In this week's edition of Future Stars, we'll take a look at recent sophomore performances!
Colorado, meet Kaeden Dendorfer.
The Valor Christian sophomore recently trounced his personal best at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational - his first race of the 2022 Colorado cross country season - running 15:18.
Rewinding a year, Dendorfer spent most of the 2021 season flirting with the 16-minute marker, running a Colorado PR of 15:57.
As a freshmen he finished 16th at the 5A Colorado State Cross Country Championships, running 16:29.
Dendorfer is no rookie on the course, however, the first performance we have on MileSplit for him is a 52nd-place finish at the 2018 Slavens Invite, where he ran12:17 for the 1.8-mile course. (Funny coincidence - the race was won by Brennan Draper.)
Clearly Dendorfer has put in the work!
Scanning over the boys sophomore rankings, one thing is clear - the future looks bright for two squads in particular...
Coronado, and Valor Christian.
Quick Takes
Benjamin Anderson - Remember this name. The Mountain Vista sophomore just ran a Colorado sophomore class record of 15:00.3 at Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational. To understand the gravity of this performance, take into consideration that the sophomore version of Parker Wolfe - who would eventually go on to run a Colorado soil record of 14:30 - ran 15:31 on this course. Likewise, Cole Sprout - the second-fastest Colorado runner ever - ran 15:25 as a sophomore.
Boston Potts - The Coronado sophomore sliced a thick 1:02 off his Colorado PR at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational, running 14:48.
Parker Davidson - Coronado's second sophomore to make a big jump. And get this - he skipped 16-minutes entirely, running 15:52 at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational. If there were awards for biggest PR of the week, Davidson would take the whole cake - this is no slice, it's the whole thing - 1:29 improvement.
Judah Crooks - Valor's second sophomore on this list. Crooks dropped 1:07 from his 2021 PR, running 15:53 at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational.
Briley Roth - Coronado's third sophomore on this list - he's a close second to Davidson in terms of biggest PR of the week. He dropped 1:19 off his 2021 PR, running 15:55 at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational.
Ella Hagen - The Summit sophomore is quickly running herself off this category of "Future" and into "Present" - she recently dropped a 16:45 runner-up finish at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational. What makes the performance additionally impressive is that it's currently a US No. 2, and it's the fifth-fastest time ever run by a Coloradan in Colorado.
Keeghan Edwards - Like Hagen, she's already run herself upwards, but we wanted to put a spotlight at her recent 17:24 finish at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational - that's a Colorado PR.
Rosie Mucharsky - The Denver East sophomore made a big leap at Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational. Not only did she run with Colorado's best, she ran a 17:36 - that's just under half-a-minute faster than she ran here a year ago.
Peyton Adams - The Mountain Vista sophomore skipped 18-minutes (in Colorado) entirely. Adams ran 17:47 at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational - that's a massive 1:13 Colorado PR.