On Saturday, September 9, the Coronado Cross Country team made their way up to Heritage High School, Denver, CO, to race in the Liberty Bell Invitational. The Liberty Bell Invitational had 100 teams traveling from all over Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The racecourse is relatively flat with few uphill sections and a downhill that descends 122 ft. The Varsity race started at 9:10 a.m. but was called back when multiple teams fell at the starting line, one of which was Coronado.
The fall didn’t stop Oliver Horton, Class of 2027, from not only breaking Coronado’s 5k record previously held by Bailey Roth, Class of 2014, but also from breaking the freshmen state record previously held by Niwot student, Rocco Culpepper, Class of 2026, with both previous records being held at a time of 15 minutes and 18 seconds. Oliver ran a time of 15 minutes and 10 seconds which is a 4 minute and 54 second mile three times.
When asked about the fall at the start of the race, Oliver commented “Luckily, I didn’t get caught up in the huge fall at the start, but I knew I could run around 15:20 because of how fast we have been running in our workouts and as long as I stuck with the front of the group.” Bridger Steiner-Smith, Class of 2024, added “I knew he could run the record and that the fall (especially because he wasn’t a part of it), would not be a factor to hinder his goal.” This record is just one of many records that have been run with the new cross country and track programs. When asked about how the programs have been changed, Bridger commented “To think that now we are favored to win state is something I definitely would not have foreseen.”
Oliver added a prediction for the cross-country team’s performance at state: “I definitely see us as a team running super well at state and contending for the state title…and the fact that I broke the record, definitely gives me the confidence as well.” Last year, Oliver finished first in the USATF National Junior Olympic Championship, where he was crowned the number one eighth grader across the nation: “This record has been in my sight for a little less than a year now, and now that I have broken it by eight seconds, I think I can keep breaking lots of records, especially the distance records.”
