{"id":16943,"date":"2025-08-13T20:19:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T02:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-area-cross-country-teams-are-on-the-move-this-fall\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:12","slug":"cortez-area-cross-country-teams-are-on-the-move-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-area-cross-country-teams-are-on-the-move-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez-area cross-country teams are on the move this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Owen Lowe (899) runs with Aaron Nielson (901) during Mancos' 2024 Chicken Creek Challenge on Oct. 12. Lowe finished ninth; Nielson was sixth. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOLORES \u2013 Dolores cross-country has been building a program from the ground up over the past few years, and now they\u2019re seeing the ripening fruits of their labor.<\/p>\n

Flash back to 2022 \u2013 the DHS boys cross-country team hosted their Boggy Draw Bear Chase, but weren\u2019t able to field a complete scoring team. Meanwhile, on that same morning, the Dolores Middle School boys team won their meet, showing the promise of what was coming down the pipe for head coach Angie Lowe.<\/p>\n

A number of those same athletes have stepped onto the high school scene in a big way, and coming off the program\u2019s first-ever team state qualification, the Bears return almost the entire cast from their 13th-place run in November.<\/p>\n

Two-time state qualifier Aaron Nielson prepares for his final season for the black-and-red as the lone senior, while strong Classes of 2027 and 2028 will make the Bears into a major force this season. Sophomore Joseph Padilla \u2013 the team\u2019s top runner at state last year \u2013 comes off a stellar freshman track season, where he\u2019ll be joined by juniors Owen Lowe, Corvin Smith and Orin Samulski, all of whom have state experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey push one another in a positive way, so whatever goals they set, they can achieve,\u201d said Lowe. Her group enjoyed successful pack running last fall, with seemingly a different runner leading the team in the overall standings from one meet to the next.<\/p>\n

The head coach lauded her group for their strong summer training, including sending a group to run at the Northern Arizona University cross-country camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur runners returned from the camp and advocated for what they had learned and felt like we should incorporate into our program,\u201d added Lowe.<\/p>\n

The DHS boys team joins returning girls team sophomores Emilynn Hill and Emma Nielson \u2013 both qualifiers on last year\u2019s 14th-place girls team. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to run personal bests throughout the season and get as many of our runners as we can back to state,\u201d said Lowe.<\/p>\n

The Bears are off and running when they host their annual Boggy Draw Bear Chase on Saturday, Aug. 23. They\u2019ll continue action with meets in Durango (Aug. 30) and Alamosa (Sept. 6), before getting a preview of their regional course in Ignacio on Sept. 13. Their competitions continue in the lead-up to the regional meet on Oct. 25 in Ignacio, with the hopes of another trip to the Norris Penrose Event Center for the 2A state championships on the first day of November.<\/p>\n

Mancos building back up<\/div>\n

After a state appearance last fall for the Bluejays girls, longtime Mancos head coach Brady Archer has plenty to be excited about in fall.<\/p>\n

The Jays bring back seniors Maddie Swortwood-Green and Tyla Henry from last year\u2019s state-qualifying squad, and Archer hopes that their experience will pay dividends for an otherwise young team.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Tyla Henry returns to lead the Bluejays cross-country team this fall. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThey know what it takes to succeed, but with our young team, we\u2019ll have to be patient and trust the process,\u201d said Archer.<\/p>\n

The boys team seeks to fill out a complete team for the first time in a couple years, with sophomore Cuinn Archer looking to build off a strong freshman year where he nearly qualified individually for state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see the season as a work in progress,\u201d added Archer, \u201cthe races are opportunities to improve so that when we get to our regional race, we can hopefully have our best races when it counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos will head to Colorado Springs for the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede to get a look at the state course on Aug. 22, before returning to race in a number of the Four Corners-based meets. Their home meet, after having to step away from Chicken Creek last year due to the land dispute, returns to the trails north of town on Oct. 11. The Bluejays join Dolores in the 2A regional meet in Ignacio on Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez ready to continue growth<\/div>\n

Last year\u2019s Montezuma-Cortez cross-country team enjoyed significant improvement throughout the season under head coach Dan Tamminga, and the Panthers hope for another year of climbing the standings this fall.<\/p>\n

The Panthers boys team posted a ninth-place finish in last year\u2019s regional meet from a group composed primarily of sophomores and juniors. Class of 2027 runner William Blair looks be one of the leaders to help guide the Panthers on the course, while Tamminga\u2019s girls team will look for some new faces to take the reins after M-CHS graduated virtually their entire team from last year\u2019s 10-place regional run.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez junior William Blair will join a rising group of talent to pace the Panthers this year. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After joining the fray in Boggy Draw to begin the season on Aug. 23, the Panthers will face competition at meets in Durango (Aug. 30) and Bayfield (Sept. 13) before they host their home meet at Parque de Vida on Saturday, Sept. 20. M-CHS will take on the 3A regional field on Oct. 23 with ambitions of qualifying runners for the 3A state meet on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores boys look to continue state rise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16944,"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-16943","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\/16943","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=16943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20477,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16943\/revisions\/20477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16943"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}