{"id":798797,"date":"2019-08-22T19:01:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T01:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=370366"},"modified":"2019-08-22T19:01:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T01:01:42","slug":"led-by-one-of-the-fastest-boys-teams-in-memory-summit-high-school-cross-country-expects-big-things-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/led-by-one-of-the-fastest-boys-teams-in-memory-summit-high-school-cross-country-expects-big-things-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Led by one of the fastest boys\u2019 teams in memory, Summit High School cross-country expects big things in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Members of the Summit High School cross-country team warm up after a meeting with their coaches Thursday, Aug. 22, at Summit High School in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 There\u2019s a palpable buzz around this year\u2019s Summit High School cross-country boys team.<\/p>\n

In her 18th year leading the program, head coach Heather Quarantillo didn\u2019t mince words when talking about the boys\u2019 potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys\u2019 team is better than we\u2019ve ever had before,\u201d Quarantillo said before practice Thursday, on the eve of the Tigers\u2019 first meet of the season Friday: the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more depth, we have more speed, and we have a team that can potentially do some really great, exciting things and potentially go to the state championships,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The veteran core of the Tigers boys\u2019 team knows all too well how close they were last season. They were just one spot \u2014 12 points \u2014 away from booking their ticket to run as a team at state. They finished in fifth place at a regional meet that sends the top four teams to state.<\/p>\n

\n
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Senior Jeremiah Vaille and other members of the Summit High School cross-country team warm up for practice after a meeting with their coaches Thursday, Aug. 22, at Summit High School in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The good news for the Tigers is that Quarantillo is confident the boys are head and shoulders above where they were last year, led by experienced seniors Max Bonenberger, Jeremiah Vaille, Sam Wescott and Paul Hans. That quartet is also joined by fellow senior veterans Caleb White and Mike Tebow, runners who could contend for the team\u2019s seven varsity spots.<\/p>\n

Then there is junior Sam Burke, a runner Quarantillo said could be the team\u2019s top athlete on any given day. To make matters even better for the Tiger boys, junior Korben Long and freshmen Dominyk Remeikis, Zachary McBride and Landon Cunningham are running fast enough to contend for varsity spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a huge surprise because we have seen a lot of the younger guys run over the summer,\u201d Vaille said about the underclassmen. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to see all of the freshmen being able to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s familiarity with running dozens of cross-country and trail events with one another over the years should benefit the team come race day. And having freshmen run as fast as they are this early on is kind of like icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur boys team, all top five of them will be in there within 30 seconds of each other at the finish,\u201d Quarantillo said.<\/p>\n

Tigers girls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though the girls\u2019 side doesn\u2019t return the same speed and depth as the boys squad, Quarantillo is confident the girls are rebuilding the program\u2019s momentum. Senior Grace Staberg leads the way for the girls after she missed qualifying for states by just two spots last autumn.<\/p>\n

Joining Staberg on the girls varsity squad will be top returners junior Alice Wescott, sophomore Aubree Confer, junior Sadie Schroder and seniors Josie Jardon and Misha Martin Williams. The team also will benefit from the return of senior Lexi Morici, back at Summit High School after attending school out of state for a couple of years. Throw in speedy freshman Paige Wescott and Logan Reid, and the girls certainly have potential.<\/p>\n

\n
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Members of the Summit High School cross-country team \u2014 including leading girls\u2019 senior runner Grace Staberg, center \u2014 warm up after a meeting with their coaches Thursday, Aug. 22, at Summit High School in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe definitely want to work more on pack running because it\u2019s a strategy that gets you farther, and you can run together, and it\u2019s just a good motivational factor, as well,\u201d Alice Wescott said.<\/p>\n

Leading the way for the girls, Staberg said she\u2019d like to get her 5K time into the low 18 minutes after running as fast as 19:03 last season. But after a summer devoted to endurance training for the multisport star, Staberg said the first week of practice has been humbling in terms of getting back into the speed groove.<\/p>\n

That element of transitioning back into cross-country style running versus trail or endurance running is a big variable for the Tigers\u2019 top runners.<\/p>\n

That said, a leader like Bonenberger has his sights set as high as possible. He would like to get his time down to 15:30 after running as fast as 16:05 last season.<\/p>\n

If the Tigers get their way, he won\u2019t be the only one running that fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be exciting,\u201d Burke said. \u201cAnd it should be really fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Summit High School cross-country team warm up after a meeting with their coaches Thursday, Aug. 22, at Summit High School in Breckenridge.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 There\u2019s a palpable buzz around this year\u2019s Summit High School cross-country boys team. In her 18th year leading the program, head coach Heather Quarantillo didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 12:48:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}