While much of Summit County was covered in several inches of fresh snow Saturday morning, the Ivory Moore “We Are Columbine” Invite at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood offered near-perfect conditions for an early season track and field meet on March 11.

The mild, spring-like conditions didn’t just offer Summit a brief reprieve from the long Summit winter season. It also led to a string of impressive marks in the team’s first meet of the season.

Much like last track season, the team appeared to have let little, if any, dust settle during the offseason.

Leading the way for Summit was none other than sophomore Ella Hagen, who raced in four events throughout the day. 

Hagen’s most impressive result of the day came in the girls 1600-meter run, where Hagen ran in a league of her own.

As soon as the starter’s pistol sounded, Hagen quickly gapped the field and pulled her way to an impressive lead. With no one nearby to push her to a fast time, Hagen continued to dig over the four-lap race and crossed the finish line in first place in a time of 5 minutes, 6.19 seconds — a new meet record.

Hagen was followed by Arvada West High School senior Abby Freda, who finished close to 26 seconds behind Hagen (5:32.07). 

“Going into the race, I honestly didn’t have much of an idea of what I could do,” Hagen said. “Based on training, I knew I was in a similar spot as I was last year.”

Hagen’s time — which came within two-seconds of her own school record — beat out Fort Collins High School alumnus Lauren Gregory, who set the previous meet record of 5:12.56 during her senior track season in 2017. 

“With our situation and training being so difficult in the wintertime — to me — any time I get on a track I want to push to my absolute limit, and Saturday was no different,” Hagen said. “If I am lacing up the spikes, I am going to go as hard as I can on the day — no matter the conditions, no matter the competition. It is a privilege to race.”

Within two seconds of her best time last season, Hagen said she feels hopeful and invigorated for the rest of her sophomore track season. 

“I think the challenge in many scenarios is balancing running fast at the beginning of the season — but not running too fast,” Hagen said. “It is a long season, and you have to maintain it. I am happy where I am at … and how much I think I can grow through a season.” 

Hagen was far from done for the day. She recorded her next first-place finish of the meet in the girls 800-meter run with a time of 2:24.70. She then lent her hand to two relay teams.

In the girls 800-meter sprint medley, Hagen, Braelyn Wentworth, Olivia Lyman and Sage Hanks recorded a time of 1:59.30 to place fourth overall, and Hagen, Hanks, Cece Miner and Adaline Avery finished with a time of 5:01.12 to place eighth in the girls 4×400-meter relay.

Avery began the meet with a fifth-place finish in the girls 3,200-meter run, finishing in 13:27.61.

Outside of the dominating performances in the distance events, the Summit girls track and field team also showed up the competition in the sprint and field events. 

Making her high school debut in the 400-meter dash, the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles, freshman Faith Fox recorded three top-15 finishes.

Faith Fox placed 13th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 19.42 seconds and went on to place fourth in the 400-meter dash (1:05.21) and sixth in the 300-meter hurdles (55.39).

Also running the 400-meter dash was freshman Teagan Barth, who placed sixth with a time of 1:06.58 before helping the Summit girls 4×200-meter relay team place third overall (1:58.23).

Junior Cami Davis took the bronze home in the triple jump with a distance of 30 feet, 10.5 inches. She also took 10th place in the long jump with a best mark of 13 feet, 10 inches.

On the boys side of the competition, senior Dom Remeikis and junior Cam Fox led the team. 

After fall’s successful senior cross-country season, Remeikis started his senior track season with a first-place finish in the boys 1,600-meter run. Remeikis bided his time in the field in the early part of the race before rocketing his way in front of the chase pack. Remeikis placed first with a time of 4:45.60 — over 8 seconds in front of the second-place finisher. 

Cam Fox had two impressive performances in the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter hurdles. He placed second in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 16.99 seconds and bounced back for an eighth-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles (48.08). 

Junior Jackson Archambault rounded out the running events by placing fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.92 seconds, and seniors River McClung and Tyler Hodges placed in the top 10 in their respective field events. 

McClung placed eighth in the boys long jump with a best mark of 17 feet, 11 inches. Hodges placed seventh in the boys triple jump with a mark of 36 feet, 10.5 inches.

The high placings resulted in the girls team scoring 53 points for sixth place, while the boys scored 26 points for 12th place. 

The Summit track and field team will be back in action on Friday, March 17, when the team travels to Rifle for the Rifle Invitational. The meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

“Now that the team has performed together at a meet, I think we are just going to keep working on really pushing and giving our all out there,” Hagen said. “I think we are just going to keep trying to perform together and perform individually.”