The 2025 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Cross Country Team — as determined by season and Class 5A state meet performance — is devoid of seniors and trending on the younger side as the arrival of a pair of freshmen — McKenna Groen of Regis Jesuit and Madison Lange of Cherokee Trail — significantly boosted the area’s competitive level.
Groen concluded her debut season as Aurora’s top finisher at the 5A state meet with a ninth-place result. A fall in the water before the closing stretch of the race at the Norris Penrose Event Center didn’t keep her off the medal podium, in fact she made up a place. Groen crossed the finish line in 18 minutes, 8.8 seconds, which was her second-fastest time of the season behind a 17:28.50 at the always-fast Liberty Bell Invitational.
Groen finished in the top 10 of all of her races during the season and she claimed the Continental League championship with a 20-second victory, which bettered runner-up results at the Arapahoe Warrior Invitational, the Dave Sanders Invitational (DI division) and Mead Stampede. She was also fourth in the 5A Region 1 meet and 10th in the loaded Sweepstakes race at Liberty Bell. After state, Groen finished 18th at the Nike Cross Nationals Southwest Regional in Arizona.
Lange arrived at Cherokee Trail and made an immediate impact as she won the Aurora City Championship meet to begin her career and it was the start of outstanding campaign. Lange also won the St. Vrain Invitational and the Pat Amato Classic, while she was the runner up in a trio of meets — the Centennial League Championships and 5A Region 1 meets (where she was behind only Cherry Creek star Emily Cohen) and the Steve Lohman Invitational — and also placed fourth in the DI division at the Dave Sanders Invitational and in the Sweepstakes race of the Liberty Bell Invitational, when she clocked a season-best 16:58.20.
Lange ran 18:37.7 at the state meet to claim 21st and then followed that with a seventh-place showing at the Nike Cross Nationals Southwest Regional to earn a spot in the national race Dec. 6 in Portland, Oregon. Lange finished 25th in a field of 200 national qualifiers in a time of 17:52.1 as she came in before Cohen (30th) and three-time state champion Addy Ritzenheim of Niwot (32nd).
Coach Tristam Winship’s Cherokee Trail had five All-Aurora performers among the area’s top seven, a group that includes experienced juniors Jade McDaniel and Clara Kapfer.
McDaniel set the pace for Aurora area qualifiers at the 2024 5A state meet when she placed 66th, but she was fourth among locals across the finish line this time with a 78th place result. Kapfer finished 82nd in 2024 and moved up just one spot to 81st this season, though her time on the same course was a significant 17 seconds faster.
Cherokee Trail is also represented by a pair of sophomores in Elle Van Fossen and Elizabeth Skibitskii, who finished 132nd and 142nd, respectively, at state. Van Fossen shaved 40 seconds off her time from the previous season (with a move up of three places), while Skibitskii ran her fastest time of the year in the Region 1 meet and came just five seconds shy of that at state.
Last season’s Aurora city champion — Jenna Winn of Eaglecrest — took a big step forward in her junior season. In the state meet for the second straight season, Winn ran a whopping 1 minute, 13 seconds, faster than she had in a 2024 and upped her finish from 94th all the way to 40th.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports