Lake City School Hosts Invitational Track Meet Friday

Friday, September 29, Lake City Community School (LCCS) will host seven schools from all over the state of Colorado in the fourth annual cross country invitational. Runners from Fort Collins, Center, Del Norte, Monte Vista, Centauri, Moffat and Gunnison will join LCCS runners at 3 p.m. to see who can make it across the finish line the fastest.
Middle School runners will run a 1.5 mile race, which will start at Town Park down Third Street to Bluff Street, up Henson Creek trails to the ATV station, then back down to Town Park.
High School runners will also begin at Town Park for their 3.1 mile route, heading down Silver Street to 8th Street, around the Post Office, down to Pete’s Lake trail, up to Bluff Street to Henson Creek trails, up to the ATV staging area and back down to Town Park.
Cross country and track coach Dan Scroggins is organizer of the invitational again this year, and can be contacted at the school at 944-2314 for more information.
WORLD recently caught up with Richard Moore, Scroggins’ partner coach, for information regarding recent cross country meets in Gunnison and Center.
“The Gunnison meet was huge,” Moore says. “Probably 20 schools were there, I couldn’t even tell you how many kids overall. Probably 150 in each race. Schools came from all over the valley.”
Middle School runners ran 1.5 miles in Gunnison, and High School ran 3.1 miles, which is a 5k race. Moore was not able to provide specific details from the Gunnison meet.
The cross country team also ran the same distances in four separate races September 22 in Center.
Jaden McNeese came in 3rd in the Middle School boy’s race; Kate Cunningham placed first in the Middle School girls’ race; Miranda Hall also took first place for the girls’ High School race and Gabe Murphy took first as well in the High School boys’ race.
“It was nearly a clean sweep,” Moore said. “Outstanding efforts were given by all. In the Girls’ High School race, Miranda led from the start and no one could touch her. She ran alone the entire race and wound up winning by almost three full minutes. That’s impressive.”
Moore also reports that in the High School boys’ race, Gabe Murphy ran alongside a boy from Monte Vista for the majority of the race, but then “changed gears,” pulled away and easily won the race.
Winter Painter finished fourth in the Middle School girls’ race; Elissa Stephens set a personal record by over two minutes and finished 9th in Middle School girls; Thomas Nichols and Rhett Moore finished 12th and 13th overall, respectively.
“T.J. Wonnacott, Tommy Nichols, Shaye Stephens and Caroline Thompson continue to work hard and get better every week and will soon be competing for top positions,” Moore said.
Upcoming cross country events include a meet in Del Norte on Tuesday, October 3, Sargeant on Friday, October 13 and Montrose, Saturday, October 14. The Regional cross country meet will be Thursday, October 19 in Pueblo, then the Middle School state meet will be held in Morrison, Saturday, October 21, and High School state meet is Saturday, October 28 in Colorado Springs.

Photos courtesy of Richard Moore