2015-2016: Girls 5th in Colorado 5A, Boys State Qualifiers

Key Performers: The Coronado girls cross country team enters the 2016-2017 season as the bearers of the title “5th in Colorado 5A State Cross Country” and with a full returning team from the 2015-2016 season. Junior Chloe Cassens leads the Cougars in the 2016-2017 season, chasing the elusive 19 minute mark after missing the accolade by only a single second in the 2015-2016 season. After placing 7th in 5A on the Coronado girls 2015-2016 4×800 team last year, Coronado runners Taylor Dutton, 11,  Maddie Morland, 10, and Faith Roth, 10, return to the cross country course hungrier-and faster-than ever. The team enters of the 2016-2017 season improved further by the addition of freshman Grace Abernethy, a member of the Holmes Middle School Girls Cross Country State Championship team, as well as by the full hip recovery and heightened speed of sophomore Layla Roebke. The state-attending boys team is championed by upperclassmen runners Conor Strizitch, 11, and Clay Rahaman, 12, among the team’s few returning members from the 2015-2016 season. The boys team benefits with the addition of freshman runner Eric White, a member of the Holmes Boys Cross Country team, the program having lost three 2015-2016 boys team members to graduation and two members to moves.

Opener: The Cheyenne Mountain Stampede at Bear Creek Park on 8/24 at 4:00 P.M.

The Cougar Classic: The Cougar Classic is Coronado cross country’s only “home” meet, occurring at Monument Valley in downtown Colorado Springs on 9/22 at 3 P.M. The annual event attracts nearly 35 teams and more than 1500 athletes.