Summit High School senior Ella Hagen is no stranger to making history. Since racing in her first high school cross-country race four years ago, Hagen has set seven school-records, won three state titles and recently committed to the University of Colorado in order to further pursue her running career.

After becoming the first female athlete to break 17 minutes three times at the Liberty Bell Invitational on Sept. 14, Hagen and her Summit teammates flew to Minnesota for the Roy Griak Invitational on Friday, Sept. 20. 

At the highly competitive meet that featured 120 teams, Hagen rewrote the history books again by becoming the first female athlete to win the race in back-to-back years since Emily Covert accomplished the feat in 2017 and 2018.

Coming into the race at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, Hagen was the athlete with the target on her back. Hagen felt some of the pressures that come with being the returning champion of the race as she lined up upon the starting line, but instead of letting her worries affect her performance, Hagen leaned into the moment.

With the pop of the starter’s gun, the girls’ championship race field sprinted from the start line, taking the 5-kilometer, hilly race out at a rapid pace. The fury of fast legs and elbows did not last much longer as once many of the runners settled into a sustainable pace, the race began to thin at the front.

Hagen and Sioux Valley High School senior Isabelle Bloker led through the mile mark with both athletes splitting a time of 5 minutes, 36.1 seconds. 

Feeling comfortable through the first mile, Hagen continued to push the pace up front. The steady pace from Hagen further trimmed the pack up front with Bloker dropping to eighth place by the 3,000-meter timing mat.

Recording a time of 10:26 .5, Hagen continued to lead the field heading into the final 2-kilometers of the race while last year’s runner up, Libby Castelli of Sioux Falls’ O’Gorman High School, emerged from the chase pack to challenge Hagen to the finish line. 

Similar to the 2023 Roy Griak Invitational, Hagen and Castelli fought side-by-side for several minutes, pulling one another up the hills that are sprinkled throughout the course.

With about 1-kilometer to go however, Hagen further opened up her stride and began pulling away from Castelli. Spurred on by the crowd on both sides of her, Hagen sprinted hard until she crossed the finish line as a two-time Roy Griak Invitational champion in 18:02 .9.

Castelli took second in 18:11 .1 with Bloomer High School’s Ciara Hartman finishing in third in 18:30 .3.

Hagen was followed by Summit sophomore Lily Benbow and senior Avery Eytel. Competing in their first Roy Griak Invitational, Benbow and Eytel both placed within the top 150 of the girls’ championship race.

The two runners finished in the exact same time of 21:20 .9 with Benbow claiming 141st place and Eytel finishing in 142nd.

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<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Josh Shriver competes in the Roy Griak Invitational on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. </figcaption><figcaption>Dillon Benbow/Courtesy photo</figcaption>

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Hagen was not the only Summit athlete to finish within the top 10 at the prestigious meet as senior Josh Shriver strung together his own impressive performance in the boys’ championship race.

Featuring over 440 boys, Shriver sprinted from the start line alongside the rest of the field in an attempt to stay upright. Once safely away from the close quarters present in the first couple hundred meters of the race, Shriver had more room to breathe and began churning past competitors. 

“My thought process was to get out hard, there are a lot of bodies in that race,” Shriver said. “There are 450 kids all starting at the same time, so if you are trying to get in the top 10, you don’t want to have 100 of them in front of you. I tried to get out well.”

Through the mile mark of the race, Shriver split a time of 4:53 .4 and hung onto seventh place near the front of the race. Seeing the race developing in front of him, Shriver continued to chase after guys in front of him, moving up to fifth by the 3,000-meter mark.

With 2-kilometers left in the race, Shriver embraced the pain in his legs and burning sensation deep in his lungs. Shriver maintained his position in the final moments of the race, placing fifth overall in 16:06 .5. Roseville Area senior Robert Mechura won the race in 15:35 .0.

“It was really just running my own race,” Shriver said. “Trying to run as even splits as I could. Relaxing and press when it matters in the second half of the race. … I moved up to seventh at that mile split, and then the rest of the way was taking each hill at a time, trying to gain a stride on someone or put a stride on someone.”

Shriver saw a massive improvement since competing in the 2023 Roy Griak Invitational, dropping close to eight seconds off his time from last year and improving his placing in the race by 12 spots. 

“It worked well,” Shriver said. “I made a competitive move at the end. I was moving up well. I was running with fourth place and gaining on third. I am happy with that because I was right there at the end. I was really happy with that one.”

Sophomore Jay McDonald narrowly missed the top 50, finishing in 51st place with a time of 17:07 .1. Junior Cain Steinweg rounded out the results for Summit, running 18:13 .5 for 194th place overall.

Summit will return to in-state competitions and will compete on Friday, Sept. 27, at the Dave Sanders Invitational in Littleton. The following week on Oct. 4, Summit will host its home meet — the Summit Stinger at Copper Mountain Resort.