The Pagosa Springs High School Pirate cross-country team, unsurprisingly, dealt with rain and mud at the Oct. 11 Chicken Creek Classic in Mancos.
The team also encountered additional, unexpected challenges.
“The Mancos meet was a wild one! It was rainy, muddy, and two middle schoolers got lost, which delayed the start of the high school races by 40 minutes,” coach Josh Kurz wrote in a newsletter. “I was able to convince the Mancos coach to change the high school course at the last minute to avoid the slow and dangerously muddy trail conditions. Special thanks to Janae Ash for jogging a mile and a half in her galoshes to help me direct runners on the modified course.
“I was proud of our runners for being flexible and toughing it out in wet clothes for 4 hours. We got drenched right away as we searched for the course, which was erased by the rain.”
But, despite the conditions and challenges, the teams returned home with two top-10 finishers — Madisen Stretton and Rylan Ash.
“Madi ran tough and placed 7th overall,” Kurz highlights.
Stretton ran a time of 23 minutes, 43.25 seconds to finish seventh out of 38 runners.
Kaiya Lyons finished 11th with a time of 24:25.90, followed by Bella Jackson seconds behind in 24:38.53.
Xyra Belarmino finished 28th with a time of 30:33.53.
The girls’ team didn’t have enough runners to score as a team (five runners are required to score as a team).
The Pirate boys’ squad, however, did have enough runners to compete as a team, finishing fourth out of eight teams.
The Pirates were led by Rylan Ash’s second-place finish, which Kurz calls “impressive.”
Ash ran a time of 18:18.20 to take second out of 59 runners.
Eli Nehring finished 23rd with a time of 20:39.93, with Dylan Dempster following in 24th with a time of 20:48.22.
Weston Sweet finished in 27th with a time of 21:10.85.
Merrick Tudor followed in 28th in 21:24.76.
Kieran Kurz took 30th with a time of 21:38.84.
Isaac Hanto ran a time of 22:42.71 to finish 33rd.
Jacen Easling took 37th with a time of 23:16.60.
“Bella and Eli were our monsters of the week.,” Kurz highlights. “They both managed to drop time from the previous week despite the rainy conditions. Bella dropped 29 seconds, and Eli dropped 2 seconds.”
This week, the team will head to Monte Vista for its final regular-season meet.
“It’s a fast and extremely spectator-friendly course held at the Monte Vista Golf Course,” Kurz wrote, adding the race will help determine who will represent Pagosa at regionals.
Kurz explains in the newsletter that this week leading up to the Monte Vista races is the team’s “most important training week.”
Following the Monte Vista meet, the Pirates will head for the Oct. 23 regional races in Colorado Springs.
randi@pagosasun.com
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