If Friday’s season-opening cross-country meet was any indication, the Durango High School Demons will once again be a force in 2018.
Under new head coach Ken Flint, the Durango boys team won the Class 4A race at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede in Colorado Springs. The Demons ran the same course the state championship race is held on, and the DHS boys scored 56 points to beat Air Academy by 11 points. Cheyenne Mountain High School was a distant third with 117 points.
Durango had three runners in the top 10 and five in the top 20. Senior Noah Bodewes was the fastest Demon, as he finished sixth in 16 minutes, 29.7 seconds. Thompson Valley junior Dylan Schubert won the race in 15:55.8, while Cheyenne Mountain freshman Erik Le Roux was second in 16:16.7.
“Our depth is what won it for us,” coach Flint said.
Bodewes was nearly fifth in a sprint finish with Montrose junior Sean Graff, who was awarded fifth place in the same time as Bodewes.
Durango’s Marcus Flint, a senior, was eighth in 16:34.1. Aidan Fitzgerald, another DHS senior, was 11th in 17:03.2, and DHS junior Logan Moore was 13th in 17:06.3.
Right outside the top 20 was sophomore Paul Knight, who was 21st in 17:30.1. Teslin Stecher, a Demons senior, was 24th in 17:35.10.
Luke Tichi, a junior who competes in two fall sports with cross-country and golf, ran to 37th in 17:51.8.
The DHS girls team placed seventh at the meet with 155 points. Battle Mountain, a perennial powerhouse, won with 70 points, and Air Academy was second with 87 points. Cheyenne Mountain rounded out the top three with 98 points.
Durango was led by junior Madeleine Burns. She finished fifth in 19:27.2. Eagle Valley junior Joslin Blair was first in 18:57.1. Eagle Valley freshman Samantha Blair was second in 18:59.1.
Durango freshman Angela McManus placed 26th in 21:00.4. Kiara Hamlin, a junior, was 36th in 21:21.0. Maddy Persing, a sophomore, was the fourth DHS scorer in 46th place in 21:49.3. Sophomore Brenna Wolf was 50th in 22:18.1. Freshman Tea Forrest was 52nd in 22:22.5, and freshman Angelina Kondrat was 77th in 23:39.4.
“Madeleine ran a good race and was fifth, and a freshman stepped up as our second girl overall and was impressive,” coach Flint said. “We were short two of our girls on that side for taking tests, so we will get them back next week.”
Bayfield High School
Bayfield was led at the Cheyenne Stampede’s Class 3A boys meet by Elco Garcia. The junior from Ignacio finished 12th in 18:27.2. Alamosa’s Elijah DeLaCerda won in 17:08.3.
Jonas Nanaeto finished 41st for the Wolverines in 19:36.7. Zeb Shields was 48th in 20:00.2, and James Chenowith rounded out the team’s scorers in 69th in 21:06.1. Rylan Ross was 7th in 21:24.0, Xander Hovenstine was 87th in 22:15.2, and Ethan Cook was 110th in 24:13.5.
The Bayfield boys placed ninth as a team with 228 points. Alamosa won with 80 points.
Eli Ion led the Bayfield girls team in 69th place. The freshman finished in 26:50.6. Claire Hufnagel was 81st in 28:19.5, Paige Porter was 89th in 29:41.5, and Emaliah Sawyer was 93rd in 30:21.4. Mylee Sanders was 103rd in 34:27.4.
The Bayfield girls were last out of 14 teams with 382 points. Frontier Academy won with 55 points.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
