The plan to start slowly and build throughout the season is a bit ahead of schedule for the Durango High School cross country team.
The Demons finished first on the boys side with 81 points and eighth on the girls side with 185 points at the season-opening Cheyenne Mountain Stampede on Thursday night in Colorado Springs.
Mountain View won the girls Stampede with 60 points.
Gordon Gianinny was Durango’s top finisher in 12th place at 17 minutes, 47.3 seconds, while Nicholas Turco and Benjamin Lachelt packed up to finish 13th and 14th in 17:47.4 and 17:50.8, respectively.
Seamus Millett finished 20th in 18:07.4, Will Chandler was 27th at 18:25.6, and River Weiss was 39th at 18:50.1 to round out the Demons’ squad.
“The race strategy was kind of our season strategy: slow start and build up to the end of the season,” DHS head coach David McMillan said late Thursday night. “I still can’t believe what the kids ended up doing.”
Pueblo Centennial’s Michael Duran won the boys race in 17:09.5.
Cañon City’s Aubrey Till won the girls race in 20:15.60.
Shannon Maloney paced the girls team in 22:18.1, good for 17th place.
Maggie Wigton was 31st in 23:12.7, Sarah Smagacz took 35th in 23:20.7, Emily Fogel finished 46th in 23:94.2, Marit May was 56th in 24:14, and Emily Edwards-Colsman took 69th in 25:33.7 for the Demons.
“Last season we went in and ran well in this meet and had a target on our back,” McMillan said. “We wanted to avoid that.”
DHS stuck with its patented pack mentality, staying together through the first 1-1/4 miles and bursting up a hill after that.
“The kids executed it perfectly,” McMillan said. “It’s just exciting stuff.”
The Demons’ next race is the Joe Vigil/PUMA Invitational on Sept. 6 in Alamosa.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
