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Anderson wins Aurora Invite in her SHS XC debut

Devon O'Neil

AURORA – Whitney Anderson didn’t take long to make an impact in her first race with the Summit High School cross country team.The senior, who spends much of her time training and racing on her own, ran a blistering pace to win the Aurora Invitational in dominant fashion on Friday afternoon. Her time of 18 minutes, 4 seconds on the speedy grass course tied for the second-fastest girls mark in the state this fall and beat her closest competitor by 31 seconds – a whopping margin in a 14-team high school race.”She set a strong pace right from the start, and gradually put distance on her closest racer,” said SHS coach Heather Quarantillo. “She ran a smart, well-paced race.”Anderson, who won the mile and 2-mile state titles at last spring’s 4A track championships, led the SHS girls to a tie for fifth place. But because the sixth runner on the team they tied with, 5A Cherry Creek, posted a faster time than Summit’s sixth racer, the nod went to Cherry Creek.Nonetheless, sixth is a solid showing for the Tigers. Freshman Briana Perkins took ninth, in 21:08, despite fighting a cold all week. Her older sister Brittany was 29th, exactly two minutes after Briana; freshman Jenya Berino continued to improve, taking 45th in 24:21; Mackenzie Jones, another freshman, was two seconds back in 46th place; and Mallory Clark and Morgan Jones made it four straight freshmen finishers for Summit in times of 24:38 and 24:39, respectively.Jones’ time was a personal best by 45 seconds, and Clark’s beat her previous low time by 30 seconds.On the boys side, a tight middle pack led the group to 10th place out of the 14 teams that competed. Junior Ben Holland was the team’s top finisher, taking 22nd in 19:15, and freshman Tyler Reinking ran a personal-best 19:43, good enough for 33rd.Captain Chris Marvin used what Quarantillo called a “ferocious kick” to take 58th, in 21:10, and then the pack arrived. Seniors Marc Miller (22:11), Kevin Davis (22:45, second straight personal best) and David Shaffer (22:53) and freshman Taylor Miller (23:08) rounded out Summit’s runners.Marshall Snead, racing in the open division, finished in 22:08.”The next step for both teams,” Quarantillo said, “is to move their tight trailing packs up through the race to finishes closer to the top finishers on our team. The teams with a close pack time between runners 1-7 are virtually unstoppable.”The Tigers are back in action Tuesday afternoon at the Luther Light Runner meet, then host their first and only race of the season Saturday morning at the Frisco Nordic Center.Devon O’Neil can be contacted at (970) 668-3998, ext. 231, or at doneil@summitdaily.com.


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