The Durango High School cross-country teams raced on back-to-back days last week, but it didn’t slow them down
A day after the DHS girls won the Cañon City Invite and the boys finished fourth, both Durango squads won team titles in Colorado Springs at the Courser Invite on Friday.
“That was our best weekend of the season, for sure,” said DHS head coach Ron Keller. “I was very happy with the way everybody performed.”
The DHS girls won Cañon City with 19 points after its five scoring runners all finished seventh or better. Willow Lott won the individual crown in 19 minutes, 20 seconds.
At the Courser Invite, hosted by the Vanguard School, the five scoring Demons all finished eighth or better to lead DHS to another girls team title with 25 points. Falcon finished second with 93, followed by Montrose (124) and Castle View (125). Banning Lewis (137) finished fifth out of 13.
Nadhia Campos of Vanguard, whom Keller called “one of the best girls in the state,” crossed first in 17:55, but was followed by a sea of red. Lott finished second (19:12), Dewa Ilg finished third (19:28), Mira Quayle crossed fifth (19:39), Sofia Voss finished seventh (19:51), Brynn Aggeler rounded out the team score in eighth (19:52), Ayumi Lambert finished 14th (20:40) and Sixtine La Merle placed 26th (21:49).
The coach called La Merle, who is an exchange student who started the season late and had never run cross-country before, “a real surprise” after two good races.
The DHS boys, meanwhile, finished behind Montrose on Thursday, but beat the Red Hawks and everyone else on Friday.
“I just feel we’re getting stronger,” Keller said. “We lift weights everyday and I can usually see that and our conditioning start to kick in about this time of the year.”
Luke Swenk led DHS at both races. Swenk finished fourth at Canõn City and came back the next day and almost won the Courser. Swenk ended up finishing second in 15:59, just two seconds behind Jonas Graff of Montrose.
“I’m pleased he’s now in the 16s,” Keller said. “And we beat Montrose.”
The Demons boys won the Courser team title with 61 points, finishing 19 points ahead of Montrose in second. Manitou Springs finished third with 81, followed by Castle View (106) and Colorado Springs Christian (117) in fifth.
Charile Dillman finished fifth (16:27), Miles Snow crossed 11th (17:00), Allan Hardee placed 19th (17:23), Anthony Bonanno (17:38) crossed 24th to round out the team score while Brodie Dorko finished 36th (18:18) and Micah Zastrocky placed 42nd (18:32).
The coach said Snow, Hardee and Bonanno have all stepped up this year.
“You usually don’t see a freshman running that well,” Keller said about Snow. “I recruited Allan off the track team, and he has been very good at the 4-5 spot. And AJ (Bonanno) ran JV in track, but just kind of blossomed in cross-country for us.”
DHS also saw most of the teams it will race against at regionals at the two races.
“Our girls look like they’re stronger than any team (in the region),” Keller said. “For the boys, I have to call (Cheyenne Mountain) the favorite, but no other team has beat us. I hope we can finish in the top-three in the regional meet.”
The top-five teams at the regional championships will qualify for state.
While Durango is focused on regionals, the team will have two more races before then.
On Friday, Durango, Fort Lewis College and Bayfield will host the Southwest Classic at the Hillcrest Golf Club. The event will feature seven races, including middle school, high school, college and citizens’ competitions, beginning at 2 p.m.
