A chilly morning led to a delayed start of the Rangeview Raider Invitational. Despite the low temperatures and an increasing breeze as the meet progressed, there were more than a few excellent performances from the East Angels in the opening meet of the season which featured about 20 medium and large size schools primarily from Denver and Aurora.

The Boys 4 x 800m were the first to take the track for the Angels. The team of Quinn Higgins, Henry Bennett, Jonas Scudamore, and Corbin Hobert pulled away for the win and a Colorado #2 time of 8:17.48. Among the must-see events for Angels fans this year will be the hurdles. Senior Nigel James, in his first season running hurdles, won both the 110m (14.83) and 300m (39.15) events in Colorado #3 and #1 times thus far for the season. Makai Wilson went 21^st and 23^rd in the hurdle events while Harry Hittle debuted with a 13^th place finish in the 300m hurdles. On the girls’ side, Camila Read went 4^th and 3^rd in the 100m and 300m hurdles respectively and Mia Holloway went 5^th and 8^th.  

In the short sprints, sophomore Amelie Campbell will be one to watch this season; on Saturday she ran personal bests as she took 2^nd in the 100m (12.46) and won the 200m (25.90) in Colorado #3 and #2 leading times respectively. Ligia Thortvedt and Sawyer Voas were 10^th and 19^th in the 100m while Olivia Ellis and Clara Artley were 8^th and 31^st in the 200m. For the boys, Josh Kao had a pair of third place finishes in the 100 (11.37) and 200m (23.35, PR) sprints. Freshman Jackson Llewellyn and Nikasio Brown went 13^th and 37^th in the 100 while William Germain and JaiVyence Winston were 18^th and 26^th in the 200m. 

Scudamore (4:38), Higgins (4:43) and Bennett (4:46) all PR’d on their way to 2^nd, 3^rd, and 5^th place finishes in the 1600m. Ian Logan won the boys 3200m while Abraham Morginsky was 8^th and Merle Hezel was 28^th. Grace Todd went pole to wire to win the 1600m; Sophia Shiroff put in the most mileage, with her 3^rd place finish in the 1600m and 2^nd place finish in the 3200m. Evelyn Higgins was 10^th in the 1600m and Avery Ash was 3^rd in the 3200m. 

Junior Jameson Leigh braved the less than ideal conditions to win the 400m in an early season state #9 51.43, followed by Corbin Hobert (52.98) in 2^nd and Aidan Logan in 9^th. In the 800’s, Connor Beardsley was 6^th, Kai Luna 17^th, and Jackson Gertge 34^th, while for the girls Julieta Ochoa was 3^rd and Amelia Keglovitz 25^th.  In the sprint relay events, the girls 4x100m (Emma Van De Velde, Isabella Raworth, Sawyer Voas, Elsa Manly) earned an 8^th place finish, the boys 4x100m (Llewellyn, Winston, DJ Toppin, N. Brown) and 4x200m (Kao, James, Germain, Leigh) 5^th place finishes, and the boys 4x400m (Nathan Taylor, Hittle, A. Logan, Beardsley) a 10^th place finish.

Out on the field, DJ Toppin leaped to an outdoor PR of 19’9” for 3^rd place in the boys long jump. Lyai Lyai took 9^th in the high jump, Ben Wigglesworth threw for 26^th in the discus and 35^th in the shotput while Dylan Ingerson was 39^th in the discus. Olivia Ellis took 4^th in the girls long jump while Leah Maina took 5^th in the triple jump and 6^th in the high jump, both in personal bests. 

While team place is not a point of emphasis for the Angels during the invitational season, the Angels Boys finished 2^nd place as a team and the Girls 4^th (just 3 points outside of the top-2) in team scoring.

The Angels have three meets in the week ahead: a JV meet at All-City stadium on Wednesday; a varsity meet hosted by Denver South at All-City on Thursday; and the very competitive Broomfield Invitational on Saturday.