Glow sticks, temporary light fixtures and glow-in-the-dark balloons lit up the night sky above Hillcrest Golf Club. The fast legs of the Durango Demons cross-country runners torched the ground below.
The Durango High School cross-country teams swept the boys and girls races at the Southwest Sunset XC Classic Friday night in Durango. The meet doubled as the Southwestern League Championships.
The race was highlighted by three DHS girls running together, hand-in-hand, to the finish line to give the Demons a podium sweep of their home meet.
DHS sophomore Kiara Hamlin was credited with first place in 19 minutes, 32.81 seconds. Freshman Ruth Holcomb was second in 19:33.95, and senior Abby Scott was officially third in 19:33.95.
“I never talked about it with a teammate,” Scott said of the hand-in-hand finish. “For me, I’ve had some rough races. I would’ve ended up so much further back in the race if not for them. With 800 (meters) to go, it would’ve been a race to see if we could out-kick each other. I love an 800, but not so much a 5K. As a way of saying thank you, I wasn’t going to try to outkick them in a local race.
“It’s a statement of what Durango is about, which is running together.”
Running under the lights in a high school race was new for Holcomb, but the freshman had no nerves competing for her first league championship.
“As a young person, I don’t have anything to lose,” she said. “It’s kind of fun to run with my teammates.”
Hamlin said the most difficult part of the race was the second mile on the far end of the course.
“There’s nobody out there in that middle part to cheer you on,” she said.
“You have to depend on teammates to pull you along, and we all pulled each other on.”
DHS scored 24 points as a team to blow away second-place Alamosa (70). Widefield was third with 132 points, Pagosa Springs was fourth with 152 and Pueblo West took fifth with 175.
Anna Smagacz gave DHS another top-10 finisher. Her time of 20:03.22 was good for eighth, and Bekah Moenning gave the Demons half of the runners in the top 10 with a 10th place time of 20:25.89. That rounded out the scorers for DHS.
The Durango boys team scored 41 points to easily defeat second-place Widefield (102).
Alamosa was third with 103 points, and Montrose placed fourth with 142. Bayfield placed 13th out of 16 teams with 348 points. Cole Munoz of Widefield won the boys race in 15:55.88. Evan Graff of Montrose was second in 15:58.05.
The Demons were led by Marcus Flint’s fifth-place time of 16:04.97. Noah Bodewes was sixth in 16:08.50 for a new personal best time. Aidan Fitzgerald ran to seventh place in 16:10.30. Logan Moore was 11th for the Demons in 16:45.22, and teammate Paul Knight finished 12th in 16:47.99 to round out the team’s scorers.
“We went out kind of slow,” Flint said. “We got into it, and everyone started rolling. We stayed focused, but it’s always a tough part when you’re out on the back stretch. That’s when it’s time to go get what’s in front of you.”
With DHS hosting regionals in October, the Demons wanted to have an impressive showing with Widefield and Montrose visiting. It was mission accomplished even though the Demons didn’t have a top-three finisher.
“Me and Fitz started in the lead pack, and that was a little tough,” Bodewes said. “It’s hard to follow people in the dark. We are motivated by someone in front of us. We see them, we want to go get them.”
The Demons went and took the league championships Friday night. Now they will target even faster times before hosting regionals October 19 on the same course.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
