HS Cross Country Competes at CMC
By Coach Amy Peters
Lake County hosted 18 other high school and middle school cross country teams at the Lake County Invitational at Colorado Mountain College on September 4 and 5. The meet shifted to a 2-day format with limited team entries and wave starts in order to meet the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) COVID restrictions. Despite the modifications, many coaches expressed appreciation for the opportunity to run the excellent CMC trails on such a beautiful day.
Four high school teams competed on Friday, and ten raced the same course on Saturday with the results of the 2 days combined. Both of Lake County High School’s teams finished 2nd overall against several bigger 3A and 4A schools, including Denver North, Littleton and Green Mountain.
All of the Lady Panthers finishers were freshmen, except for sophomore Adele Horning. Although they started in different waves, 1 minute apart, Adele and her sister Rose finished with times less than 2 seconds apart. Rose’s time of 22 minutes 27 seconds earned her a 4th place finish on the 5 kilometer course, while Adele’s 22:29 was 5th place overall and over 1 minute faster than her 2019 performance. Keira King beat all of the other girls in her wave and placed 7th with her time of 23:09. Violet Hill brought home a 19th place medal by running 25:00. Clara Kirr and Brynna Lenhard were 34th and 39th respectively in 27:31 and 29:15.
The men’s team was led by Fabian Jimenez, who finished 11th in 19:36. Jace Peters improved his time from last year by 1 ½ minutes to reach 19:44 and 13th place. Matt Cairns ran 20:01 and placed 15th. James Garrison cut 28 seconds off his 2019 time, finishing in 21:53 and 27th place. Freshmen Josiah Horning and Abel Gonzales took 29th and 31st respectively with times of 22:25 and 22:42. Jordyn Garcia completed the course in 23:32 and took 41st out of 68 participants.
The Panthers will take a week off and return to competition on September 18 and 19.
