The area representation in this season’s Class 5A girls state cross country meet consisted of only the team from Cherokee Trail and an individual in sophomore Jenna Winn of Eaglecrest.
So the composition of the 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Cross Country Team — which is determined by state performance — is heavy with Cougars (as expected) to go along with Winn.
— Find the full 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Cross Country Team, here
Cherokee Trail returned to the state meet as a team after missing out a season ago with a team largely made up of sophomores and freshmen. Sophomore Jade McDaniel made the state meet as an individual in 2023 and she was glad to have company this season after her team secured the last spot in regionals.
McDaniel ran her second state meet seven seconds after than her first, but with the depth of the field increased, finished in the exact same 66th spot. Her season included two races in which she broke 19 minutes (at the Liberty Bell Invitational and the Nike XC meet in Portland, where she earned a PR of 18:56.10), while her top individual place of the season came with her seventh-place showing at the Centennial League Championships.
Two fellow sophomores joined McDaniel on the All-Aurora team in Clara Kapfer and Anneli Reite.
Kapfer was the second area runner across the finish line behind her teammate as she recorded a time of 19:57.63 that put her 82nd. It was a season of growth for Kapfer, whose best time last season was 22:53, but dropped to a PR of 19:27.50 at the Nike race in Portland.
Reite also ran her personal best time at sea level with a time of 20:06 and she ran one other time that was faster than the 21:12.1 at the state meet that put her in 124th place. Reite’s highest individual place of the season came at the Centennial League Championships, where she was 20th.
Cherokee Trail also had a pair of freshmen make the All-Aurora first team in Reese Kass and Elle Van Fossen, who were 135th and 141st, respectively, at the state meet.
Van Fossen saved her fastest racing for the end of the season, when her PR of 21:37.30 at the Region 1 race was just slightly faster than 21:38.21 she ran at state. Her highest individual results came at the Centennial League championships, at which she took ninth.
Kass, meanwhile, had a season-high finish of seventh place at the Liberty Bell Invitational, while her PR of 21:04.80 came in Portland. She recorded a 21:31.40 at the Region 1 meet (at which she was 36th) to help her team make state, where she ran 21:52.72.
Winn broke a drought of nearly a decade for the Eaglecrest girls at the 5A state meet and she was the third-fastest local once she got there. Winn ran a time of 20:11.54 to finish in 96th place in a performance that came a week after she ran her fastest race of the season with the 19:49 at the Region 1 meet that put her 12th and punched her state ticket.
Winn opened the season with a victory at the Aurora City Championship meet and she went on to finish in the top-10 four other times (seventh at the Steve Lohman Invitational, eighth at the Longs Peak Invitational and ninth at the Roadrunners Invitational at Wash Park and at the Centennial League Championships.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
