Durango High School cross country head coach Michael Fadil was correct in predicting in the preseason that both of his teams had a shot at making state.
The boys and girls cross country teams did better than having a shot. They made it to state after only the girls made it last year. The Durango girls finished second and the boys finished fourth Colorado 5A Region 5 Regional at deKoevend Park in Centennial on Thursday. The top four male and female teams from each regional advanced to state.
“Both were solid,” Fadil said. “For the girls, after Air Academy, there wasn't a lot of competition. I felt pretty good about that, but they still had to show up … On the guys’ side, we had actually had a lot more challenges with Slater (Schweitz), who was sick and didn't go. Jack Purcell has had a hip issue ever since Delta, so he didn't run at regionals.”
Fadil said the deKoevend Park was a somewhat fast course. There wasn’t a lot of grass, but there was a good amount of crushed stone paths and some sidewalks. The course had a few short, steep hills and a fair number of gradual hills.
On the girls side, Air Academy was the dominant team and finished first with a team score of 26 points. The team scores are each team’s top-five runners’ finishing positions added together. Durango was second out of the 12 female teams with 62 points and Castle View was third with 99 points.
Junior Lacy Ruggiero led Durango in third place in the women’s 5-kilometer race, finishing in 18 minutes and 11.4 seconds. Freshman Zia Fadil was right behind her in fourth in 18:19.3
Air Academy’s Chamorra Cooper won the race in 17:20.7 and Jordan Banta from Air Academy was second in 17:29.7
The third-best Demon was freshman Rebekah Quayle in 14th in 19:09.7. Senior Evie Morris finished 20th in 19:38.8 and senior Ayumi Lambert was behind her in 21st in 19:38.9 to finish the scoring positions for the Durango girls.
Fadil said Morris was a race-time decision after having a cold before the race, but she decided to give it a go and Fadil said she looked good. The top 15 runners in each race received medals, so Durango had three medalists on the girls side.
On the boys side, Durango finished fourth with 126 points. Castle View was first with 50 points, Rock Canyon was second with 72, Air Academy was third with 82 and Pueblo West was fifth with 140 points.
Durango sophomore Caden Voss led the way in 12th in 15:58.5. Junior Rocco Enea finished 14th in 16:02.8, senior Miles Snow finished 26th in 16:30.5, freshman Travis Hugentobler finished 36th in 16:50 and junior Jackson Fisher finished 43rd in 17:03.9 to finish the scoring positions for the Durango boys.
“I tend to prepare myself for the worst, so I was not expecting them to go as a team,” Fadil said about the boys. “When Caden was coming down and right around 10th, 11th or 12th with 200 (meters) to go, I made sure he knew that he had to keep that position.”
“When I saw Rocco with about 150 (meters) left, I think he was in 16th, but there were two guys right there and I just made it clear to him that the automatic qualifier for state was getting one or both of those guys,” Fadil said.
Carson Smith from Air Academy won the race in 15:02.7, with Wyatt Dann from Castle View High School in second in 15:12.8 and Lucas Santos from Valor Christian High School in third in 15:20.1
The state championships for all classes will be at Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs. The 5A boys race will start at 9 a.m. and the 5A girls race will start at 10:20 a.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
