On a mild fall Saturday, Oct. 30, in Colorado Springs, both Dominykas Remeikis and Ella Hagen looked to put on display the countless miles and fitness they had garnered over the season as they competed at the 4A Colorado state cross-country championships.

Going into the meet, head coach Michael Hagen expected that both Dominykas Remeikis and his daughter, Ella Hagen could finish in the top 20 if both had a good day.

Both Ella Hagen and Remeikis were Summit’s top runners on the team and earned their spot to the state cross-country meet because of their fourth place performances at the 4A regional meet on Oct 22.

Feeling severely under the weather, Remeikis was the first to toe the starting line against some of the best talent, not only in the state, but in the country.

“Dom just gutted it out.” coach Michael Hagen said. “He has been sick for a couple days and we sort of hoped he would feel better on race day, but he was feeling bad warming up. It was a rough race for him but pretty good character of him to finish the race.”

Remeikis tried to hold his own against the stacked talent in the 4A boys classification, but his illness got the best of him causing him to eventually fade. Remeikis finished the 5 kilometer course in 18 minutes, 21 seconds for 97th place.

“I felt bad for Dom, but he will be back, as he is only a junior,” Michael Hagen said.

Ella Hagen, the star freshman all season long for the Tigers, took to the hilly course next. She acted veteran-like, letting the leaders up front push the pace and do the work. Ella Hagen stayed in the top 20 like she wanted to be, waiting to make her next move.

When the pack started to get more sparse, Ella Hagen didn’t fall off pace. She powered through the final mile and turned into the Norris Penrose Event Center to sprint through the rodeo stadium dirt to the finish line.

Ella Hagen crossed the line in seventh place with a time of 18:40, sealing her spot on the podium. Ella Hagen was only beat out by one other freshman — Niwot athlete Bella Nelson, who finished in fifth. The next freshman to then cross the line after that was back in 14th place.

Ella Hagen’s performance earns her all-state honors and makes her the first Summit High runner to place in the top 20 since 2019.

“I was a little surprised,” said coach Hagen. “It’s a tough field, but shows how tough our region is. I thought she could do it, but thought maybe 15th would be good.”

Ella Hagen had the highest finish by an individual since 2014, when McKenna Ramsay placed eighth at the 4A state cross-country meet.