Ten of Pagosa Springs High School’s 15 runners brought home new personal records (PRs) from the Eric Wolff Invitational in Monte Vista on Friday, Oct. 17, with Rylan Ash also bringing home a first-place finish.
“We’re extremely proud of our team’s performance in Monte Vista on Friday,” coach Josh Kurz wrote in a team newsletter, touting the team’s PRs.
The Pirate boys finished second out of 10 teams on the day behind Dolores.
“On the boys’ side, our goal was to beat Gunnison, who was ranked higher than us in our region. We finished 16 points in front of Gunnison, giving us a 2nd place finish overall,” Kurz wrote.
Gunnison finished fourth as a team.
The Pirates were led on the day by Ash, with the coach noting Ash “had his best race of the season.”
Ash finished with a time of 16 minutes, 55.44 seconds to take first out of 108 runners.
The coach explains Ash “raced smart” and let the top runners from Gunnison and Centauri lead the first 2 miles.
“Rylan got stronger as the race progressed and dropped the lead pack and finished with a 22-second PR,” Kurz highlights.
Weston Sweet was the next Pirate finisher, logging a time of 18:55.12 to earn 17th.
“Weston also had a phenomenal race. He dropped 1:44 from last year and bested his PR by 47 seconds,” Kurz highlights.
Kieran Kurz finished 28th with a time of 19:29.30.
Merrick Tudor followed in 30th with a time of 19:39.21.
Eli Nehring was close behind, finishing 32nd in 19:40.15.
Jacen Easling was the team’s male monster of the week, dropping 2:40 from the week prior, 1:13 from last year and besting his PR by 34 seconds to finish 50th with a time of 20:36.11.
The coach notes Easling accomplished the feat despite being sick.
Dylan Dempster finished 51st with a time of 20:36.36, and Liam McKnight followed in 52nd, running a time of 20:36.54.
Isaac Hanto followed close behind in 53rd with a time of 20:37.35.
Israel Rivera took 76th with a time of 22:58.55.
“Kieran and Isaac both got new PRs and dropped a little over 2 minutes from last week,” the coach highlights. “Liam is coming on strong at the end of the season, and he posted a 47-second PR! It’s great to have him back, cast and all! Eli and Merrick had solid races, and Dylan ran tough despite his cold. We believe Dylan can get healthy this week and will race as strongly as he did in Mancos. The regional meet could be Dylan and Eli’s last race of their career, so we’re hoping they will have their best races, which could be the ticket to one more race at state!”
The coach highlights that the Lady Pirate harriers “had a great showing.”
The Lady Pirates took fifth out of eight teams at the meet, with the coach adding, “Had Lily [DeClark] been able to run, we could have won the meet! We’ve got a small but mighty girls’ team with 5 girls capable of running under 23 minutes, which hasn’t happened in a while!”
The Lady Pirates were led by Madisen Stretton on the day, who finished 10th overall out of 85 runners with a time of 21:39.93.
“Madi had her best race of the season. She placed 10th overall and is our female monster of the week,” the coach wrote. “She dropped 2:03 from last week, 1:22 from last year, and earned herself a 24-second PR!”
Lucy Rivera took 19th with a time of 22:52.65, with Josh Kurz noting, “Lucy had her best race of the season with a 1:03 PR, which was the biggest PR on the team! Emily [Bryant] and I both think she’s got a lot more left in the tank and hasn’t fully realized her running potential.”
Bella Jackson followed in 20th with a time of 22:57.62.
The coach highlights, “Bella continues to get faster each meet, and she posted a 32-second PR and took 1:18 of her time from last year! We think Bella can run much faster too!”
Kaiya Lyons earned 22nd with a time of 22:59.69, with Josh Kurz noting it was Lyons’ best race since Joe Vigil.
He adds the coaches are hoping Lyons’ injury is behind her “so she can have the best race of the season” at regionals.
Xyra Belarmino finished 77th with a time of 31.52.85.
Kurz highlights that, without Belarmino, the Lady Pirates wouldn’t have posted a team score.
“As our only female senior, we hope she finishes her last race of her short running career with a massive PR,” he wrote.
That chance will come today, Thursday, Oct. 23, at the regional race in Colorado Springs, where the Pirates runners will be looking to advance to the state’s final meet.
The top four teams and the top 15 individuals from the region will qualify for the state meet on Oct. 28.
In the newsletter, Kurz explains looking at multiple virtual meet features, the Pirate boys’ squad could have an outside shot of qualifying as a team if it can beat Lamar, while the Lady Pirates are projected to finish seventh.
“Rylan is our highest-ranked boy at 13th (thanks to his outstanding race on Saturday), but he needs another big race because 3 boys are less than a second behind him,” Josh Kurz wrote. “Ideally, Rylan can pick off Lamar’s 2nd-place boy, who posted a 16:28. It’s possible because Rylan beat Gunnison’s top boy, Ian, by 26 seconds, and Ian had posted a 16:22 earlier in the year. All of the boys need to race for place, not time. They need to find Lamar’s orange jerseys and position themselves as far in front as possible!”
On the side of the Lady Pirates, the coach noted that the projected fourth team is Alamosa — which he calls unfortunate for the Lady Pirates, noting Alamosa’s top five runners are averaging 20:31.
“Madi, who had another outstanding race this weekend, is our highest-ranking girl at 37th. Lily is ranked 41st. It appears that a time of twenty minutes will be needed to qualify individually (top 15),” the coach wrote, adding elsewhere in the newsletter, “We are expecting to have Lily race at the regional, which will be a huge boost to the team!”
The coach adds the team set goals at its preseason training camp, indicating the Pirate teams have made good progress this season.
“In August, we set goals at our Sand Dunes Camp based on last year’s regional meet, but both boys’ and girls’ times have gotten so much faster,” he wrote. “Our goal for the girls’ team is to lower the gap to qualify for the team next year, since all of the girls, except Xyra, are returning. The boys’ team goal was to qualify for state this year and get Rylan to state individually.”
The Lady Pirates will race first at the Region 2 meet, which will be held at the north end of Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs, with their race set to begin at 1:30 p.m. The Pirates will follow at 2:15 p.m.
Josh Kurz also highlights that some of the Pirate harriers had a unique run ahead of the regional meet, explaining, “Sheriff Mike Le Roux informed me last minute on Saturday that Jason Doyle, who is running across the country, was passing through Pagosa. Isaac sent out a message in the group chat, and we were able to round up 4 of our boys to run with Jason. They had some great conversations as they jogged 6 miles along Highway 160 together. They were equally inspired by each other, and Jason was very impressed with the subsample of our amazing team.”
The coach adds Doyle complimented the runners and the team, adding, “It’s cool to know that PSXC is a part of his epic journey!”
The state meet is slated to take place on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
randi@pagosasun.com
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