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Severy and Aspen girls cross country win again

Tim Mutrie
Aspen Times Staff Writer

Another race, another win for Aspen freshman Christy Severy.

Severy won the second race of her high school cross country career (in as many tries) Saturday at the Boulder Cross Country Challenge, while AHS sophomore Simi Hamilton won his first of the season. Meanwhile, senior March Thompson of Alpine Christian Academy posted back-to-back top-11 finishes in back-to-back 5K races: Friday at Palisade and Saturday at Leadville.

Severy won the Class 3A division title at the Boulder 5K in 21 minutes, 18 seconds (although she finished third overall in the open varsity race, 40 seconds behind the winner). Severy’s win propelled the AHS girls team to its second team victory of the season, ahead of Bishop Machebeuf and Colorado Academy.



Aspen’s Jenny Hamilton was fourth, followed by Besha Deane, Erin Kiernan and Dylan Braun in fifth, sixth and seventh, Kathryn Eastley in 10th and Elissa Rodman in 20th.

“It was pretty competitive,” said AHS coach Chris Keleher. “It was good to have a lot of bodies out there to give them that experience of chasing somebody from behind.”




Simi Hamilton led the charge for the AHS boys, finishing first in the 3A division (and sixth overall) in 17:50. Sean Braisted was sixth in 3A, followed by John Hatanaka (21st), Andrew Preusch (28th), Weston Boyles (29th) and Frederic Clausen (30th). The AHS boys finished third, behind Lyons and Jefferson Academy, ahead of just Limon in the division.

At Palisade on Friday, the Alpine Christian girls posted a fourth-place team finish. The defending 4A state runner-up Moffat County won the eight-team meet, followed by Fruita.

Thompson was sixth in 20:30, followed in seventh by junior Ashley Eaton (20:42) in her first race of the season, Deanna Spracher (17th), Whitney Lund (25th), Sam Hoffman (36th), Ukare Sano (38th), Heather Conder (41st) and Meagan Goodwin (47th).

“With this competition, that’s a good finish,” Alpine Christian coach Ron Lund said. “I was pleased with the way they ran.”

While Alpine Christian didn’t record a team score on the boys side, John Tucker ran to a 24th-place finish (18:28) and Collin Stewart was 27th.

Twenty-four hours later, Alpine Christian racers were on the other side of the Continental Divide at a Leadville race Saturday with more than 30 schools. The Alpine Christian girls were ninth among 19 schools at the 3A level, led by Thompson in 11th place (22:06) in the field of 75 girls in the varsity race. Lund trailed in 34th, followed by Spracher (40th) and Sano (62nd).

“It went OK,” Lund said. “Obviously the second day was kinda tough for some of the kids, new territory for them, but over the long run I think it’ll build character. That Leadville race is hard enough anyway, so to go into it without fresh legs makes it tougher.”

Among the Alpine Christian boys in the field of about 65, Tucker was 17th, Stewart was 30th and Keane Karnan, making his debut, was 50th.

This weekend, the Aspen teams travel to Steamboat Springs for the annual “Sufferfest” race, while Alpine Christian heads to the Denver area Friday for the Liberty Bell meet, the largest in the state with about 100 teams. On Tuesday, both teams are headed to the Georgetown Invitational.