2022 XC Season
3 hour Bus Ride!
Quite the Hill!
A Pretty Cool Day!
Race Recap
I promise you I am not making this up, it is unreal the amount of progress the boys have made so far this year! The boys have trained for our best races to come in October and sure enough, yesterday was October 1st. The Harriers and Emerging Harriers are hungry, fired up and ready for the post season to start in a few weeks! There is more progress to be made!
The Harriers and their Emerging counterparts headed up to Salida for a tough 5k with some serious hills and serious elevation. The boys were not scared of the competition or the course, they are tougher and better than they give themselves credit for! Coaches are fired up, look at why! The boys won the meet handily 39-59 over a podium caliber 3A team in Alamosa High School. Alamosa just returned from California where they ran well at the prestigious Woodbridge Invitational, they are a good team! Their coach came over after the meet and spoke highly of our squad as well. Look at the comparisons between this year and last on the same course!
In 2021, we ran the same course that we did yesterday. Look at some of these RIDICULOUS STATS!!!
In 2021 our varsity squad averaged 19:21 over the 5k Salida layout. In 2022, our varsity squad averaged 17:58 on the same course. An improvement of almost a minute and a half per guy!!!!!
In 2021, our top guy at this meet ran 18:55. In 2022, we had 7 guys run 18:46 or faster! WHAT?!?!?!? 7 guys faster than our #1 guy last year on the same course! These are not typos!
In 2021, our varsity 7 averaged 19:21. In 2022, our #8-14 runners (OUR JV TEAM) ran 19:25!!! Our JV team is nearly as good as our varsity team from last year, real XC programs are measured on their depth as much as their top end athletes. Our Emerging Harriers are stepping up!
Look at the improvements from 9 of the 11 boys who ran at this meet last year!
David Flaig (-1:54 min)
Caleb Aex (-2:19 min)
Braeden Focht (-1:17 min)
Zion Taylor (-1:11 min)
Matthew Tartell (-9 sec)
Max Larson (-1:35 min)
Drew Dougherty (-48 sec)
Thomas O’Keefe (-1:01 min)
Joey Beatty (-2:08 min)
Hayden Stokes (-3:05 min)
In 2022 Our JV team would have placed 6th in the Varsity race if we scored our #8-14 guys.
Harriers and Emerging Harriers, you represented your team, your teammates and your school well!!!
Dave Sanders Invitational (9/23/22)
It was a hot and hilly day in Littleton! The day started with a fantastic showing by the Emerging Harriers who stepped up to run in their first Varsity race ever! Coach Schneider said EVERY SINGLE athlete raced brave and did what coaches asked them to! They got out aggressively and competed when it got tough! They placed 10th out of 21 teams!!!! Not bad for a group of JV guys who laced up their flats against some of the best varsity teams in the State! The future looks bright for RJXC.
Next up were the Developing and Young Harriers who absolutely crushed the Open Race! We had over 10 PR’s and the squad WON THE MEET!!!! Anytime you can beat the open squad of the reigning 5A CHSAA State Champions and one of the best programs in the ENTIRE UNITED STATES, it is a good day! The Young and Developing Harriers won the race 35-48 over perennial national powerhouse, Mountain Vista! Coaches are so proud of all the Developing and Young Harriers who are out their giving their best for their teammates, their school and themselves! Again, the future looks bright for RJXC!!!
14 PR’s from a tough Dave Sanders course!
Max Ficco- 9 seconds
Drew Dougherty- 2 seconds
Max Larson- 9 seconds
Aeden S- 51 seconds
Hayden Stokes- 31 seconds
Ian Ngantung- 8 seconds
Mason Saum- 5 seconds
Lucas Paez- 55 seconds
Paul Montville- 7 seconds
Ari Kleinberg- 65 seconds
Evan Delmoro- 13 seconds
Liam Martin- 9 seconds
Rober Busselmaier- 33 seconds
Jonathan Keogh- 74 seconds
WOW! What another great week of training and racing for the Harriers of Regis Jesuit!!! It is so cool to see all the boys’ miles paying off! This past weekend we divided and conquered at two different XC venues in two different states (The Dave Sanders Invitational in Littleton, CO and The Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence, KS). We had 1 Young Harrier run the first XC race of his life! We had 15 lifetime bests! We had 8 athletes compete in their first ever Varsity race! Keep trusting the journey RJXC! Cool stuff is happening!
Rim ROck Classic (9/24/22)
Crimson Varsity- 2nd Place (125 pts)
What a difference a year can make! Miles don’t lie and neither does hard work!!! The Harriers of RJXC placed 2nd in the Crimson Race behind a very tight packed Lexington (KS) squad (112-125). Due to illness, the squad only lined up 5 guys in the Crimson race, the bare minimum! We had a breakout performance by sophomore, Caleb Aex, and had two boys in the top 10. Racing ONLY 5 athletes is a very tough ask. EVERY SINGLE runner had to compete and place well. There were no room for errors, since XC only scores 5 athletes, it was a tight rope walk! Flaig-Aex-Taylor-Tartell-Burns got the job done! The boys are HUNGRY for more!!! They will use a 13 point defeat behind a strong team performance to fuel their efforts as we approach the post season!
Check out the 2021 to 2022 RJXC results from Rim Rock! In 2021, the RJXC squad averaged 17:39 for the tough and hilly 5k course. In 2022, the RJXC squad averaged 17:03! After getting off the phone with Coach Drysdale after the meet, he confirmed that last year’s ideal temperatures vs. the 80+ degree temperature was also a factor. So an average of 36 seconds in much tougher conditions is quite the improvement!
