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Eagle Valley races to divisional win at Sanders Invite in Littleton

Eagle Valley's Avery Doan rolls to a ninth-place finish at the Dave Sanders Invitational on Friday, Sept. 22, in Littleton. Doan finished in 19 minutes, 36 seconds.
Special to the Daily |

Dave Sanders Invitational

Division 2

Boys

Team results

1. Eagle Valley, 85; 2. D’Evelyn, 96; 3. Holy Family, 121; 4. Skyview, 124; 5. Mullen, 144.

Individual results.

5. Aiden Branch, 16:34

10. Jack Neifert, 16:52

22. Bailey Beckum, 17:42

23. Carter Baker, 17:42

25. Luke Morrissey, 17:46

27. John Papadopoulos, 17:47

49. Nicholas Thompson, 18:21.

Girls

Team results

1. Golden, 61; 2. D’Evelyn, 79; 3. Holy Family, 94; 4. Elizabeth, 135; 5. Green Mountain, 140 … 7. Eagle Valley, 202.

Individual results

6. Joslin Blair, 19:17

9. Avery Doan, 19:36

40. Katy Grewe, 21:24

69. Alissa Barry, 22:36

78. Sofie Boggs, 22:52

87. Carley Beckum, 23:06

99. Zoe Booth, 23:56

LITTLETON — Allegedly, we’re in the grinding portion of the cross-country season. The newness of the season is gone and, at the same time, regionals aren’t quite in sight.

And none of that is stopping Eagle Valley cross-country. The Devils boys won Division 2 of the Dave Sanders Invitational down in Littleton on Friday, Sept. 22, while the girls were seventh. Eagle Valley’s team had four runners between both teams in the individual top 10.

“We’re looking to go up against tough teams in the state,” Devils coach Melinda Brandt said. “We’re at races with 20-plus teams. We want to race the best. Our guys are hungry right now.”



‘great approach’

And that resulted in six Devils in the top 27. Aidan Branch and Jack Neifert scorched the course with times under 17 minutes. Bailey Beckum, Carter Baker, Luke Morrissey and John Papadopoulos were all in a 5-second pack after that.

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“Our kids right now have a great approach,” Brandt said. “We’re giving them challenging workouts and they’re thriving. We’re giving them long days and they’re thriving. They’re eating up everything we’re throwing at them.”

Joslin Blair and Avery Doan both punched through into the top 10, which is not surprising. What might be worth noticing are Katy Grewe and Alissa Barry. Cross-country is a sport obsessed with numbers. Everything is charted.

Grewe and Barry were two minutes faster on Friday than they were a year ago on this course. That’s big progress, and it also opens the door that the two might be able to work their way toward Blair and Doan when it comes to scoring at regionals.

This week’s Hoss Awards went to Ryan Boeke and Carley Beckum. Both had personal bests on Friday.

Next up for the Devils is the Demon Invite in Glenwood Springs on Thursday, Sept. 28.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.


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