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Summit High School’s River McClung bags three school records in Colorado Springs

Ella Hagen and Dom Remeikis win 1600-meter runs

Dom Remeikis starts off the boy's 4x800-meter relay at the Husky Invitational on April 26, 2022. Remeikis recently placed first in the boys 1600-meter run at the Titan Invite on Thursday, April 13.
Cody Jones/Summit Daily News

After a school record-setting performance from Ella Hagen and numerous personal bests from the rest of the Summit High School track and field team, the Tigers one-upped their performances from the week before by setting three new school records during the last two meets. 

The three school records fell at the Titan Invite in Colorado Springs on Thursday, April 13. At the meet, senior River McClung inked his name to two new school records in his individual jumping events and also lent his hand to Summit’s school-record-breaking 4×100-meter relay team.

McClung has been steadily improving week after week in the long and triple jump, setting new personal bests while also finishing within the top 10 of the competition. On Thursday, that hard work and consistency paid off as McClung broke the school record in both the triple jump and the long jump. 



With minimal wind to aid or inhibit the jump, McClung jumped 41 feet, 7 inches, in the triple jump to break Stephen Ike’s 2008 school record in the event. McClung’s mark gave him a third-place finish in the event. Elizabeth High School’s Cooper Connelley won the event with a mark of 44 feet, 1.25 inches.

In the long jump, McClung once again set an impressive mark by jumping 20 feet, 6.5 inches, for his second school record of the meet. The jump bettered McClung’s mark of 19 feet, 10.5 inches, at the David S. D’Evelyn Invitational the week prior and was enough for McClung to place fifth overall. 



McClung topped Ray Zakahi’s school-record mark of 19 feet, 11.75 inches, which has been unbeaten since the 2002 spring track season.

With two school records claimed in a span of a few hours, many may think that McClung may have decided to call it a day. However, McClung had one more record to break before beginning his senior year spring break. 

After helping break the 31-year-old school record in the 4×100-meter relay last season, McClung, senior Jack Schierholz and senior Liam Dalzell broke their own record-setting mark of 45.25 seconds. 

With junior Jackson Archambault filling in the leg left open by 2022 graduate Aidan Collins, the relay team ran 44.53 seconds to place third overall in the event.

McClung was extremely pleased with his record-setting day and is excited to see what he can do in the latter part of the season.

“It was definitely a thought in the back of my mind and the overall goal of the meet, but (I) never really thought I’d be able to pull it off,” McClung said of his three school records. “It felt amazing. Me and Coach Fox made it our main goal of the season. It would have felt amazing to get one record, but to get both felt surreal. Reseting the 4×100-meter relay with a new squad was the cherry on top.”

With the top 18 athletes in each event competing at the state track and field meet in May, McClung is currently tied for 16th in the long jump and is ranked 18th in the triple jump among Class 4A boys. McClung most likely will need to improve upon his position in both events if he wants to compete in the events at the Class 4A state meet.

“My main goal is to make it to states for either triple jump or long jump,” McClung said. “(I) still have lots of work to do, but I have faith in myself and my coaches.

Outside of the performances from McClung, the Summit distance events also performed well at the meet with both Hagen and senior Dom Remeikis winning the 1,600-meter run. 

With no one to challenge her, Hagen once again ran way out in front of the rest of the field and crossed the finish line in a time of 5:05.99. The time came within a fraction of a second to her season-best time and close to a second off her school record time of 5:04.71. 

Hagen was followed by Salida’s Quinn Smith in 5:23.99 for second place and Summit freshman Lauren McCalla in fourth place with a time of 5:25.94.

In a highly competitive boys 1,600-meter run, Remeikis bided his time the first three laps of the race and then kicked hard over the last 400 meters. The kick ultimately was enough to rocket past Cheyenne Mountain High School’s Brogan Collins to win the race in a new season best time of 4:27.17.

Remeikis was quickly followed by Collins in second place with a time of 4:27.40 and sophomore Josh Shriver in eighth place (4:34.22).

The Summit boys team placed 11th out of 21 teams with 28 points and the Summit girls team placed ninth out of 20 teams with 40 points.

Even though Summit had a smaller squad of athletes competing at the Demon Invite in Glenwood Springs on Saturday, April 15, the team still posted several impressive finishes. 

Most notably, a Summit girls 4×800-meter relay team made up of Hagen, McCalla, sophomore Cecelia Miner and freshman Faith Fox placed first overall with a standout time of 10:15.39.

The performance currently ranks the team sixth in the 4A classification and should be enough for the team to qualify for the state meet, which has not happened in seven seasons. 

Outside of the performance from the Summit girls 4×800-meter team, Schierholz ran to resounding wins in the boys 100-meter dash (11.43) and 200-meter dash (23.74).

Junior Cam Fox placed third in the 110-meter hurdles (16.56), and Shriver placed second in the 3,200-meter run (9:55.31).

On the girls side, Hagen cruised to a win in the 800-meter run (2:21.47) while dual-sport spring athlete  Gracelyn Garvert placed fourth in the girls 300-meter hurdles (53.30).

The Summit boys team placed fifth out of 15 teams with 56 points while the Summit girls team placed sixth out of 17 teams with 38 points. 

Upon arriving back to school from spring break, Summit will travel to Steamboat Springs for the Steamboat Invitational on Saturday, April 29. The following week, Summit will compete in the Western Slope League Championships in Grand Junction from May 5-6.

The Class 4A state track and field meet will take place May 18-20 at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood.


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