Durango High School cross country coach David McMillan wanted to ease up on his team’s training leading into the Southwest Colorado Cross Country Challenge in Bayfield on Saturday.
They wouldn’t let him, though, and it paid off.
The Demons won both the boys and girls events for the varsity and junior varsity at Saul’s Creek just before the heavy rains came.
“They looked at me and said, ‘No, coach; it’s a home meet. We have pride. We want to run with Demon pride,’” McMillan said. “That was the concession I made.”
Nicholas Turco finished third for the Demons’ boys team, completing the course in 17 minutes, 41 seconds.
Piedra Vista’s Harrison Fleming won the boys race in 17:21.
For DHS: Gordon Gianniny placed fifth in 17:53, Alastair McMillan sixth in 18:00, Joe Crawford 11th in 18:40, Seamus Millett 12th in 18:45, Christoph Cikraji 15th in 19:01 and Sean McLaughlin 21st in 19:17.
“(The course) was nice and pleasant; it gave me time to settle down,” said Turco, son of Jack and Jennifer Turner. “I’m proud of (my placing). It’s fun to perform at a home meet.”
McMillan wasn’t thrilled with the way his team started. He said they got “engulfed” at the start.
“The JV boys – beautiful start. I think the varsity could learn something from the JV kids,” McMillan said.
In spite of the start, McMillan was pleased with the way different boys are stepping up every week for his team.
The Demons’ girls team took four out of the top 10 spots in their race, led by Hannah Peterson’s third-place finish in 20:32.
Shannon Maloney followed in fourth at 20:41, Marley Gable in seventh at 22:17, Kat Seibert in 10th at 22:35, Emily Fogel in 13th at 23:07, Maggie Wigton in 18th at 23:12 and Emily Edwards-Colsman in 20th at 23:15.
They all trailed Bayfield’s Eva-Lou Edwards, who won the event in 19:32 and finished 44 seconds before her closest competitor.
“It’s nice because its on our home course; I’d ran it a couple times before,” said Edwards, daughter of Paul and Vivian Edwards. “It was also an interesting race because most of the girls were sick out there.”
Edwards handled that, some mud on the course and the pressure of competing at home by simply not letting any of it get to her.
Aubree Lorenzen placed ninth at 22:34, Bridget Goddard 12th at 22:37, Lexa Fleming 19th at 23:12, Danielle Miller 42nd at 25:48 and Maggie Zink 43rd at 26:00 for the Wolverines.
BHS finished second as a team, 17 points behind the DHS girls, which are ranked fourth in Class 4A Colorado by coloradomilesplit.com; the DHS boys are ranked first.
“The fact that we came in second behind Durango – and Durango’s program is a great program – the fact that we came in second behind them, that was fantastic,” BHS first-year head coach Joshua Walton said. “For them to run that well in our meet was fantastic.”
The BHS boys team finished fourth, paced by Luke Webb’s 18:00 finish in seventh place.
Caleb Sapa came in 26th at 19:55, Alex Knight in 45th at 21:41, Justis Herrera in 50th at 22:05, Joey Sandrey in 53rd at 22:30 and Alex Svanes in 58th at 24:52.
Nick Hutcherson of Pagosa Springs took first in the boys JV race in 19:19, while Emily Schaldach of DHS won the girls JV race in 23:35.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
