David McMillan fought hard to get the Durango High School cross-country teams into the sweepstakes races at Desert Twilight Classic XC on Friday in Casa Grande, Arizona. The Demons more than proved they belonged.
The DHS girls team finished second behind Chandler, Arizona, with 170 points. Chandler won with 119 points. Durango’s boys team finished fifth out of sweepstakes teams with two-runners finishing with times under 16 minutes.
“We beat some Arizona teams at the top of their game,” McMillan said of the DHS girls. “We didn’t even actually run out best. We were firing on about four of seven cylinders.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the kids. This girls team we need to throw in big races more and more often. We can’t afford to run around home too many times with this group. We have to keep finding big races for them. With only one senior and a slew of young runners bursting onto the scene, the DHS girls will only keep improving from Friday night’s result.
Sophomore Madeline Burns turned in a sixth-place time of 17 minutes, 52.3 seconds. The winning time came from Samantha Schadler, who ran 17:15.8 for Rio Rico High of Arizona.
Senior Abby Scott ran to 13th in 18:12.1, freshman Ruth Holcomb was 44th in 18:55.1, sophomore Kiara Hamlin was 49th in 18:58.1, junior Anna Smagacz was 94th in 19:45.6 and freshman Brenna Wolf was 96th in 19:46.3. Bekah Moenning ran to 122nd in 20:19.2.
“Madeline Burns and Abby Scott put themselves in a place to compete for a spot in that elite top 20 group,” McMillan said. Madeline fell down and overcame a little touch down on the grass and ran incredibly. Abby moved up 40 or 50 places. Ruth, holy cow what a freshman, and Kiara was fantastic.”
Also running sub-20 times in the junior varsity race for DHS was Emma Fitzgerald and Maddy Persing.
The DHS boys varsity was led by Aidan Fitzgerald’s 23rd-place time of 15:31.3. McMillan said it was the second-fastest DHS boys time during his coaching tenure with the Demons.
Noah Bodewes ran to 44th in 15:51.6, Marcus Flint was 68th in 16:07.3 and Logan Moore finished 78th in 16:12.8. Wiley Corra and Paul Knight finishes 100th and 101st in 16:25.5 and 16:26.3, respectively. Ethan Holst finished 136th in 16:50.9.
“Niwot and Silver Creek, who we see at state, beat us handsomely, but the boys ran really well,” McMillan said. “It’s a young team that wants to compete and showed they belong. I absolutely think they can podium at state with a couple more pieces. We’re on a short list of four or five teams with a shot.”
The DHS girls are now ranked No. 13 in the United State on MileSplit.com The boys are 32nd.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
