Timnath Surges to Top in 4A Girls Cross Country; Hagen Claims Second Individual Title

COLORADO SPRINGS — It was guaranteed that the landscape of Class 4A girls cross country was going to change this fall. Six-time defending state champion Niwot had moved on to 5A, leaving an enormous power vacuum at the top.

That gap was filled this morning by the Timnath Cubs, a school running only its third season of cross country. Last year, the Cubs finished sixth in 3A. That was a solid finish for a second-year program, but it is a leap of gigantic proportions to move from sixth in 3A to first in 4A in one year.

How does it happen?

Timnath Coach Matt Mittleberg offered his preliminary take, “From the very beginning when we started, we talked about, ‘It’s going to take time, but we want to build one of the programs that could compete in the state of Colorado.’”

That’s great, Coach, but lots of teams dream big, and only a few teams achieve big. What sets this team apart?

“I had no idea they were going to be able to do it this quickly. We were fortunate to come out of the gate really strong. We had some really fast early-season races that I think built their confidence. From then on it was, ‘Let’s not look too closely at standings and rankings but know that we have the ability to compete!’”

That demonstrated ability to compete was on display for all to see as Timnath squared off against the rest of the top teams in the 4A this morning. Among those other teams were Battle Mountain and Summit, teams whose hilly-course credentials rank as the stuff of legend in Colorado high school cross country.

MIttleberg dismissed the idea of being distracted by the hill credentials of teams like Battle Mountain and Summit, “In the last week, we said, ‘We’re not going to talk about any other teams. We’re going to talk about what we’ve done all season long.’ They built a lot of belief in themselves and just leaned into that. When we’re able to keep our vibe light and loose, then good things happen.”

What that light-and-loose vibe removed was the possibility of Timnath defeating themselves through squandered advantages. If Battle Mountain and Summit were to overhaul the Cubs, they’d have to do it solely on the strength of their own performances.

As strong as Battle Mountain and Summit were, Timnath left no windows of opportunity for other teams to sneak through. There was not so much as a hint of implosion in the Timnath performance. Izzy Schimmelpfennig finished third at 18:18.4, barely missing second in a sprint to the finish with Silver Creek’s Chloe Ruth. Not far behind Schimmelpfennig, a wave of blue crashed onto the shore of the finish line. Chasing their teammate to the finish line were Addison Geraets in ninth, Louisa Stribley in 21st, Natalie Washburn in 30th, and Rachel Dietrich in 47th.

Eighteen points and more than 80 seconds of team time separated Timnath from second-place Battle Mountain. On the ground, it appeared at least that decisive.

“It was a really fun season, and all the training has paid off. We can’t thank our coaches enough for putting us in this great position,” remarked an exuberant Schimmelpfennig after the results showing Timnath had officially won began appearing on mobile devices all around the stadium. She admitted, however, that it took “a few minutes, probably” from the time she crossed the finish line to look around and sort out what had happened behind her. The chase to the finish line with Ruth had exacted a momentary toll, but the realization of team triumph came as refreshing news.

This year’s individual title went to Summit’s Ella Hagen, who regained the title as a senior after winning it as a sophomore in 2022, then finishing second to Niwot’s Addison Ritzenhein in 2023. Hagen’s winning time of 17:30.7 marked her best performance on the course by just over seven seconds.

Hagen was pushed throughout the first half of the race by Silver Creek’s Ruth. That wasn’t necessarily in the game plan for Hagen, but, “you can never expect all that’s going to happen in one of these races,” she explained, allowing that the competitor on her shoulder “definitely helped me to stay focused the first mile-and-a-half.”

There will be a new individual title winner next year as Hagen has now completed her high school cross country career. The story is very different at Timnath, however, where the Cubs will graduate only Natalie Washburn, their #4 today, from this year’s state team.

Timnath will have the opportunity next year to begin building a new dynasty in 4A Girls.

At the very least, Timnath established a new Colorado standard for time elapsed from school opening to the school’s first state title in cross country. It took the Cubs only two years and a couple of months to accomplish that feat. That record figures to stand for a while.