The Durango High School cross country teams had their best performances of the young season on Saturday at the 32nd Joe I. Vigil Open in Alamosa. The Durango boys won the event out of 35 boys high school teams and the girls finished third out of 27 female high school teams.
“I told them both going in that they had real shots to to win,” Durango cross country head coach Michael Fadil said. “The Classical Academy, on the girls side, is a small school that I hadn’t really paid a lot of attention to. They're very good. So that was a kind of interesting test for our girls team. On the boys side, there were no real standout teams like that; I don't know many of the schools well enough, especially the ones out of our out of our region … I was kind of going off the results from last year.”
The hundreds of high school runners at the Cattails Golf Course in Alamosa were treated to cool temperatures on Saturday morning. There was some rain the day before, so the course was a bit sloppy, especially on the cart paths where there was puddles, according to Fadil.
Durango’s boys cross country squad won with a team score of 122 points. The team scores were the finishing positions of all schools’ top-five runners added up. Behind Durango was La Cueva High School in second with 134 points and The Classical Academy in third with 142 points.
Senior Miles Snow led the Durango boys with a 12th-place finish out of 403 finishers. Snow finished the 5-kilometer race in a personal-best time of 16 minutes and 9.8 seconds. Behind him was junior Rocco Enea in 18th in 16:22.3.
Billy Romero from Taos High School won the race in 15:18.9.
“The boys team is a solid pack-team,” Fadil said. “We had about 40 seconds between one and five and 50 seconds between one and six … Miles last year was studying abroad and really wasn't doing the running and training the same way he would have here … Rocco had a nice PR as well. His first race in Rio Rancho was a PR, and then he knocked over 30 seconds off. This is a big one for Rocco, because he missed most of the spring season with anemia … so it's good to have him back at healthy.”
Junior Jack Purcell was the third-fastest Durango boy, finishing 26th in 16:38.4. Behind him was freshman Travis Hugentobler, who finished 27th in 16:39.8. Fadil has been impressed with Hugentobler; he’s still learning how to race and is getting better and better as the season goes on.
On the girls side, the Demons finished third with 82 points. The Classical Academy won with 53 points. Cheyenne Mountain also finished with 82 points, but had the tiebreaker.
Durango freshman Zia Fadil led the Durango girls by finishing in fourth in 18:27.5; Vivian Jack from the Classical Academy won the girls race in 17:56.2
Behind Fadil was junior Lacy Ruggiero in sixth in 18:53. Fadil told his top two female runners after the race that they should work on running together in races as it will help them be more effective over time.
Freshman Rebakah Quayle had a strong performance for the Demons, finishing 13th in 19:13.2.
“Becca is killing it,” Fadil said. “I've been working with Becca since sixth grade. She and Zia are really good friends. There are a couple things going on with Becca. In the past, she's always played soccer as well. So she'd be kind of running from one practice to a different practice. She was a lot more tired, more frequently, and this year she's just focusing on cross country.”
After Quayle was senior Ayumi Lambert in 29th in 19:44.3 and senior Evie Morris in 35th in 19:58.3.
Fadil said he’s emphasized with Quayle and the rest of the girls that the training they do has incremental benefits; if they are patient, the thoughtful workouts will build on each other.
Next up for the Demons is the University of New Mexico Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque on Saturday.
The Durango boys soccer team started off its weekend away from home well with a 2-0 win against Palisade on Friday. The weekend ended on a sour note as the program suffered its worst loss since 2016 as the Demons lost to Fruita Monument 5-1 on Saturday.
“The second game this weekend was a little bit of a setback and a little disappointing,” Durango boys soccer head coach Sean Ackerman said. “But, we've regrouped from it pretty well over the last couple of days, and will do so for the next few days, but definitely it's been still stinging a little bit for me.”
Durango dropped to 3-2 overall after the two games last weekend. Against Palisade, the Demons came out and scored two first-half goals. Durango combined beautifully and dominated possession, according to Ackerman.
The Demons went up 1-0 in the ninth minute against Palisade. Senior Benjie Masterson received a pass and tripped. However, he played the ball off to senior Derek Caudle, who finished in the top right corner.
Only five minutes later, Caudle scored again from a similar spot after a nice pass from junior Owen Martinez.
The Demons then were on the defensive in the second half as Palisade was more aggressive down 2-0; the Bulldogs changed from a 3-5-2 formation to a 3-4-3. However, Ackerman was happy with how his team kept the win.
Ackerman was disappointed with the start against Fruita as the first two goals were avoidable miscues.
Durango got beat over the top for Fruita’s first goal about 10 minutes into the first half. Then, Fruita scored on a free kick that went through Durango’s wall, according to Ackerman, which shouldn’t have been possible if the wall stayed together.
Down 2-0 at the half, Ackerman was happy with how the Demons responded to start the second half. Junior Miles Daley played a great corner kick that junior Jed Lawler headed into the back of the net.
