more events "went green." Exceeded the 2023 qualifying time. 

• Josh's 4:21.40 1600

• Lindsey's 59.96 400

And two went "more green."

• Lindsey's 2:18.05 800 adds to Ella's 2:19.5 as two likely qualifiers in the 800.

• Ella's 4:56.45 1600 locks up a SQ spot.

The 3200s should go green soon.

Event Splits

These are my hand times. They aren't exact - especially the 200m splits. The final times are usually about a half second less than the official times, due to reaction time to the gun firing. Sometimes more if I was surprised by the gun. Most of the discrepancy in time from the official results should normally be added to the first split.

Spend a little time reviewing them and thinking about your race. Was your start too slow or too fast, did you slow down too much after the half, did you have too much left and finish too strong - with speed that could have been divvied up over previous laps?

Niwot 2024

WHEN:  Saturday, March 30th 2024. Field events start at 9:00. Running events at 9:45. There is one heat of the 3200 at the beginning of the meet (two heats for boys) and one at the end. The morning heats will be the fast heats.

BUS: The first bus will depart SHS at 5:45. Bus 2 will depart at 7:45. Bus 1 will be all field event athletes, hurdlers, first heat of the 3200, SMR and 4x800.

WHERE:  Niwot High School, 8989 Niwot Rd., Niwot, CO 80503

DISTANCE ENTRIES: We are allowed 5 entries per track event at this meet! Express your desired events here.

ALL ENTRIES: View the entries in each event here. (These won't be finalized until Thursday evening.)

TICKETS: Purchase here.

Summit Distance Entries

Niwot "Distance Program"

Distance Records at the Niwot High School Track

Season Performances to Date

Click the tabs to switch between boys and girls.