Castle View Boys, Boulder Girls Win Team Titles; Madison Lange Outkicks Delaney Reuter To Win Girls Sweepstakes Race

Story and Photos by Bobby Reyes for DyeStat

RESULTS/VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

LITTLETON, Colo. -- Abdi Hassan went to the arms like a prizefighter.

He punched at the air, popped off his toes, and gritted his teeth into the final 200 meters of the Liberty Bell Invitational. 

While the final straight is mostly uphill, it appeared that Hassan was defying gravity. 

The Northfield junior torched the field and the course record, clocking a Colorado state record of 14:24.7. 

The performance broke Parker Wolfe’s six-year-old record of 14:30, run back in the COVID year when masks were required before the start and after the finish of each race.

“Around mile two I pushed,” he said. “I (told myself) if you want that record, let’s go right now, and push as hard as you can.”

The result marked his second victory of the season, beginning a streak that started two weeks ago, when he won the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede.

It also added his name to the early conversation of a Colorado state title, as well as a Nike Cross Nationals threat.

Hassan spent his entire sophomore year running junior varsity and open races due to Colorado’s transfer rules, though it clearly only whetted his appetite. 

The Northfield junior raced like he had been denied access to the all-you-can-eat-buffet. Now — eligible to compete for Northfield — he ate and left no crumbs for anyone else.

“I wasn’t able to race last year (at State)” he shared. “It got me a little angry, a little sad, but it fed into my junior year. I just wanted to come and do whatever I could do this year.”

Last spring Hassan blazed around the track as an unattached athlete, competing in mostly open races and out of state, clocking 4:01.88 in the mile, and 13:52 in the 5,000.

Hassan’s performance Saturday morning led a staggering 12 boys under the coveted 15-minute marker and took down a stellar field. 

Host-school Heritage’s Liam Folk kicked late to take the runner-up spot, clocking a 14:42.5 personal best, while five boys shared the same second in 14:43. Returning Liberty Bell champion Ben Adams from Mountain Vista took third in 14:43.0, just a hair ahead of Fort Collins’ Will Johns, who also clocked 14:43.0. Chaparral’s Tommy Gamlin, Valor Christian’s Lucas Santos, and Loveland Classical’s Antheney Herre all clocked 14:43.

In the team race, Castle View was led by the Dann duo of Evan and Wyatt, who placed eighth and ninth. Their 1-2 punch was only rivaled by Northfield, though Castle View’s pack was able to close the door on any challengers, as the Sabercats won the team title, tallying 93 points. Mountain Vista took second with 129, while Legend and Northfield both tallied 146, though Legend took third on their sixth runner.

Last year, Madison Lange took fourth in the girl’s Sweepstakes race as a Cherokee Trail freshman.

This year she came back for keeps. 

The Cherokee Trail sophomore shadowed Eaton’s Delaney Reuter throughout the race, then surged to the lead in the final 400 meters to telescope away for the victory, clocking 16:31.

The performance was the second-fastest ever on the course behind Sydney (Thorvaldson) Vaught’s 16:19 from the 2020 edition of the race.

Lange’s victory was her third consecutive of the 2026 season, and a season-best by well over a minute.

“I knew she (Reuter) was going to go out hot, and knew that if I could match every move, maybe I’d have something in the end,” she shared. “Coming through the neighborhood, I felt really good, and I tried to take over with 400 to go.”

Behind the Cherokee Trail sophomore, Reuter took second for the third consecutive year, clocking 16:41 — her fastest time on the course, while Loveland’s Brynn Torres finished third in 17:10.

The team competition played host to the recently ranked No. 4 and No. 5 squads in the Southwest Region, with Boulder and Heritage battling it out for the first time this season. 

When the tally was up and the pencils went down, it was Boulder who denied the host school a title defense. 

Led by Calia Vaughn’s eighth-place finish, Boulder put all five scoring runners inside the top-40 to tally 98 points for the win. Heritage took second in 123, while ThunderRidge took third with 163 points.