The idea started quietly, slowly, much like the Durango High School cross country team’s race-day strategy.
Then, it gained steam through the Coronado Cougar Classic and built to a crescendo at the Desert Twilight in Casa Grande, Arizona: The Demons could win a state title.
Now, it’s more than a possibility; it’s a goal for the DHS boys team Saturday at the CHSAA Class 4A Boys and Girls Cross Country State Championships on Saturday in Colorado Springs.
“This is not a team I thought that would become a reality with. We lost four or five seniors out of our top seven or eight last year. This was a building year, but, man, they’ve built in the summer,” DHS cross country head coach David McMillan said. “Their goal has been pretty direct from the beginning of the season: They’d like the state title. But we’re in a dogfight with four very good teams. I think we go in with as good a chance as anyone.”
Cheyenne Mountain, Niwot, Palmer Ridge and Thompson Valley all will give DHS a run for the title at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Norris Penrose Events Center.
The Demons, as they have all season, will rely on their pack mentality and a sense of togetherness built over the course of the season.
“We’ve stayed really tight as a team throughout the season. We run like that, but we also act like that in general,” said DHS senior Gordon Gianniny, son of Cynthia Dott and Gary Gianniny. “I think having that strong team support has helped us run well.”
There only was a 35-second gap between the first five of Durango’s boys pack at the regional meet, which helped the Demons win a regional title.
Three of Durango’s boys runners, Gianniny, Benjamin Lachelt and Nicholas Turco, ran for the team that finished eighth at state last year.
DHS will round out its starting seven with William Chandler, Seamus Millet, David Moenning and Harry Steinberg, with Jordan Helms and River Weiss serving as alternates.
All of the Demons’ success this season has brought a bevy of high rankings across the state and even a No. 18 mark in the country by MileSplit.com.
That ranking brings certain expectations.
“There’s definitely a lot of pressure from it since our team hasn’t won state since the 1990’s,” Gianniny said. “It’s also really exciting, because I think we have a really good shot to do well.”
DHS has won six boys state cross country titles, the fourth most in the state, and last won in 1999.
Durango’s girls team had to prove doubters wrong to even qualify for state.
Projections had the Demons outside the top-four cutoff, but they took second behind Battle Mountain to earn a full team bid.
“We wanted to prove that we can make it, even though they didn’t expect us to,” DHS senior and clear-cut No. 1 Shannon Maloney said.
Maloney, the daughter of Melissa and Murdoch Maloney, has been out in front of Durango’s pack all season. She finished fifth at the regional meet and will run at state at 12:30 p.m. Saturday with Emily Edwards-Colsman, Aubree Lorenzen, Marit May, Sarah Smagacz, Lilah Slaughter and Marley Weaver-Gabel.
Maggie Wigton will serve as the Demons’ alternate at the state meet.
“For myself, I want to make the top 15,” Maloney said. “For the girls, as a team, we want to just go and compete, show them that, yes, we weren’t supposed to make it to state, but we’re here – show the top teams we can run with them.”
McMillan has seen the girls team grow and progress as the season moved forward from the pre-state meet Aug. 21 to the state meet Saturday.
“I saw, for the first time this season, the girls team gelling,” McMillan said of the girls team’s regional performance. “The same progressive strategy we’ve had all season, the girls really employed that from the middle part of the season, and they built and built. I think their best race is ahead of them.”
kgrabowski@ durangoherald.com
