Cheyenne Mountain Wins Colorado Youth State Championships

Sam Lewis, front, and Jack Hamilton, back, race in the state showshoe championships event held in Summit County this past weekend. Photo by Jim Lewis.

Special to Colorado Track XC by Darren Brungardt

“Dry” is not a word that Summit County residents use to describe their winters. Snow totals that reach over 400” are the norm in this high mountain community. The winter of 2009-2010 has been cold, dry, and unpleasant for the citizens of a community that celebrate Norse snow gods, and swell with pride when school buses loaded with students arrive on time to classes while Front Range schools shut down for “minor” snow storms.

Given this year’s winter, the race organizers for the Love Me Tender Snowshoe Adventure figured that they had the fastest 5K snowshoe course ever packed down in Colorado history. Times in the low twenties were expected and hopes of Colorado State snowshoe records filled the dreams of the race director.  The course would not be as challenging or fun for the runners in the Colorado Youth State Championship but the low-land runners racing in the mountains would be happy with their times.

The Norse snow gods celebrated in Summit County decided at 5:17 PM Thursday night that the East Coast could no longer be the center of attention. Their jealousy raged and they whipped up a huge snowstorm that blanketed the race course with 6”+ of new snow and drifts that were knee high in most places. The race turned from a speedy runner’s course to a course that would test the new snowshoe racers from the Front Range.

Cheyenne Mountain, Boulder, Thompson Valley, Evergreen, and Smoky Hill High Schools joined the seasoned snowshoe racers of Summit High School for a snowshoe racing showdown in a near blinding blizzard. In the coed team championship, the rookies of Cheyenne Mountain edged out the veterans of Summit with a score of 18 to 28.  Mitch Kasyon (14th at the 4A CO XC State Championships) won the boys’ title with a time of 28:59.  Mitch ran his first ever snowshoe race in a pair of ancient, non-racing, snowshoes. The extra flotation on the snowshoes probably helped him trudge through the knee deep powder. He was followed by teammate Postyn Smith (29:25) and Evergreen’s Jack Hamilton (30:29). The boys refueled after the race in SHS’s cafeteria with delicious donuts, cakes, Hammer Gels, and pies.

The boys were not the only ones having fun in the snow and wind. Boulder High School’s Sam Lewis proved to be a top-class snowshoe racer given the snow conditions of the course. Sam won the girls race in a time of 30:29, just edged out by Jack Hamilton at the finish. Sam was followed by Thompson Valley star Emma Howard with a time of 41:16, and Summit’s Tess “The Mountain Goat” Olson (44:36). Tess was not only a fine snowshoe racer that day; she also helped organize the event and was seen supporting racers throughout the day. 75% of the race profits will be donated to the scholarship fund of the children of an English teacher at SHS that passed away last fall from cancer.

Racers will now look to compete at the national race in Syracuse, NY. The National Youth Championships is expected to be the largest under-19 race in snowshoe running history. Make sure to mark your calendars for next year’s CO Youth State Championships on 2/12/2010 at Summit High School…and send your wishes for snow earlier in the week rather than later!