NORTHGLENN | Three individuals from local teams emerged with berths in the Class 5A state cross country meet from Thursday’s Region 1 races.
Eaglecrest seniors Mason Brown and Gavin Morgenegg on the boys side and Smoky Hill junior Amelia Johannes on the girls side worked their way into the top 15 runners across the finish line in races at Northwest Open Spaces Park to extend their season for another week.
All three head to the Oct. 28 5A state meet at the Norris Penrose Events Center in Colorado Springs, where they’ve all competed in the past.
Brown won the Centennial League boys championship race a week prior at Cherry Creek State Park and came into the regional race as the fastest runner on the season thanks to his mark of 15 minutes, 24 seconds, at the Liberty Bell Invitational.
Lanky Denver East senior Harrison Scudamore — who Brown topped by four seconds at the Liberty Bell meet — had other ideas, pulling away from what had been a good-sized lead pack for the first half of the race to post a three-second victory over Dakota Ridge’s Austin Vancil.
Brown saw another Dakota Ridge runner, Connor Ohlson, move past him on the way up a hill in the final mile and he was unable to track the Eagles’ runner down before the finish line, which he crossed in 16:02.70, his third-fastest time of the season.
The result was easily enough to earn Brown his fourth career trip to the state meet and he’ll be joined by Morgenegg, who has also had an outstanding season for the Raptors.
Morgenegg held a strong position for the entire race and finished in 16:25, just eight seconds behind his performance at the Thornton Invitational Sept. 29 (16:17) for his best time of the season.
With 163 points, the Eaglecrest boys finished seventh — topping Smoky Hill by three points for city-best honors — and came in three spots behind Denver East, which grabbed the fourth and final team qualifying spot with a score of 122. Dakota Ridge (51), Legend (75) and Arapahoe (111) also moved on to state as teams.
While the Eaglecrest boys held state-qualifying positions throughout their race, not so for Johannes, who went out conservatively in the Region 1 girls race as she sought her third career trip to the state meet.
The Smoky Hill junior maintained a steady pace in top 30 of the race for the first two miles before making her move.
Picking off runner after runner in the final stretch, Johannes rocketed all the way up to the No. 13 spot at the finish line with a season-best time of 19:54.80.
Johannes finished more than two seconds faster than she had a week earlier in her 29th-place finish at the Centennial League Championship meet and made significant improvement on her previous best time of the season, a 20:27 at the season-opening Aurora City Championship meet, where she was the runner-up.
Eaglecrest took city-best team honors with a ninth-place finish, paced by Faith Lind in 40th place.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
2017 CLASS 5A REGION 1 CROSS COUNTRY
Boys team scores: 1. Dakota Ridge 51 points; 2. Legend 75; 3. Arapahoe 111; 4. Denver East 122; 5. Arvada West 143; 6. Chatfield 148; 7. EAGLECREST 163; 8. SMOKY HILL 166; 9. Thornton 228; 10. Columbine 255; AURORA CENTRAL no score
Girls team scores: 1. Arvada West 46 points; 2. Denver East 87; 3. Arapahoe 93; 4. Dakota Ridge 102; 5. Chatfield 132; 6. Legend 176; 7. Columbine 199; 8. Thornton 202; 9. EAGLECREST 212; 10. SMOKY HILL 231; 11. AURORA CENTRAL 355
Top 15 boys individuals (state qualifiers): 1. Harrison Scudamore (Denver East), 15 minutes, 50.20 seconds; 2. Austin Vancil (Dakota Ridge), 15:53; 3. Connor Ohlson (Dakota Ridge), 15:54.00; 4. MASON BROWN (EAGLECREST), 16:02.70; 5. Drew Johnson (Chatfield), 16:05; 6. Landon Rast (Legend), 16:15.80; 7. Manny Lujan (Thornton), 16:23.60; 8. GAVIN MORGENEGG (EAGLECREST), 16:25.00; 9. Cole Nash (Chatfield), 16:27.90; 10. Mark Testa (Dakota Ridge), 16:28; 11. Ryan Johnson (Legend), 16:32.70; 12. Stephen Haysley (Arapahoe), 16:32.80; 13. Andres Perez (Arvada West), 16:33.40; 14. Griffin Hampton (Arapahoe), 16:33.70; 15. Austin Podhajsky (Legend), 16:36.90
Top 15 girls individuals (state qualifiers): 1. Stephanie Carrasco (Thornton), 17 minutes, 58.50 seconds; 2. Claire Pauley (Arvada West), 18:37.10; 3. Katie Doucette (Arvada West), 18:54.90; 4. Morgan Conn (Arapahoe), 19:00; 5. Michelle Renner (Dakota Ridge), 19:17; 6. Sydney Williams (Chatfield), 19:27.70; 7. Civianna Gallegos (Arvada West), 19:28.70; 8. Amber Valdez (Arvada West), 19:39.70; 9. Laurel Kruger (Denver East), 19:46; 10. Elizabeth Cothran (Chatfield), 19:52.40; 11. Skylar Lodice (Dakota Ridge), 19:53.80; 12. Maia Shore (Thornton), 19:54.40; 13. AMELIA JOHANNES (SMOKY HILL), 19:54.80; 14. Nicole Killeen (Columbine), 19:56; 15. Lilly Cory (Denver East), 19:56.50
Aurora boys team-by-team results (in order of finish)
Eaglecrest (163): 4. Mason Brown, 16 minutes, 2.70 seconds; 8. Gavin Morgenegg, 16:25; 44. Scott MacLean, 17:56.70; 60. Christian Branson, 18:20.70; 64. Noah Vogel, 18:46.20; 65. Cyrus Perry, 18:54.40; 66. Sawyer Slauson, 18:55.50; 70. Jacob Hoffman, 19:05.20; 79. Edward Schwandt, 19:43; Smoky Hill (166): 24. Oumari Smith, 16:54.30; 32. Dalton Seymour, 17:36.40; 35. Skyler Bachicha, 17:41.60; 40. Jake Jezier, 17:51.70; 42. Blake Seymour, 17:53.60; 69. Isaac Sandoval, 18:58; 72. Daniel Podnovskiy, 19:10; 74. Jayson Peranni, 19:23.30; 92. Yafet Bekele, 21:25; Aurora Central (NS): 83. Christian Bustamante, 19:56.70; 91. Steven Asher, 21:22.40; 93. Giovanni Valdez, 22:14.40
Aurora girls team-by-team results (in order of finish)
Eaglecrest (212): 40. Faith Lind, 21:02.10; 45. Halie Lewis, 21:15.40; 48. Olivia Williams, 21:30.10; 51. Emily Llamas, 21:42.90; 52. Fiona Hiland, 21:56.30; 58. Natie Selenke, 22:32.40; 68. Tatiana Rivera, 23:04.90; 69. Sarah Lind, 23:14.20; 74. Emily Hunter, 23:42.80; Smoky Hill (231): 13. Amelia Johannes, 19:54.80; 54. Mahalia Thomas, 22:14.40; 56. Evangelyne Eliason, 22:29.0; 66. Kyndall Hadley, 22:57.70; 71. Elizabeth Russo, 23:20.20; 79. Katie Power, 24:06.70; 80. Elishevlyne Eliason, 24:21.70; 83. Genesis Cardona, 24:50.90; 84. Jessie Eoff, 25:33.40; Aurora Central (355): 86. Aline Thongvanh, 26:16.20; 87. Serenity Torres, 26:51.80; 88. Yesenia Blanco, 28:02.70; 89. Melanie Mendez, 29:33.40; 90. Aiden Martinez, 31:04.90