The Durango High School varsity girls cross-country team put together a strong team run Saturday, and that proved to be the difference in a season-opening win.
Led by sophomore Willow Lott’s third-place finish, the Durango girls won the Connected Lakes Championships in Grand Junction, a meet hosted by Fruita Monument at Connected Lakes State Park. Durango had 39 team points, which matched the total of Fruita Monument. But Durango’s sixth runner, sophomore Marissa Campano, finished ahead of Fruita Monument’s sixth runner, and that gave the Demons the tiebreaker.
“I was pleased with what I saw,” DHS head coach Ken Flint said. ‘We do have some things to work on, and we had some pacing issues early on in the race. The girls have a tendency to go out too quick, but they were able to hold on and still get a victory, so that’s a positive. I do feel like we are ahead of the game from last year.”
Lott finished the 5-kilometer run in 19 minutes, 33.1 seconds. Fruita junior Jadyn Heil won in 18:13.2. Palisade junior Alexis Chelle was second in 19:31.2.
Durango junior Tea Forrest was sixth in 20:00.6. Durango’s Abby Fehr, Maddy Persing and Angela McManus finished ninth through 11th, respectively. Fehr and Persing finished closely in 20:28 and 20:29, respectively, while McManus crossed in 20:52.
Campano’s time of 21:24 would be the difference in winning the team title for Durango She placed 16th. Brenna Wolf was 20th for the Demons in 21:53.
Palisade’s girls placed third with 82 points. Grand Junction was fourth with 111, Moffat County was fifth with 115 and Grand Junction Central was sixth with 143.
The Durango boys varsity placed third and was led by Paul Knight. The senior placed second in 16:30, 12 seconds back of Fruita Monument senior Zastrow McGinley.
“Paul ran smart, disciplined and went out in a 5:04 mile in eighth,” Flint said. “It was tempting to go out hard on the downhill on a breezy day, but he showed the maturity of a senior, seasoned runner and ended up closing well to get second.”
Knight finished six seconds ahead of Grand Junction Central’s Jordan Leblow.
Also for Durango, junior Land Lambert placed sixth in 16:49. Senior Aiden Quayle was 12th in 17:22, and junior Damian Frausto placed 15th in 17:32. Michael Benner came across in 31st. The sophomore finished in 19:35. Jack Benner was 35th in 19:52, and Sam Persing placed 36th in the same time.
“Land Lambert had the best race of anyone,” Flint said. “He went out at a pace he could hold and closed very strong. He’s got more in him. Damian is a new guy from Nebraska who transferred last December, and he stepped up and scored for us. We’re looking for a fifth man, though. Our fifth guy was two minutes back. The guys have improved from last year and are ahead of the game. If we improve like last year, we will be fine.”
Fruita won the boys meet with 42 points. Grand Junction Central was second with 58, and the Demons were third with 66. Grand Junction took fourth with 109 points, while Palisade was fifth with 117 and Montrose sixth with 120. Moffat COunty rounded out the team scores in seventh with 203 points.
The meet was broken into two days to allow more runners a chance to compete with races limited to 50 athletes per race by CHSAA’s COVID-19 protocols. Durango junior Kristina Bodewes won Friday’s girls race in 21:09 for her second win of the year after she had won at Dolores a week earlier. Angelina Kondrat of Durango was second in 21:25, while Nina Quayle and Olivia Salter finished fourth and fifth, respectively. The Durango girls ran away with the win in Friday’s race with 20 points, while Coal Ridge was second with 53.
“Kristina would be our sixth runner right now on varsity,” Flint said. “She’s had a great summer of training, and it’s paying off.”
The Durango boys were second at Friday’s race with 56 points behind Grand Junction Central’s 44. Evan Bastin had Durango’s best time in sixth at 20:27.
“We are thankful to Fruita to let us in the race,” Flint said. “They didn’t have to let us in, and they did. Hats off to them. Being in the southwest corner of the state, it could be hard to get into some races this year, and we appreciate them having us.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
