The Pagosa Springs High School Pirate cross-country teams achieved a feat in their first meet of the season that hadn’t been done since assistant coach Emily Bryant was on the team — both the girls and boys teams finished in first place.
The teams were in Bayfield on Saturday, Aug. 22, kicking off a brand new season.
It was a small meet, with only four teams competing on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, but it didn’t matter to the Pirates, who took first on both sides.
“It was just a good first benchmark to see where we’re at, and to come home with two first places is really encouraging,” said coach Josh Kurz. “And, hopefully, they’ll start to believe what I believe, [which] is they’ve got a lot of talent. They’re going to turn a lot of heads this year.”
The boys were led by Rylan Ash, who finished first overall with a time of 18 minutes, 5.67 seconds.
Kurz called it an impressive time for the first meet of the season, especially on a slow course.
Weston Sweet finished third with a time of 19:54.85 and was one of only three, including Ash, who finished the race in under 20 minutes. He also dropped two minutes and 52 seconds from his time at last year’s race.
Jacen Easling finished seventh with a time of 21:12.94. Silas Yost was right behind him in eighth with a time of 21:53.76. Kieran Kurz finished 11th with a time of 22:25.18. Stetson Osborn finished 14th with a time of 22:41.20. Wells Witting finished 15th with a time of 22:48.78. Matthew Mars finished 17th with a time of 23:25.33.
Micah Tyler finished 19th with a time of 25:19.43, Liam McKnight finished 20th with a time of 25:56.87, Jacob Freeman finished 21st with a time of 26:31.16, Breland Bridges finished 22nd with a time of 26:33.36 and Davyn Leiker finished 25th with a time of 29:08.58.
On the girls’ side, Lily DeClark led the girls and was in first for most of the race until she rolled her ankle at the end of the race. She stuck it out and ended up coming in second with a time of 23:33.30.
“She went out and competed and probably could have won the thing, but she rolled her ankle right at the end,” Josh Kurz said. “But, I was proud of her for sticking out and finishing the race in second, which is still pretty awesome.”
Madi Stretton finished sixth for the Lady Pirates with a time of 25:23.99, Lucy Rivera placed seventh with a time of 26:06.16, and Bella Jackson finished eighth with a time of 26:27.97.
Olivia Diffey finished 11th with a time of 27:43.88. Elsy Wood finished 12th with a time of 27:45.86. Adelaide Oelking finished 17th with a time of 32:17.45. Isabelle Ratcliff finished 19th with a time of 32:48.94. Sklar Leiker finished 22nd with a time of 34:32.22.
For a lot of athletes on the team, this race was their first time out as a high schooler. Along with that, everyone who ran that race last year dropped time this year, noted Josh Kurz.
The coach also mentioned that the pack times for both the girls and the boys, excluding the front-runners, was small, which shows that the team has great depth.
Up next, the team will head to Durango for the Durango Relay Carnival.
Instead of a traditional meet, the athletes will pair up and run 8 miles together in 1-mile increments so that each runner will have run 4 miles by the end of the race.
The meet will be on Saturday, Aug. 29, at Escalante Middle School in Durango.
“It’s early season, so it’s low pressure,” said Kurz. “We treat every race up to regionals as a workout, so it’s just a way to mix it up a little bit. It’s basically mile repeats with some competition. So, it’s just another hard workout, but we get the extra push of having some athletes from our backyard to make us dig a little deeper.”
jsellner@orourkemediagroup.com
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