Eagle Valley boys cross-country team wins first region title in program history
Battle Mountain also qualified both girls and boys squads to the state meet next Saturday in Colorado Springs
Steve Blair/Courtesy photo
At last, the Devils are cross-country region champs.
“It was the goal and we finally just got it done on the day we needed to get it done,” said head coach Melinda Brandt, who has led the boys team to three runner-up placements over the last decade as well as a third-place finish last fall, when her squad was just three points out of first.
On Thursday, the No. 4-ranked Devils scored 47 points to win the 4A Region 1 crown at the Lincoln Park Golf Course in Grand Junction, finishing 25 points clear of No. 7 Summit. Amazingly, 5-kilometer school-record holder Dylan Blair — who blitzed a 15 minute, 10 second time a week ago at the same venue — finished outside of the scoring five.
“The biggest thing on the day is just that our team continues to carry each other,” Brandt said. “It just shows how deep our team is and how hard they work for each other.”
Blair fell on his knee Tuesday and ran the race with a bad bone bruise; the pain intensified after his 5:10 opening mile.
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“He is relentless,” Brandt said of the sophomore star. “He has more grit than probably any runner I know. He ran through a lot of pain.”
Battle Mountain’s Will Brunner repeated as individual region champion, running a personal best time of 14:47.0. His teammate, Porter Middaugh — who ran the second-fastest prep 5k on Colorado soil (14:38) on the same course a week ago — finished third (15:08.2) as Mullen’s Jacob Sushinksy (14:49.6) took the silver.
“Will had a tremendous race,” Huskies’ head coach Rob Parish said.
The Devils may have had four sophomores and a junior in the top 31, but seniors Cooper Filmore (15:32.7), Armando Fuentes (15:56.3) and Jack Packert (16:38.3) came through with clutch championship running.
“In these big races where experience does matter, Cooper and Mondo leading the way is not surprising,” Brandt said. “They have consistently performed all year.”
Brunner, Sushinksy, Middaugh and Summit’s Josh Shriver blasted out of the gate for a hot opening mile. Filmore didn’t take the bait as the entire Devils team took a more conservative approach.
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“We worked on taking a little bit off that first mile so that we could have some return at the end of the race,” Brandt stated, adding that Filmore has a knack for getting the most out of himself regardless of what the rest of the field does.
“He knows his running. He knows what he’s capable of and he’s very calm and collected in terms of his race strategy.”
Brunner led most of the way, and by the midway point, his turnover had turned things into a clear three-person race. Sushinksy made a move into first with 500-meters remaining but Brunner tracked him down in the homestretch. After Filmore and Fuentes, Tyler Blair (15:57.5) and Jackson Filmore (16:25.4) followed in eighth and 12th, respectively for Eagle Valley. Then Packert, whose best time last year was 19:01, solidified his claim as the state’s most improved athlete, finishing in 15th.
“He just came out of nowhere this year,” Brandt said of the former junior varsity runner.
Battle Mountain placed third to qualify for state as a team, thanks in large part to the heroics of their own fifth man, Adam Labenski. The junior has spent much of his career as a fringe varsity runner but beat the relentless heat to notch a 23-second personal best (17:22.5) and finish 28th overall.
“He was unbelievable today,” Parish said of the hard-working and humorous Labenski, who will compete at his first state meet on Oct. 28 in Colorado Springs. “To come through and be our fifth guy — that was so exciting for him and he really helped us when we needed it. It’s a win for hard work over time. He’s just been diligent and it paid off today.”
Brandt said the Devils’ team goal for next Saturday remains what it’s always been: a top-3 finish.
“They want to be on the podium,” she stated. “They want to take home the hardware.”
Battle Mountain girls’ streak of 12-straight region titles comes to an end
The Lady Huskies’ 12-year reign as region champions finally ended Thursday as No. 8-ranked Conifer edged Battle Mountain by just three points. Parish’s crew did finish five points ahead of Summit, which came into the meet ranked fourth in the state, and claimed the Western Slope league title for a 13th-straight year.
“I mean, overall I was just so impressed with the girls’ resiliency,” the coach said. “Just to be in the mix and going into this race thinking we had a chance to extend (the streak) was a credit to their determination and dedication. Their pride was pretty special.”
Nationally-ranked Summit junior Ella Hagen crushed the field, winning in 17:08.4. Battle Mountain’s Lindsey Whitton (18:28.1) finished second as Conifer’s top two, Kate Horneck (18:37.2) and Audrey VanWestrienen (18:43.4) finished third and fourth, respectively. The Lobos’ plan was to start fast.
“They had four ahead of Addie (Beuche) at the mile,” Parish chronicled. The Huskies moved up as Conifer went backwards in the last one-third of the race. Beuche and Presley Smith finished sixth and seventh and Ruthie Demino came through in 17th, sneaking ahead of Conifer’s fourth and fifth runners. Even though the Lobos were able to hold on, Parish praised his top-three runners — all seniors — for laying it on the line to preserve a streak which started when they were 4 or 5-years old.
“They gave it everything they had to get this done and should be really commended with that effort,” he said.
Eagle Valley finished seventh as a team. Senior Ellie Shroll (19:40.8) used a characteristically strong second mile to come home in 10th, qualifying for state for the second-straight year while junior Ginger Reilly, in just her second year as a runner, finished just outside the top-15 qualifying slots in 20th.
“She raced really hard. Our girls went out with some of the gutsiest first-mile racing all season,” Brandt said before offering inspiration for the future.
“There’s definitely emotions attached when you set the big goal and put yourself out there, but I think that’s the great part of sports — you get to come back. You get to do it again (and) go after those goals again. So, when you fall a little bit under where you want to be, you get to keep fighting.”
