After running three miles in their season opener at the Loyd’s Lake Classic in Monticello last week, Mancos and Montezuma-Cortez cross-country runners raced the full 3.1 mile-5K at the Joe Vigil Open in Alamosa last Saturday.
Led by Simon Kearns’ eighth-place finish in a blazing 16 minutes and 36 seconds, the Mancos Blue Jays finished in 8th place out of 19 scoring teams. Jake McKie finished 48th with a time of 17:51.10 and sophomore Teslin Stecher was a blink behind with a new personal-best time of 17:51.60 to finish 50th.
Caleb Yoder (18:38.40) finished in 77th place, Ryoya Shima (19:41.20) was 109th, and then Zane Wilson (20:00.40) and Alex Fleitz (20:56.40) ran personal bests to finish in 121st and 146th, respectively. Colt Spencer (23:32.60) finished 203rd and Griff Huver (24:17.50) was 206th to round out the Jays.
Finishing 12th out of 17 scoring teams, the Lady Blue Jays were led by senior Kaylee Rose, who ran a new personal-best time of 21:39.30 to finish 28th.
Emma Most (22:03.30) and Hannah Skinner (24:01.50) also cracked the top 100, finishing in 42nd and 91st, respectively. And Olivia Coppinger (25:41.20) finished 128th, Mimi Archuleta (26:26.30) was 138th and Hakayla Snow (32:02.70) placed 184th to wrap up the team.
The M-CHS Panthers got personal-best performances out seniors Josh Ramos and Blair Rice. Ramos finished in 17:13.30 to take 23rd place and Rice completed the 5K in 21:43.30 to finish 164th.
Reid Littlefield (17:55.10) and Will Brown (19:27.70) finished in the top 100, with Littlefield 52nd and Brown sneaking in at 99th. And then Ben Castillo-Calvillo (21:09.70) finished 151st, Marcus Amrine (22:01.60) was 175th, and Riley Whiteskunk (24:22.90) finished 209th as the Panthers took 14th as a team.
The Lady Panthers didn’t have any previous personal records broken, but they did have three runners finish in the top 100 and placed 15th as a team.
Emma Thissen led the charge with a 65th-place finish in 22:54.40, and then Regina Schuster (23:41.60) finished 81st and Sam Bagge (24:16.70) was 97th. Corinne Damore (27:10.30), Lynda LaPaz (27:30.80) and Maya LaMunyon (28:34.30) crossed the line in 148th, 153rd and 165th, respectively.
Mancos, M-CHS and Dolores will each compete at the Southwest Sunset XC Classic on Friday evening in Durango.
