High school runners from the the Four Corners region were in Alamosa on Saturday for the Joe Vigil Invitational, and the Durango Demons girls were ahead of the pack once again.
In a field of 190 runners from 16 teams, Durango had six of the top-15 runners to run away with the win. The Demons’ 44 points finished ahead of Taos (66) and Alamosa (116).
Bayfield’s girls team finished 10th.
“This is a fairly young team, but they’re really strong runners,” Durango cross-country head coach David McMillan said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I ran with them this week and it was a very tough session so I had high expectations coming in.”
DHS was led by Anna Smagacz who finished fifth with a time of 19:56. Following in her footsteps were Bekah Moenning (20:02) in seventh place and Madeline Burns (20:10) in ninth. Sarah Smagacz (20:15) and Abby Scott (20:35) took a wrong turn at one point but finished 11th and 12th.
The Demons were so dominant, they had eight runners in the top-22 as Maggie Wigton (20:49) came in 15th, Kiara Hamlin (21:12) was 21st and Mary Fenberg (21:16) 22nd.
Bayfield was led by a 40th place effort from Bridget Goddard (22:01) and 55th place by Claire Hufnagel (22:27). Amber Johnson (23:21) was 77th, Rachel Cooper (23:45) 83rd, Isis Gonzales (23:48) 84th, Miley Sanders (30:29) 177th and Jade Sanders finished 178th in 30:47.
163rd Skylar Ruybal,
The Durango boys were led by a third-place finish from senior Harry Steinberg, who finished in 16 minutes and 3 seconds. Steinberg was 21 seconds behind race winner Isaiah DeLaCerda of Alamosa.
Durango’s Coltin Gallegos (16:53) finished 18th and Marcus Flint (16:54) was right behind him. Aidan Fitzgerald (17:20) was next to cross for DHS in 29th, Sam Dippold took 44th in 17:47, Finn Hopkins (18:04) was 56th and Pablo Smagacz (18:12) was 64th to round out the Demons top-7.
Bayfield’s 11th place finish was led by Sloan Mazer’s 33rd place finish. Mazer’s 17:30 time was followed by BHS’ Elco Garcia (17:45) who finished 43rd. Cody Speece (18:13) was 66th, Gus Roberts (19:52) came in 116th, Jackson Sibley (20:01) was 123rd, Bryan Gram (20:02) was 124th and Nathan Carlson (20:16) was 131st.
“The kids ran really well today,” Bayfield head coach Josh Walton said. “It’s the fastest time (Sloan Mazur) has ever had.”
Boys Soccer
The Durango Demons boys soccer team made a big statement Saturday at Evergreen High School.
DHS (4-1) wanted to test itself against the best of the best, and a date with the defending CHSAA 4A state champions would accomplish just that. While they were at it, the Demons went on the road and upset the No. 2 Cougars 1-0.
Elijah Fenton’s goal midway through the first half stood as the game-winner. Durango goalkeeper Trey Furnas had five saves in his fourth shutout in five games.
“We jumped on them quick and I don’t know if they were expecting that,” Durango head coach Dalon Parker said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It felt like a playoff game because both teams were so skilled and hungry. I think we’re started to figure out how good we can be.”
The Demons will travel again next weekend for an 11 a.m. match at Overland High School in Aurora.
VolleyballBayfield traveled east to face some of the bigger schools on the front range at Saturday’s Lewis-Palmer Invitational in Monument.
The Wolverines dropped their first two matches of the day, but rallied to take the third against 4A Broomfield and the fifth-place match against Thompson Valley.
In the first match, Bayfield met the tournament hosts and No. 2 ranked team in the Colorado High School Activities Association’s 4A Class in Lewis-Palmer. The Wolverines lost the match 2-0 (25-15, 25-11) to the eventual tournament champs and dropped the next match to Niwot (25-11, 25-20).
Bayfield battled for a nice win against Class 5A Broomfield 2-0 (25-21, 25-18). The win set up a fifth-place match against Thompson Valley of Loveland, and Bayfield prevailed 25-10 and 25-17.
Boys Tennis
Durango wrapped up a long weekend of play with the state’s best tennis players Saturday at the Western Slope Open in Grand Junction.
The Demons were one of three 4A schools in the 16-team tournament and performed well against the state’s elite. Bayfield High School senior Fred Edwards won his first match of the day, but lost the second to take sixth-place at No. 1 singles.
Nick Cheney-Roberts was also 1-1 on the day for Durango.
“This was great competition for us and we really finished strong,” Durango head coach Alan Batiste said. “We took it to some of the best in the state so that was great preparation for next week at Delta.”
