Willow Lott won the varsity girls race by 46 seconds Thursday at the Cañon City Cross-Country Invitational, leading the Durango girls to another dominant team win.
Lott won the race, which finished on the Royal Gorge Bridge, in 19 minutes, 20 seconds while four teammates finished in the top seven. Brynn Aggeler crossed second out of the 130 runners in 20:06, Dewa Ilg finished fourth in 20:18, Mira Quayle finished fifth in 20:28, and Sofia Voss placed seventh in 20:44.
The team’s sixth and seventh runners, meanwhile, could have replaced its top two, and Durango would have still won the team title. Ayumi Lambert finished 10th in 21:22, and Sixtine La Merle placed 15th in 22:14.
The DHS girls won the team title with 19 points, followed by Garden City (Kansas) with 102, Coronado (Colorado Springs) with 104, Montrose (115), Cañon City (128), Lake County (137), Doherty (148), Mesa Ridge (214), Lakin, Kansas (247), Pueblo South (277), Hoehne (284) and Pubelo Centennial (345).
In the boys varsity race, Luke Swenk finished fourth out of 181 runners to lead DHS to a fourth-place team finish out of 16. Swenk crossed in 16:47, finishing 15 seconds after the winner, Devin Chappel of Garden City.
Charlie Dillman was the second Demon to finish in 11th place (17:33) and was followed by Miles Snow (29th, 18:23), Allan Hardee (31st, 18:33), Anthony Bonanno (34th, 18:57), Brodie Dorko (38th, 19:29) and Hudson Curry (50th, 20:20).
Garden City had four runners finish ninth or higher to win the team title with 35 points. Coronado finished second, with a 25-second 1-5 split, with 63 points, followed by Montrose (98), Durango (105), Mesa Ridge (170), Lamar (189), Doherty (198), Pueblo Centennial (229), Pueblo South (246), Larkin (293), Rye (319), Pueblo Central (331), Liberty Tree Academy (355), Lotus School for Excellence (395) and Harrison (429).
Durango’s junior varsity runners also raced with the varsity squads. Aileen McManus (21st, 22:49), Sophie Ragsdale (20th, 23:29), Abby Bowman (39th, 23:54), Hannah Helms (44th, 24:39), Elena Forrest (45th 24:40) and Hadley Denney (88th, 27:26) all ran in the girls race.
The boys runners were Micah Zastrocky (53rd, 20:21), Joshua Yu (54th, 20:22), Slader Schweitz (71st, 20:59), Logan France (122nd, 23:20) and Kefa Jerome (124th, 23:29).
The Demons also were scheduled to race Friday in Colorado Springs at the Vanguard School’s Courser Invite, and head coach Ron Keller said the Demons will get to see a lot of their competition for the upcoming regional championships at the two races.
DHS will host the Southwest Classic on Friday at the Hillcrest Golf Club during the school’s homecoming week. Also on Friday, DHS volleyball will host Montrose and DHS football will host Summit. The races will start at 2 p.m., volleyball games will begin at 5 p.m. and football will kick off at 6 p.m.
The DHS boys soccer team will host Grand Junction Central at 1 p.m. Saturday for its homecoming game.
Also next week, Durango boys tennis will compete at the regional championships Thursday in Grand Junction and DHS boys golf will compete at state Monday and Tuesday in Windsor.
