The Durango High School cross-country teams ran against fast squads Saturday at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede in Colorado Springs, known as a pre-state race because it’s on the championship course and features many of Colorado’s top teams.
It lived up to its billing.
The meet featured a 2A/3A division, a 4A/5A division and a seeded division for the top boys and girls teams.
Durango raced in the seeded races, and its girls finished fourth out of 15 teams behind Air Academy (27), 5A Fairview (102) and Battle Mountain (110) with 166 points.
The DHS boys finished 11th with 234 points. Fairview won the boys title with 56 points, followed by followed by Cheyenne Mountain (142), Grandview (156) and Eagle Valley in fourth (160).
“When I build my schedule, I try to find meets where we can run with the best of the best, and I accomplished that goal this year,” said DHS head coach Ron Keller. “I knew Battle Mountain would be tough (for the girls), but Air Academy surprised me.”
All five of Air Academy’s scoring girls finished 13th or higher, including the winner, Tessa Walter (17:50). Keller said Air Academy started fast with four girls in the front, and they they stayed there.
Dewa Ilg finished 17th in 20:16 to lead Durango.
“Dewa had a good run,” Keller said. “She was 38 seconds faster (than her time at state last season) in her third race of the year.”
Willow Lott finished 29th (21:05), Brynn Aggeler placed 34th (21:23), Nina Quayle crossed 43rd (21:46), and Avery Cerwin finished 51st in 21:56 to round out Durango’s team score. Ayumi Lambert (56th, 22:05) and Mira Quayle (57th, 22:05) also ran for the DHS girls.
Luke Swenk, who’s running cross-country for the first time this year for DHS, placed 11th in 16:51 to lead the Demons. “Running in the 16s in his second 5K ever, he did really well,” Keller said.
Nathaniel Ellis was the next Demon to finish, crossing 21st in 17:13. His time was 49 seconds than he ran at state last year.
Charlie Dillman placed 49th in 18:03, running three seconds faster than his time at state last year. “Charlie slipped right at the start,” Keller said. “That put him in the peloton and he suffered for that.”
Miles Snow crossed 86th in 19:12, Allan Hardee finished 93rd in 19:31, Brodie Dorko placed 95th in 19:37 and Anthony Bonanno placed 102nd out of 143 in 20:01.
Dominykas Remeikis of Summit won in 15:39.
In the seeded junior varsity races, Micah Zastrocky placed 11th in 20:53 to lead the DHS boys while Abby Bowman crossed sixth in 24:16 to lead Durango’s girls.
Ignacio also competed at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede in the 2A/3A races. The Ignacio boys finished 19th out of 22 teams with 520 points while its girls didn’t post a team score.
Eppie Quintana finished 45th in 20:14 to lead IHS. Dillon Brann finished 138th (23:22), Corey Gomez placed 159th (24:31), Trace Crane crossed 164th (24:56) and Aven Bourriagua placed 171st out of 222 in 25:35.
Lauren deKay placed 78th in 29:53 to represent Ignacio’s girls.