Summit freshman girls runner wins at Liberty Bell Invitational
Led by Remeikis’ personal record, Tigers boys take third place at competitive meet
LITTLETON — Ella Hagen picked up yet another win Saturday, Sept. 11, in her young Summit cross-country running career, racing to first overall at the highly competitive Liberty Bell Invitational in Littleton.
Hagen completed the fast, net-downhill 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes and 15 seconds to lead the Tigers girls to a fifth-place finish of 22 teams. At 40 seconds, Hagen’s margin of victory was particularly impressive.
“She was in the lead right away,” Tigers coach, and Ella’s father, Mike Hagen said. “I saw her at a little over a mile, and I couldn’t see the next person behind her. She was steady the whole way.
“She’s really focused and trains very hard and is very serious,” the coach continued. “She does everything she needs to do to improve. She goes to bed early regularly, she watches her nutrition, she trains hard and she’s doing everything she can to be a good runner.”
Hagen was followed by Tigers sophomore Adeline Avery, who ran to a 30th-place time of 21:05. Avery’s Tiger teammates nipped at her heels, including sophomore Sophia Bertonneau (31st, 21:08) and freshman Cece Miner (32nd, 21:09).
The Tigers boys ran to an impressive third-place finish out of 23 schools. On the fast course replete with asphalt, neighborhood roles Tigers junior Dom Remeikis set a personal record of 15:47 for third place overall.
“He does like fast races,” Mike Hagen said. “He did out-sprint one person to get third place overall by three-tenths of a second.”
Tigers freshman Josh Shriver also set a personal record — by 44 seconds — of 16:37 as the top freshman in the race, finishing eighth overall. And Tiger junior Landon Cunningham was the most improved Tiger this week, racing to 12th overall at 17:08.
“Today made me confident we can qualify for state,” Mike Hagen said. “I thought it was a big improvement for the team as a whole — boys and girls. They just keep improving week by week. And, not just their times, but their relative performance has been improving.”
The Tigers are next scheduled to race Friday, Sept. 17, at the Arvada West Invitational.
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