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Cross-country slows some at Sunset Classic home meet

Freshman Hufnagel posts Bayfield's only top-25 time

Striding through shadows created by portable lighting, runners' confidence - not so much in themselves, but rather their footing - among the 77 boys' finishers and the 68 girls' finishers was somewhat shakier sans sunlight at the second annual Southwest Sunset XC Classic last Friday.

And not even the leaders negotiating the Hillcrest Golf Course route were immune from a slowdown after their efforts a week earlier at the Sept. 10 Joe I. Vigil Open in Alamosa, where most of the Classic's runners had also previously competed.

Unable to replicate his impressive daylight 15:42.80 at Cattails Golf Course AHS senior star Isaiah De La Cerda's 16:06.66 in Durango still managed to pace all in the boys' varsity race won by the Mean Moose with an intimidating 1-2-5-6-8 scoring quintet. Alamosa had defended its home course with a meet-low 26 points.

For the girls, Alamosa junior Tara Sowards and freshman Lilly Lavier reversed their order at the Classic's finish with Lavier taking first in 20:03.83 and Sowards second in 20:06.41.

"Alamosa, those guys just killed it," Bayfield head coach Josh Walton said the next morning at BHS while assisting with the volleyball team's dual-gym hosting of a JV/varsity triangular.

Overall, 13 high school teams entered the 2016 edition of the BHS-DHS co-hosted Classic, coming from as far south as Thoreau, N.M., as far east as Alamosa, and as far north as Moab, Utah. Blanding, Utah's Albert R. Lyman Middle School made the longest drive from the west.

Among the teams in the wake of the Alamosa boys, Durango placed second with 69 points and Bayfield, with a result similar to their 11th-place 315 at Alamosa, totaled a tenth-place 286. Top billing in the girls' run was decided by only two points, with DHS' 38 bettering AHS' 40. BHS, meanwhile, was 10th at both Cattails and Hillcrest, though their score of 241 at the latter was an improvement upon a 284 at the larger former.

The girls' score was accomplished without the services of their anchor, senior Bridget Goddard.

Unable to complete the race after leading the girls with her 40th-place 22:01.10 in Alamosa, Goddard's exit permitted freshman Claire Hufnagel (55th at the Open; 22:27.90) to temporarily assume the No. 1 role with her 24th-place 22:33.037 in Durango.

"Claire ran a very good race," Walton said. "I was happy with the 22:33 that she ran; that's not much off of her p.r. that she ran in Alamosa. So I'm expecting her to probably break 22 minutes this weekend. This weekend's going to be a faster course, so I see Claire running better. And Bridget's really looking to get back on track this weekend! She's fine; no knee injury or anything like that."

"The conditions weren't the best and she just didn't run the best," he continued. "No injuries; she just didn't feel right."

Consistently Bayfield's No. 3 so far this season, senior Amber Johnson was the squad's second finisher at the home meet, though her 47th-place 24:13.487 was slower than her 77th-place 23:21.90 at Alamosa. Senior Rachel Cooper, 83rd in Alamosa with a 23:45.90, slowed to 24:31.680 in Durango but placed 50th.

Sophomore Mylee Sanders came in 67th with a 30:17.087, and senior sister Jade was 68th in 35:23.627.

Such close proximity was the Wolverine boys' plan, and to that extent it was well-executed.

"The boys kind of didn't feel the best about the footing, were kind of unsure about running in the dark, so what the boys actually decided to do was run as a pack," Walton said. "And if you look at the times, Sloan, Cody, Bryan and Jackson all came in about thirteen seconds apart. They wanted to run.as a 'team' in this race, and then really get after it this coming weekend when we go to Grand Junction."

Having finished 33rd at the Vigil in 17:30.40, junior Sloan Mazur was at the front of the 'pack' with a 62nd-place 20:33.457. Only 0.327 of a second behind, senior Cody Speece crossed next in 63rd, and senior Bryan Gram took 64th in 20:40.744. Senior Jackson Sibley was 65th (20:46.707) and classmate Gus Roberts 68th (21:18.170).

Junior Nathan Carlson placed 74th in 21:50.67, but the crew was without freshman talent Elco Garcia, Jr., who had placed 43rd at the Open with a 17:45.40 as the boys' No. 2 behind Mazur.

"Elco ended up not feeling that well Friday, either," Walton said. "So we ended up sending Garcia home in the evening-before the boys' race even started-so that obviously hurt us."

"Both teams were kind of laid-up," he lamented. "Isis Gonzales wasn't feeling that great pretty much all day. She made the trip over, but she ended up going home before the race started, wasn't feeling up to it. So that was one girl off our varsity. Sarah Ruybal was nursing an ankle, so I put her in the JV race just because I didn't feel comfortable letting her run in the dark with that type of injury."

BHS competes next at Saturday's's Anna Banana Memorial Invitational hosted by 5A Fruita Monument at Connected Lakes near Grand Junction, part of James M. Robb Colorado River State Park, beginning at 10 a.m.

"We kind of still have some sickness going through the team; I have a variety of kids that are in and out. nursing a cough, or a cold, or something," Walton said. "But everyone's working hard still and we keep progressing."

INSPIRATION FOR THE EVENT: Walton noted that the sunset/nighttime appeal of the Southwest Classic was a concept taken from a trip taken a couple years ago.

"I know that (DHS head coach) David McMillan and I kind of got the idea from the Desert Twilight down in Phoenix," he recalled. "A couple years ago-Durango usually goes every year-I took Bayfield.when Trevor (Gabbard) was a senior and Sloan was a freshman, and we really enjoyed the night race."

"It really was just a matter of putting it together and finding a place that would actually allow us to set up 18 lights and cone off an area of five thousand meters."