In a race with teams from seven states, Sofia Voss and Charlie Dillman proved Durango High School’s best runners can hang with some of the top distance runners in the Western and Southwestern United States.

The fourth annual Border Wars meet was held at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, this past Saturday. The area is known as a hotbed for producing great long-distance runners.

In the 3-mile girls championship race, Voss finished 13th overall out of 129 runners with a time of 18 minutes and 51 seconds. Voss won the Boggy Draw Bear Chase and the Pueblo Central Pete Felleta Cross Country Invitational 5000-meter races earlier this season.

“She's always either the front runner or right up front with the best runners and every race we go to,” Durango coach Ron Keller said of Voss. “So she's running more consistent now in the 18s, which is which is what you want to see... It's good to have somebody that good up front for the other people to be able to train off of and that helps to make them better.”

On the boys side, Dillman led Durango by finishing 29th out of 174 runners, crossing the finish line at 15:49. Luke Swenk wasn’t far behind, finishing 40th with a time of 16:02.

Dillman also has a win this season at the Boggy Draw Bear Chase in the 5000-meter race. He and Swenk also placed well at the Liberty Bell Cross Country Invitational on Sept. 9, finishing seventh and 10th.

“That’s what we call a one-two punch right there,” Keller said of Dillman and Swenk.

Ayumi Lambert finished in 68th place in the girls race with a time of 20:20, one of her better finishes this season. Keller is also excited about freshman Lacy Ruggiero, who finished 75th with a time of 20:37.

Durango will compete in the Pagosa Invitational at 9 a.m. Saturday in Pagosa Springs.

bkelly@durangoherald.com