The Durango High School girls cross country team finished the season competing against some of the best cross country teams in the state and the country. The Demons battled at the 5A Colorado State Cross Country Championships at Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
Durango finished 16th out of 20 schools with a score of 430 points. Team scores were calculated by adding up the top five runners on each team’s finishing position. Unattached runners were deducted from the team total. This meant if a runner on a team finished 21st and there was one runner ahead of them who was unattached, that runner would move up a spot in the team’s finishing position to 20th.
“They were solid, they really were,” Durango cross country head coach Michael Fadil said about his team. “I looked at all the regional races from nine or 10 days before and I had us at 17 … They all ran solid. When I look at the times from the beginning of the year with pre-state, we had four girls that raced both. We had two or three first-year girls that didn't run pre-states, but every girl who ran pre-states and state meet ran between 1 minute and 10 seconds and almost 1:50 faster at the state meet, which was great.”
Sophomore Lacy Ruggiero led the way for Durango and finished 69th out of 152 runners in 19:48.02. Niwot High School’s Addison Ritzenhein won the race in 16:54.62.
Behind Ruggiero for Durango was senior Bryn Aggeler in 77th in 19:53.65. Junior Ayumi Lambert finished in 111th in 20:33.81; junior Mira Quayle finished in 113th in 20:39.75 and sophomore Olivia Glover finished in 114th in 20:41.83 to round out the team scoring positions for Durango.
Fadil is excited about the potential of next year’s girls cross country team. Aggeler was very consistent and will graduate. Senior Sophia Voss didn’t run due to injury and senior Dewa Ilg also battled injuries this year. But Ruggiero will return along with a lot of other strong runners. Fadil’s daughter, Zia, will be a freshman and should be a top runner immediately for the Demons.
Volleyball finishes regular season 1-3 at Cheyenne Mountain Invitational
The Durango volleyball traveled to Colorado Springs last weekend to face some of the top Colorado high school volleyball squads in the Cheyenne Mountain Invitational. The Demons went 1-3 to finish the regular season.
“It was a great weekend to see a lot of people,” Durango volleyball head coach Kelley Rifilato said. “The biggest thing with us is you can't make like four hours in a row because a good team will jump on that. Then all of a sudden it's eight points and then it's 10 points.”
Rifilato said it was eye-opening for her team to see the size, ability and speed of the game for the top Front Range teams in 5A. She said the tournament was filled with Division I talent that her team hasn’t seen before.
The Demons finished the regular season 10-13 overall. Durango won its first match against Longmont on Friday 3-0: 25-13, 25-22 and 25-20.
Junior Hadyn Neiman had 14 kills and senior Avery Rike had 13 kills to lead the Demons.
Then, Durango lost to Cheyenne Mountain 3-0: 13-25, 20-25 and 13-25. Neiman and Rike each had six kills for Durango.
“We came out firing against Longmont,” Rifilato said. “It was fantastic. We had very few errors, we blocked well, we played great defense and we offensively did fantastic. Then we had to play Cheyenne Mountain. That was just a tough, tough mountain to climb. It literally was. It was crazy, just the physical size difference between us and them. We have a couple of 6-foot girls, but still, that doesn't match up with 6-foot-1-inch or 6-foot-2-inch girls that can jump like deer.”
The Demons finished the tournament on Saturday with losses to Mullen and Mead. Mullen won 23-25, 23-25 and 18-25. Rike had 10 kills and Neiman had seven. Mead won 11-25, 23-25 and 14-25.
Rifilato thought both matches were winnable but Durango made too many errors. She was very happy with how Neiman played and said she was a consistent option for the Demons.
Durango now moves on to regionals where they will face Legend and Ralston Valley on Saturday at Legend.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
