FRISCO — The Summit High School boys and girls cross-country teams began the season strong Friday at the opening meet of the season in Colorado Springs. Three Tigers podiumed by running to top 10 individual finishes while the boys and girls teams took fourth and 13th places, respectively. 

In the 146-runner boys 4A race, Summit senior Jeremiah Vaille led the way for the Tigers by running to sixth place in just under 17 minutes, at 16:59.40. Vaille’s pace was 20 seconds behind the top three times and 44 seconds off the time of 4A boys race winner Matthew Mettler, of Air Academy High School.

For Vaille, the season-opening time was a marked improvement over his time of 17:52 at the same event last year, where he led the way for the Tigers in 39th place.

Joining Vaille on the boys 4A individual podium was another senior who also vastly improved on his time compared with last year. Max Bonenberger ran to 10th place Friday with a time of 17:11.50, 46 seconds faster than his 41st-place finish last year.

“The boys had their best ever season-opening finish at this race,” Tigers head coach Heather Quarantillo said.

While Vaille and Bonenberger earned the Tigers boys team 6 and 10 points, respectively, (the lower the score, the better) with their finishes, it was a Summit newcomer who burst onto the scene Friday earning the team 14 points. Via his 14th-place finish and time of 17:20, Tigers freshman Dom Remeikis finished in the top 10% of runners.

The Tigers boys also received points from the rest of the team’s top five finishers: senior Sam Wescott (38th in 18:10.50), junior Korben Long (53rd in 18:50.50) and senior Paul Hans (68th in 19:18.40).

The Summit boys’ total score of 113 ranked behind host Cheyenne Mountain (57), Air Academy (70) and the Tigers’ Western Slope League rival Battle Mountain (94), but ahead of the 16 other teams in the 20-school competition.

The Tigers boys’ five point-scoring runners averaged a time of 17:42 on Friday, 12 seconds behind Battle Mountain and 38 seconds off Cheyenne Mountain’s championship pace.

The Tigers girls were led in the 150-runner 4A girls race by senior veteran Grace Staberg, who earned her way to the 10-runner podium in 10th place with a time of 20:30. The time was a huge leap forward to start the season for Staberg after she ran the 5,000-meter course at last year’s Cheyenne Mountain Stampede in a time of 21:46.10, which put her in 45th place.

The Summit girls earned their 13th-place finish of the 19 schools at the meet thanks to Staberg as well as fellow top five Tigers runners in junior Alice Wescott (71st in 23:42), her sister and freshman Paige Wescott (113th in 26:53), senior Josie Jardon (119th in 27:44) and junior Sadie Schroder (122nd in 28:03). The Tigers’ top five girls finishers averaged a 5K time of 25:23.

Summit will again hit the trails at next Saturday’s Battle Mountain Husky Invitational at the Minturn Nordic Center’s new venue.