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Summit cross-country team betters personal bests, notches top finishes at Pat Amato Classic in Northglenn

Junior Adaline Avery competes in the 2022 Pat Amato Classic in Northglenn on Friday, Oct. 7. Avery came within a second of her personal best while helping the Summit girls cross-country team to place sixth overall at the meet.
Brenda Leffler/Courtesy photo

After racing a challenging course at Copper Mountain Resort last Saturday, the Summit High School cross-country team had a chance to spin their legs again at the Pat Amato Classic in Northglenn on Friday, Oct. 7.

At the meet, the Summit cross-country team proved it can perform highly on both strength-based, hilly courses as well as flat, fast courses.

Several team members ran personal bests for the 5-kilometer race, helping both the boys and girls team to place within the top 10 at the competitive meet.



In the girls race, sophomore Ella Hagen got her second individual win of the season after placing second for the fourth race in a row at the Copper Mountain Cup.

Hagen raced strong in cloudy and cool conditions, crossing the finish line in a time of 17 minutes, 6 seconds to beat Arapahoe High School’s Ava Mitchell by 11 seconds.



The rest of the Summit girls cross-country team also had great races. Freshman Lauren McCalla placed in the top 10 with a seventh-place finish and a time of 18:59. Following McCalla was a tight pack of Tigers who all placed within four places of one another.

Junior Adaline Avery ran a time of 20:36 for 53rd place, while sophomores Cecelia Miner and Avery Eytel kicked to the finish line together for a time of 20:45. Miner was awarded 55th place while Eytel finished in 56th.

“I honestly felt super strong,” Avery said. “That’s like my favorite race in Colorado, so I really enjoyed it.”

“I ran the first mile super fast, so I felt super strong from the beginning,” Miner said. “I knew it was going to be a good race.”

Miner shaved more than 16 seconds off her personal best time from the Liberty Bell Invitational earlier in the season and Eytel dropped close to a second off her personal best time. Avery came within a second of her in-state personal best.

With 172 points, the Summit girls team placed sixth out of 22 teams to finish the highest among the 4A classification at the meet. 

“This race makes me super confident that we can make it to state,” Avery said. “We have all been working super hard all season, and it just showed since we got sixth overall at such a big meet and first in 4A.”

In the boys race, senior Dom Remeikis led the team with his seventh-place finish. Remeikis crossed the finish line with a time of 15:59.9 after rivaling a tough field of competitors throughout the 3.1-mile course.

Despite feeling a little under the weather, Joshua Shriver placed 15th for Summit with a time of 16:27.3. The time came 17-seconds away from Shriver’s personal best even though the sophomore felt ill.

“It went a lot better than I expected,” Shriver said. “My plan was to work on my start and get myself in a good position so that is what I did. The last mile I saw some people that are usually a lot further ahead of me so I gave it all I had to catch up to them.”

Landon Cunningham placed 54th for the Tigers with a time of 17:22.30, and freshman Carter Niemkiewicz placed 84th with a time of 17:52, tying his personal best from a few weeks ago.

Freshman Cain Steinweg placed 95th, while junior Roan Varble and freshman Gavin Benedict placed 113th and 114th respectively. The trio all notched personal bests at the race.

The Summit boys cross-country team placed ninth out of 26 teams to be the second-best 4A team on the day. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 12 the Tigers will travel to Rifle for the Rifle Invitational. Following the meet in Rifle, the team will compete for a state qualifier at the 4A Region 1 cross-country meet in Grand Junction on Thursday, Oct. 20. 


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