For the first time in Heritage High School history, the girls' cross country team won the Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell is one of the most prestigious symbols in America. This monumental achievement happened on September 13th, 2024. The Liberty Bell race is a giant cross-country high school race in Colorado. This year was extra special for Heritage’s cross country team, as it turned out our girls' Cross country team won the whole event. Mrs. Abigail Wade, the coach of the cross country team, says, “ My reaction to the Liberty Bells winning was pure joy. They were capable and did exactly what they needed to do; they were great.”
Eleanor Rice ‘26, a cross-country runner, says, “I have gone through high school with most of these girls, and I am just so proud of all of them. I'm so proud that this is the year that our heritage cross country team, but our girls' heritage cross country team, wins the Liberty Bell for the 1st time. I just am so grateful to be on the team with these girls and to be there at this moment.”
In Wade’s opinion, she says, “ Emry's final finish on chasing down Delaney Ruder from 100 yards, [was incredible]. And all the girls had PRs, so every girl was setting a new PR. PR stands for personal record. So every girl ran to the best of their ability.”
With Heritage having home court advantage, Wade breaks down their strategy and says, “The strategy was a hometown race, or it's our home course. So we were not going so much for time, but, of course, time's always important. But we did know that we knew that place value was very important. So they had to try to pass as many people as possible. They had the lowest amount of points.”
Caroline Fender ‘26, a runner in the Liberty Bells, who placed in 7th place, gives her final thoughts on the race. Fender ‘26 says, “It was special, because we didn’t really believe we had a shot at doing that, so when everything came together and everyone raced their best. I was just really excited to see exactly how much we could achieve.”