{"id":15846,"date":"2025-11-03T19:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-boys-cross-country-takes-program-best-11th-place-run-at-state\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:52:21","slug":"dolores-boys-cross-country-takes-program-best-11th-place-run-at-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-boys-cross-country-takes-program-best-11th-place-run-at-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores boys cross-country takes program-best 11th-place run at state"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Emilynn
Emilynn Hill (200), seen with Mancos' Carly Kroll (227), finished 50th Saturday at the CHSAA Class 2A State Cross-country Championships in Colorado Springs. Kroll was 52nd. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

COLORADO SPRINGS \u2013 The team\u2019s steady progress over the past few years culminated in a strong showing at state for the Dolores High School boys cross-country team. With no seniors on the roster, experienced runners led the team as Dolores climbed the Class 2A rankings Saturday with an 11th-place finish \u2013 a new program-best at the state meet.<\/p>\n

Five Montezuma County runners placed in the top 60 between the boys and girls races, capping a successful day for the area\u2019s representation in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

After a season filled with top finishes, the Bears regularly competed against top-ranked teams \u2013 and the preparation paid off. Sophomore Joseph Padilla has steadily climbed the ranks in Class 2A, and Saturday\u2019s race at Bear Creek Regional Park added to his growing list of strong performances. Patience early in the five-kilometer race allowed Padilla to move up late, finishing a career-best 27th in 17 minutes, 51 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"Owen
Owen Lowe (43) placed 57th Saturday at the CHSAA Class 2A State Cross-country Championships in Colorado Springs. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Joseph
Joseph Padilla (44) placed 27th Saturday at the CHSAA Class 2A State Cross-country Championships in Colorado Springs. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

His all-state showing led the Bears to a 184-point finish, good for 11th overall and third-best among programs west of the Interstate 25 corridor. Padilla also positioned himself well for future success as the seventh-fastest underclassman in the 2A field.<\/p>\n

The junior class provided strong support for their sophomore front-runner, as Class of \u201927 runners Owen Lowe and Corvin Smith posted times of 18:33 and 18:35, placing 57th and 58th. A late charge from Smith improved the Bears\u2019 position in the team standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph continues to impress with his consistently strong running,\u201d said Bears head coach Angie Lowe. \u201cAnd Owen had been battling injury all season, so for him to be able to run a strong race was a big help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman Bodie Fischer placed as the fifth-fastest freshman in the race, finishing 108th to round out the Bears\u2019 scoring pack. Junior Orin Samulski and sophomore Nathan Gaddis added times of 20:04 and 20:07, placing 119th and 121st.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos'
Mancos' Carly Kroll (227), finished 52nd Saturday at the CHSAA Class 2A State Cross-country Championships in Colorado Springs. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nathan
Nathan Gaddis (42) placed 121st in the boys\u2019 race Saturday at the CHSAA Class 2A State Cross-country Championships in Colorado Springs. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAll of our boys had a course personal best, and both Bodie and Nathan finished the season with overall PRs on a challenging course,\u201d added Lowe.<\/p>\n

The Bears improved two spots from their 13th-place finish a year ago, with each DHS runner improving on their 2024 state placement. That included sophomore Emilynn Hill, whose 50th-place finish in 21:59 in the girls race earned her all-state honorable mention and marked the second straight year the Bears girls program placed a runner in the top 50.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmilynn had been tracking to run sub-22 minutes all season, so to hit that PR at the state meet says a lot,\u201d said Lowe. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be prouder of all of our XC runners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos freshman Carly Kroll continued the Bluejays\u2019 tradition of state representation, placing 52nd in her debut with a time of 22:02.<\/p>\n

The 2A boys team title went to Golden View Classical Academy (54 points), which placed four runners in the top 15. Sophomore Ethan Kiptui of St. Mary\u2019s won a photo-finish state title over Soroco\u2019s Nick Clark in 16:20. Ridgway\u2019s Natasha Hessler captured the girls title in 18:49, leading the Demons to a dominant team victory with 89 points.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dolores boys cross -ountry team took 11th at the 2A state championships in Colorado Springs. Photo courtesy of Angie Lowe<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

sophomore Emilynn Hill and Mancos freshman Carly Kroll earn top-60 finishes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15846"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19875,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15846\/revisions\/19875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15846"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}