Ackerman thought the Demons had the momentum and were ready to make a comeback. That changed when a penalty kick was awarded to the Wildcats. Fruita converted and went up 3-1. Durango had to be aggressive on offense and Fruita scored two more to give Durango its worst loss in nearly a decade.
“I have to give credit to coach McKeachnie,” Ackerman said. “I knew he was going to do good things with them from last year, just with discussions with them, even though they went 0-14, I knew they were going to prove it. I just didn't realize it was going to be that quick. But with that said, it was one of those days where you have an off day, and several players had an off day, so that just didn't work out well for us.”
Last season, the Demons were 4-2-1 overall before going undefeated through the rest of the regular season. Ackerman thinks this team can make a similar run as the team gets healthier.
The Demons play at home against Grand Junction at noon on Saturday.
The Durango High School volleyball team has some work to do in league play after the Lewis-Palmer Tournament last weekend. The Demons went 1-3 in the tournament, dropping their overall record to 2-8.
On Saturday, Durango lost to Lewis-Palmer, 2-0, before losing to Holy Family, 2-0, and Centauri, 2-1. The Demons ended the tournament on a positive note with a 2-1 victory over Coronado.
Lewis-Palmer beat Durango 25-22, 25-18; Holy Family beat Durango 25-16, 25-21; Centauri beat Durango 21-25, 30-28, 18-16; Durango beat Coronado 25-9, 20-25, 15-5.
Senior Hadyn Neiman was a bright spot for the Demons, leading them in kills in three of the four matches, including 15 kills in the loss to Centauri.
The Demons have their first 4A/5A Southwestern League game at Palisade on Friday at 6 p.m.
The Durango High School softball team dropped two home games to Grand Junction on Saturday and remains winless in league play so far this season.
On Saturday, the Tigers beat the Demons 18-9 in Game 1 and 10-4 in Game 2. Durango dropped to 5-3 overall and 0-3 in the 5A/4A Southwestern League while Grand Junction improved to 7-3 overall and 2-0 in the 5A/4A Southwestern League.
Grand Junction led 10-1 after the second inning in Game 1. The Tigers increased their lead to 14-4 after four innings before the Demons outscored the Tigers 5-0 in the fifth to cut the lead to 14-9. Grand Junction scored three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh to run away with it.
The Tigers outhit the Demons 19-10. Junior Avery Clair led the Demons at the plate, going 2-4 with a home run. Sophomore Kaitlyn Downey also went 2-4 at the plate for Durango.
Senior Jenna Glueck pitched 5.1 innings for Durango, allowing 13 hits, 13 runs, striking out two batters and walking two batters. Freshman Marley Stordeur pitched 1.2 innings and allowed five runs, six hits and walked four batters.
In Game 2, the Tigers got off to a slower start, but still led 3-2 after two innings. Grand Junction kept building on its lead as it led 10-3 after five innings.
The Tigers outhit the Demons 15-9. Clair went 3-3 at the plate to lead Durango.
Durango used three pitchers, with sophomore Taylor Feistner pitching 2.2 innings. She allowed eight hits, five runs, walked two batters and had one strikeout. Sophomore Abigail Gordon pitched two innings and allowed five hits, five runs and walked two batters. Glueck pitched 1.1 innings and allowed two hits and struck out one batter.
The Demons next game is on Sept. 19 at home against Battle Mountain.
Local high school mountain bikers did very well in the Haymaker Classic-Piedra in Eagle on Saturday. Durango won the Division 2 title, while Animas won the Division 3 title.
Durango was the best in Division 2 out of eight schools while Animas was the best in Division 3 out of three schools.
Animas junior Delyla Kroenung won the girls varsity race in 1 hour, 23 minutes and 3.21 seconds. Durango senior Tilia Clausen was second out of 20 riders in 1:25:05.97, Durango junior Sophia Alexander finished sixth in 1:27:54.27 and Durango senior Ellie Shaw finished eighth in 1:28:47:36.
In the varsity boys race, Animas senior Jake Sandau won in 1:10:08.13. Durango junior Johan Souders finished third out of 35 riders in 1:11:13.71 and fellow Durango junior Ryder Seitz finished eighth in 1:15:17.05.
The Durango boys tennis team couldn’t find the right shots on Friday in Grand Junction, finishing last in the Western Slope Invitational.
Regis Jesuit finished first with 197 points, Faith Lutheran from Las Vegas finished second with 192 points and Ralston Valley was third with 166 points. Durango finished 16th with 19 points.
In No. 1 singles, Durango senior Mikael Hofmann lost to eventual No. 1 singles champion Regis Jesuit junior Alec Rodriguez, 6-0, 6-0, in the first round.
The Demons’ No. 1 doubles pairing of sophomores Isaac Armstrong and Mason Philpott lost to Alexander Kemberlin and Tate Noonan from Heritage, 6-0, 6-1.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
