2022 was a good building year for the SHS Track Distance Program. We are still a small distance team but you worked hard and are laying the foundation for a strong program. Here are some season highlights.
2 State Qualifiers – Dom in the 800 and Ella in the 1600 and 3200. Dom placed 9th at State in the 800 and Ella placed 6th in the 1600 and 3rd in the 3200.
Lucas, Dom and Josh – all ran top 20 times in the boys 800, 1600 and 3200.
Jacob, Jonah and James – all on the top 20 list in at least one event.
Josh – the fastest Freshman ever in the 800, 1600 and 3200.
Roan – 14th or higher in the Sophomore 800, 1600 and 3200.
Dom – fastest Junior ever in 800, 1600 and 3200. Second place ever in all three distance events. Dom has one more season to break State Champion Liam Mierow’s school records.
Lucas – 5th fastest 1600 & 8th fastest 800 and 3200 by Seniors - despite starting to run in March.
Girls – four of the top 20 times ever in the 800, 1600 and 3200. One-fifth of the fastest times ever run by SHS girls in the 800, 1600 and 3200 were run this Spring.
Ella – tops the freshman lists in the 400 & 800 and broke the school records in the 1600 & 3200.
Avery and Cece – the 7th and 8th fastest Freshmen ever in the 800.
Avery, Cece and Niamh – 8th, 10th & 15th in the 1600 for Freshmen; 6th, 9th & 11th in the 3200.
Adaline – 7th in the 800 and 8th in the 1600 for Sophomores. She sneakily missed a 3200.
Paige – 13th Junior girls 800 and 12th 1600. She also sneakily missed running a 3200.
Zero girls made new top 20 marks in the Senior rankings - because we were a very young team with no senior girls.
Lucas PR’d every 800 until the last one at St. Vrain. He dropped his 800 from 2:29 down to 2:11. He ran a PR in at least one event in every meet. 1600 went from 5:36 to 5:12.
Dom and Josh won their 1600 heats at the prestigious St. Vrain meet.
34 boys PRs during the season. Lucas was a third of them!
The girls really learned how to compete in the 800 and 1600.
Paige PR’d 4 times in a row in the 800 and 6 times altogether.
7 PRs for Adaline
6 PRs for Avery
Cece PR’d 3 times in a row in the 800
12 PRs for Ella
6 PRs for Niamh
2 PRs for Olivia in only two races
42 Girls PRs
Set dozens of PRs and new marks in the top 20 lists – and qualify several runners for State. Of course! In 2023 we will make a big effort in the 4x800. We worked hard to get two individual distance runners to State this year. It would be wonderful to get 8 or more to State next year. The State Qualifying times in the 4x800 this year are below. Achieve those times in the 4x800 next year and at least 8 runners could get the chance to race at State.
10:20 for Girls
8:26 for Boys
XC Summer Camp begins on 22 June
SDP/SHS XC Camp at Steamboat Springs: 13-17 July
High School XC practice begins on 8 August
XC Team Scrimmage and initial varsity team selection: 22 August
XC Regionals: 10/21
XC State Championship: 10/29
Nike Cross Regionals: 11/19
The Boys and Girls XC teams both can definitely qualify for the XC State Championship this year, but it will require hard work this summer and fall. If we do, it will be the first time since 2008 that both the boys and girls qualify for the State Championships, the 3rd time ever for the boys and the girls’ first time since 2016.
So that is my challenge to you - if you would like to run in the State XC Championship, train consistently as a team this summer, come to practice every day this fall and work hard, race in all assigned meets. Do this and I am quite confident you can earn the honor of toeing the starting line with your teammates at Norris-Penrose on October 29th.