It was a different season in many ways for girls cross country around Aurora in 2023 with the concentration of top talent centered around Grandview and Regis Jesuit.
Four Raiders and two Wolves appear along with a Cherokee Trail representative on the 2023 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Cross Country Team, which is based primarily on performance at the Class 5A state meet in Colorado Springs.
Led by a mixture of experience — seniors Erika Danzer and Ashlyn Pallotta — and youth (freshmen Whitney Helmerick and Zoe Small), coach Natalie Baldsare’s Regis Jesuit team finished 18th out of 20 scoring teams at the conclusion of the meet at the challenging Norris Penrose Event Center.
Coach Brian Manley’s Grandview team made it to state for the first time since 2018 with a largest push from seniors Summer Abeyta and Julia Pace, while the first season in more than a decade in which Cherokee Trail didn’t qualify as a team saw a strong individual debut from freshman Jade McDaniel.
Here’s a look at each of the seven members of the All-Aurora first team:
Summer Abeyta, sr. Grandview: One of Grandview’s team captains ended her prep career by running at the state meet for the first time and led the Wolves with a 91st place result in a time of 20 minute, 11.50 seconds the Norris Penrose Event Center. Abeyta started the season with a time of 22:49.80 in the Aurora City Championship girls race, which put her third in a finish that was her highest individually for the whole season. She finished in the top 20 a total of five times with a highlight coming Sept. 30 at the Mead Stampede which saw her break 20 minutes for the only time on the season with a PR of 19:56.30.
Erika Danzer, sr., Regis Jesuit: Danzer had the longest resume of any Aurora girls cross country runner in terms of state appearances, as she earned a chance to run the Norris Penrose Event Center course for a third time in her career. The three-time All-Aurora first team performer posted her best state result when she ran a time of 19 minutes, 52.20 seconds to place 69th, which improved on her 77th place showing as a junior and 85th place finish as a sophomore in 2021. Danzer finished in the top 10 of five different races, topped by fifth-place results at both the Mead Stampede and Roadrunners Invitational. In terms of time, her PR came Sept. 9 with a 18:32 at the notoriously fast Liberty Bell Invitational and was one of two sub-20 minute races.
Whitney Helmerick, fr., Regis Jesuit: Helmerick was part of a massive infusion of youth for Regis Jesuit, as three of the seven state runners were freshman. In her first state competition at the Norris Penrose Event Center, Helmerick posted a 118th-place showing with a time of 21 minute, 10.50 seconds, which was the third-highest finish for the Raiders. It capped a season in which the frosh’s highest performance in terms of finish came in the Region 1 meet at the Arapahoe Country Fairgrounds, where she finished 17th to help Regis Jesuit qualify for state as a team. Helmerick’s PR came on Sept. 30 at the Mead Stampede when she clocked a time of 20:36.50.
Jade McDaniel, fr., Cherokee Trail: There were big differences for Cherokee Trail, which changed coaches (as Tristam Winship took over for Josh Tate) and saw the season end for the first time since 2011 without a team qualification for the state meet. McDaniel, a freshman, kicked off what could be an outstanding prep career with a season in which she qualified for the state meet individually and ran a time of 19 minutes, 50.30 seconds, which put her 66th as the second runner from an Aurora program to cross the finish line. In her first varsity race, McDaniel finished fourth in the Aurora City Championship girls race (her highest individual finish of the season) with a time of 22:58.70 and she got faster the entire season, finishing under 20 minutes three times with a PR of 19:47.30 at the Liberty Bell Invitational. She posted three top-10 finishes and placed in the top 14 of a race on five occasions.
Julia Pace, sr., Grandview: Pace was part of a veteran push that eventually helped Grandview snap its drought in terms of state qualifying as a team and she finished second on the Wolves at Norris Penrose Event Center when she came in 101st in a time of 20 minutes, 25.10 seconds. Pace opened the season by claiming the girls Aurora City Championship with a 10-second victory at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds to give the program its first girls city champion since Anna Swanson in 2019 and the rest of her season saw her finish in the top 20 of five races, including a 12th-place showing at the Centennial League Championship meet and 16th in the Region 1 meet to help Grandview overcome a projected deficit to earn the last team spot at the state meet. Her PR of 19:54.80 came at the 2022 Liberty Bell Invitational, but her best time of her senior season came with a 20:01.30 at the Mead Stampede.
Ashlyn Pallotta, sr., Regis Jesuit: Pallotta was one of the two senior leaders on a very young Regis Jesuit team and she led the Raiders in the state race at the Norris Penrose Event Center, where she led Aurora finishes with a time of 19 minutes, 19.40 seconds, which put her 36th overall. She ran 30-plus seconds faster and improved by 15 spots from her state showing in 2022 to make the All-Aurora first team for a second straight season. Pallotta collected four top-10 race finishes, which included a victory in the Roadrunners Invitational, in which she traversed the Washington Park course in 19:12.93, as well as a sixth-place result in the Region 1 race and 10th place in the Continental League Championship girls race. She broke 20 minutes in six of her nine races and went under 19 twice, including a PR of 18:23 at the Liberty Bell Invitational Sept. 9 as well as an 18:27.30 at the Steve Lohman Invitational Aug. 26.
Zoe Small, soph., Regis Jesuit: Part of the youth movement on the Regis Jesuit team that had just two upperclassmen, Small turned in a time of 21 minutes, 33.10 seconds in the state meet at the Norris Penrose Event Center on her way to 129th place individually. That came after her best performance in terms of finish, as she ran a 21:16 at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds for an important 22nd place result at the Region 1 meet, which was her highest individual finish of the season. Small ran consistently between 21 and 22 minutes during the season — a range she finished in five times in seven races — with a PR of 21:13.10 coming Sept. 9 at the Liberty Bell Invitational.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023 AURORA SENTINEL ALL-AURORA GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
First team
Summer Abeyta, sr., Grandview; Erika Danzer, sr., Regis Jesuit; Whitney Helmerick, fr., Regis Jesuit; Jade McDaniel, fr., Cherokee Trail; Julia Pace, sr., Grandview; Ashlyn Pallotta, sr., Regis Jesuit; Zoe Small, soph., Regis Jesuit
Honorable mention: Eden Akililu, sr., Grandview; Lillian Carll, jr., Grandview; Emilia Hull, soph., Regis Jesuit; Ashley Istvan, fr., Regis Jesuit; Ashlynn Mojica, sr., Grandview; Cameron Mojica, jr., Grandview; Eleni Mykoniatis, fr., Regis Jesuit; Emerson Rohrig, sr., Grandview
