The Pagosa Springs High School Pirate cross-country season came to an end Saturday, Oct. 31, as three Pirates raced at the state championships in Colorado Springs.
Despite both the boys’ and girls’ teams falling just short in qualifying at the regional meet, Rylan Ash, Weston Sweet and Madi Stretton all competed individually in Colorado Springs with Pagosa Springs across their chest.
Even amidst the historic flooding in Pagosa Springs in the week leading up to the race and the days after, the three athletes were still able to represent their community on the course.
“We’re just really grateful to be there,” Kurz said. “It was great. I mean, one of the referees was like, we’re so glad you made it and heard about the flooding. And so I was glad that we were able to make it there and represent our community and looking forward to hopefully more kids having the opportunity.”
On the boys’ side, Ash finished 39th with a time of 17 minutes, 26.10 seconds and Sweet placed 95th with a time of 18:18.20.
Stretton, the lone Pagosa Springs girl who competed, placed 79th with a time of 22:03.50.
Even though the course that they raced on isn’t necessarily fast, according to Kurz, Stretton ran a time on par with the times she ran at the fastest courses of the season.
“She was smiling during the race, looked like she was having a good time and just really enjoying a really good culmination of her four-year career,” Kurz said. “So, that was real special for her. She wasn’t projected to qualify place-wise, but she was able to go and that was just phenomenal for her because she’s an extremely hard worker. It was great to see her finish off her career with a real great race.”
While Ash and Sweet didn’t have their best races of the season on Saturday, Kurz indicated he is confident that they’ll be back, hopefully with the rest of their team, in the next two years — and he suggested that they’re hungry to get better.
“It’s really good to have two guys run that course and have experience with this so they can share that with the younger guys,” said Kurz.
Overall, Kurz explained he was really impressed with what he saw out of the teams, both boys and girls, this season.
The dedication, specifically, to get better in such a tough division stood out to Kurz as the season went on this year.
Kurz emphasized that the team is losing leaders. Stretton, Lucy Rivera, Adi Oelking, Isaac Hanto and Stetson Osborn all graduate at the end of the school year, but their impact will continue to be remembered.
“It’s going to be tough to fill their shoes,” Kurz said. “They’re just great leaders in that they work hard every workout, put 100 percent effort in. They’ve got great attitudes.”
Still, Kurz indicated he is excited for next year and the opportunities and challenges it will bring. The team this year was really young and really deep, and Kurz stated he is excited to see the athletes continue to dig deep and not only become better runners, but better versions of themselves.
“[We] continue to build that culture,” Kurz said, “and just creating a program that is a competitive program that also just helps these kids grow character-wise and is just a positive outlet for them. That’s the overarching goal: becoming better versions of themselves and challenge themselves to do things that they didn’t think were possible.”
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