The Durango High School girls cross-country team won the Pagosa Springs Challenge on Saturday, but it wasn’t the usual runners for the Demons.
Durango didn’t have its varsity team competing, or its junior varsity team, rather the school’s C-team outpaced the competition to win the five-team meet following a tiebreaker with Pagosa Springs.
Both programs finished with team scores of 46 points, but the Demons were awarded the title because their No. 5 runner placed higher than Pagosa’s No. 5 runner. Durango’s No. 5, Lilah Slaughter, placed 15th overall while Pagosa’s finished 19th.
While the varsity runners weren’t competing, the full team was in Pagosa to cheer on the younger girls.
“I may not have raced today, but having the chance to cheer for my teammates made this meet the most special one yet,” senior Abby Scott said. “Seeing runners like Kaylan Wait lay her heart out on this course reminds me how lucky I am to be part of such a dedicated team.”
Wait was the top finisher for the Demons, running the course in 24 minutes, 16 seconds, to place third overall.
Bailey Freeman finished sixth in 24:55, Chloe Ragsdale was 13th in 26:00 and Aspen Wyatt placed 14th in 26:09.
Montezuma-Cortez placed fifth with 98 points.
The Panthers were paced by Caisey Duran’s eighth-place finish in a time of 25:23. Ridley Dennison finished 18th in 26:32, Cassandra McCully placed 28th in 27:53, Regina Schuster was 32nd in 28:57 and Trinity Meyers finished 33rd in 28:57.
On the boys side, Montezuma-Cortez placed fifth of seven teams with 108 points. Montecello won the event with 50 points.
Cortez’ John Whyte paced the Panthers with a seventh place finish in 20:30.
Trenton Bagge was 16th in a time of 21:07, Will Brown placed 21st in 21:22, Ben Castillo-Calvillo finished 24th in 21:37 and Gavin Bennett was 64th in 27:23 to round out the Panthers’ scoring.
Durango did not compete as a team, as only four boys competed.
Joe Pope led Durango with a time of 23:27 to place 40th, Alex Hurworth finished 44th in 23:36, Ethan Casias placed 50th in 23:58 and Paxton Scott was 58th in 25:01.
“The race was tough. It was great to have all the support of the rest of our team to finish strong,” Hurworth said. “I wish for the best for our team in the weekend to come.”
Volleyball
VolleyballThe Bayfield High School volleyball team moved to 3-0 in Intermountain League play with a 25-17, 19-25, 25-21 and 25-13 win against Alamosa on Saturday afternoon in Bayfield.
It was the second meeting between the two league foes. Bayfield swept Alamosa 3-0 in the Wolverines’ first match of the season back on Sept. 5 in Alamosa.
It was an up-and-down match for the Wolverines. After rolling through the first set, the team came out flat in the second and gave points away with errors.
“We had more errors. We had a lot of unforced errors and missed serves,” Bayfield head coach Danica Frost said of the second set. “They were just mental errors.”
Bayfield (6-3, 3-0) came out stronger in the third set and took a commanding lead. But another short lapse in focus allowed Alamosa (4-3, 1-2 IML) to rally back and push Bayfield for the final points of the set.
The late run by Alamosa in the third set woke the Wolverines up for the fourth set, which they controlled from start to finish.
Bayfield had a balanced attack. Mavis Edwards led the team with nine kills, followed by Kylee McCoy with eight kills, seven kills from Sydney Gabbard and six kills from Ashley Mottin.
“If I had to give a player of the game, it’d probably be Sydney,” Frost said. “Sydney really rallied and fired everyone up and had some incredible digs. She was solid on pass and solid serving with no errors.”
Mottin also recorded four aces in the fourth set.
Bayfield will host Durango (6-2) at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Last year, Bayfield swept the Demons 3-0 in Durango.
“Last year when we played Durango it was right after our football team lost to them, and it was really their redemption match for the boys,” Frost said. “Hopefully they can carry the energy the boys had this weekend into the Durango match.”
Ignacio High School’s volleyball team went 1-2 at the Simla Tournament Saturday.
The Bobcats (4-8) earned a 3-2 win against Socorro (4-8), fighting off the Rams 25-15, 17-25, 25-20, 17-25 and 16-14.
Ignacio dropped matches to Simla (9-1) 25-18, 25-12 and 25-13, and Hoehne (8-2) 25-14, 25-18 and 25-8.
Ignacio (4-3 San Juan Basin League) will host Nucla (3-7, 1-3) in a league match at 11 a.m. Saturday.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