1 PR from Rim Rock. Caleb Aex with a 3 second PR earned him a nice medal and a trip to the award stand!
St. Vrain High School XC Invitational (9/17/22)
Any time you get to rub elbows with some of the best Varsity, JV and Open teams in the State AND Country, it is a great opportunity to learn and compete!!! Boys, I hope that you are excited to keep working hard to climb the ranks of the Colorado State XC landscape….because it is happening!!!!! Being positive teammates, working hard at practices everyday, and believing in yourself are allowing your own and YOUR TEAM’S progress to show.
The JV/Open squad stole the show once again! After some race result adjustments, the JV/Open squad placed 6th out 22 teams!!! The coaches were impressed by the tenacity that our JV an Open squad athletes showed out on the course. They are doing what coaches are asking, having fun and it is paying off!!! As a group, they are representing what RJXC is all about!!! They are running as a team (A MASSIVE PACK EARLY ON IN RACES, it is so cool to watch), getting out strong, competing hard together in the middle with those other teams around them and finishing their races passing tons of guys! Keep it up boys, the coaches are pumped about your progress and belief in yourselves, your teammates and your coaches. Keep trusting the journey!!!!! We had 2 freshman run their first HS 5k’s and 7 athletes PR on a far tougher course than last week!
19:35- Logan Jedlicka (17 sec PR)
19:40- Thomas O’Keefe (1 sec PR)
20:11- Hayden Stokes (9 sec PR)
21:12- Mason Saum (41 sec PR)
22:27- Paul Montville (2 sec PR)
24:28- Miles Hickman (33 sec PR)
27:48- Jonathan Keogh (4:25 min PR)
Varsity Boys placed 9th overall against a very strong field. Running against XC fields of this quality are great chances to get fired up and head back to daily practices with some renewed energy! There is more work to be done! BIG performances by David Flaig and Zion Taylor get the RJ Harriers excited to head to the Rim Rock Classic in Lawrence, KS this upcoming weekend!
Centaurus Bernie Gay XC Invitational (9/10/22)
WOW!!!!!!! What a meet on Saturday! That is by far the best collective set of performances, positive group energy and encouraging environment I have seen so far from this team at a meet! We got it done on and off the course! The boys are buying in to the team culture/set of expectations that coaches have set and it is obviously paying off. The boys are working hard, being positive and supporting their teammates! It is cool to see!!! Top to bottom, the boys represented the “Regis Jesuit” on their jerseys well.
Varsity- 2nd/25 teams (76 points)
JV- 1st/18 teams (41 points)
Open- 1st/8 teams (22 points)
43 Runners competed and 6 just came to cheer on their teammates despite not racing!
10 Boys ran their first ever 5k race!
29 Boys ran lifetime personal bests!
39 Boys ran seasonal bests!
Arapahoe Warrior XC Invitational 2022 (9/2/22)
On an extremely hot day, we had many performances to be proud of! A lot of our Young Harriers ran their first HS 5k setting PR’s! Our Developing Harriers ran well in the FR/SO Open race to get the meet started off in style, our Harriers were up next and competed against some of the best in the State in the Varsity race, while many of our Emerging Harriers put an exclamation on the meet in the JR/SR Open race! Some quick notes!
RJXC competed at this meet in 2021 and look at the improvements in 2022!
1) FR/SO Race
2021 Result- 224 pts (8th/19 teams)
2022 Result- 252 pts (9th/23 teams)
2) Varsity Race
2021 Result- 427 pts (15th/28 teams)
2022 Result- 220 pts (8th/33 teams)
That is an improvement of 207 points! Which means that each 5 of our scoring boys placed an average of 41 PLACES HIGHER than 2021 even with 5 more teams competing this year!!!!!!
3) JR/SR Race
2021 Result- 378 pts (14th/16 teams)
2022 Result- 50 pts (2nd/13 teams)
That is an improvement of 328 points! Which means that each 5 of our scoring boys placed an average of 65 PLACES HIGHER than 2021!!!!!
WASH pARK iNVITE (8/27/22)
Varsity- 3rd Place (84 pts)
Open- 2nd Place (49 pts)
5 Quick Thoughts
We had 6 boys come out and support the team even though they weren’t racing!!!! That is over 10% of our squad! They were fantastic teammates….being a good teammate means doing it on and OFF the course! Well done guys!
Our Open Squad placed 2nd with 49 points behind Denver East. We had 3 finishers in the top 9 who all ran their first ever High School XC race! 5 points from winning the whole thing! Every point matters! Every person in front of you matters!
Our Varsity boys placed 3rd behind Denver East and Grandview. 5 out of the top 6 ran lifetime bests! We had 2 in the top 10. The varsity boys had a heavy training week, but still got out there and competed. They are learning to race on heavy legs, a valuable skill for the future!
We had 16 guys run their first ever high school XC race this past weekend! Great programs develop athletes with season after season of hard work and team commitment! These youngsters got their feet wet and it will pay off down the road for them and the entire program!
We had 38 athletes race this weekend! We had a lot of gutsy performances; the coaches are all very proud of the guys who got out their at gave their best. Racing is NOT easy. It is a vulnerable position to be when you put everything out on the course and let the chips fall where they may. Our boys didn’t look scared or intimidated and represented the Regis Jesuit on their chests well!
Varsity Top 7 (5k) Open Top 7 (3k)
5) David Flaig (16:14) 2) Liam Sullivan (10:06)
10) Caleb Aex (16:40) 4) Max Ficco (10:11)
17) Braeden Focht (17:00) 9) Alec Delmoro (10:30)
19) Zion Taylor ( 17:01) 15) Max Larson (10:44)
33) Carson Schuler (17:30) 19) Drew Dougherty (10:44)
43) Matthew Tartell (17:46) 22) Thomas O'Keefe (10:48)
23) Jack Wilzbacher (10:58)