Ella Hagen, second from left, poses for a photo with the four other individual qualifiers from the southwest region. Ella Hagen placed 25th in the Nike Cross Nationals meet on Saturday, December 3rd in Portland, Oregon.
Mike Hagen/Photo courtesy
Ella Hagen officially wrapped up her second cross-country season with the biggest race of her young career at the Nike Cross Nationals meet at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, December 3rd.
Hagen qualified for the national event after finishing seventh at the Nike Southwest Regional Meeting in Mesa, Arizona in November.
Hagen came into the meet excited to compete in the first national meet of her career. She competed with four other individual qualifiers from the Southwest region, three of whom are also from Colorado.
A field of over 140 of the nation’s top high school cross-country runners worked to position themselves in an ideal spot for the start of the race as a blustery wind swept the 5-kilometer course.
In the rage of arms and legs fighting for their position, Hagen fell, but she didn’t let the fall shake her mentally or physically. She was 50th at about the 1 kilometer mark of the race and 49th at the 1 mile mark and ran her first mile in a time of 5 minutes 30.7 seconds.
From there, she rose steadily in the race, passing runner after runner to chase the finish line. By the time the 2-mile mark passed, Hagen had fought her way through the wind to move up 16 places to 33rd, splitting 11:28.8 over 2 miles.
She continued digging a little over a mile from the target. Among the many spectators cheering on the race, Hagen crossed the finish line in 25th place with a time of 17:50.4.
The race was won by Irene Riggs of the Southeast region of Morgantown, West Virginia with a time of 16:40.9. Brooke Wilson of Colorado of Valor Christian High School was second in 16:54.6 and Bethany Michalak of Air Academy High School was third in 16:55.4.
Hagen will now rest a bit before the high school Nordic ski season begins. She will be looking to improve on last year’s Nordic ski season, where she finished fourth in both the skate and classic races at the Colorado High School Nordic Ski Championships in Granby.
Lukas Remeikis (left) and Dom Remeikis (right) pose for a photo before running at the Garmin RunningLane Cross-Country Championships on Saturday, December 3 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Lukas Remeikis/Photo courtesy
The Remeikis brothers compete in the race in Alabama
On Saturday afternoon, Senior Dom Remeikis competed in the Garmin RunningLane Cross-Country Championships in Huntsville, Alabama. Despite muddy conditions, Remeikis finished 67th in the boys’ gold race in a time of 15:58.3.
Also, current Summit Middle School eighth-grader Lukas Remeikis ran 20:15.50 for 206th place in the white boys’ race.
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