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Running through smoke

Durango, Mancos take team titles

Bayfield senior Trevor Gabbard found himself so far ahead of the pack that he decided to have a conversation with the pace bike rider.

“How he was doing, how he got recruited into biking, what grade his son was in,” Gabbard said of his conversation topics.

He finished first in the varsity boys race of the Southwest Colorado XC Challenge on Saturday at Saul’s Creek west of Bayfield, crossing the line in 17 minutes, 34.47 seconds.

His closest competitor, Mancos’ Ro Paschal, was more than 31 seconds behind him.

“It felt fine, it didn’t feel like I was working,” said Gabbard, son of Joe and Kelly Gabbard.”

Alex Knight came in 18th for the wolverines in 19:57.05, Sloan Mazur was 32nd in 20:39.92, Joey Sandrey took 55th in 22:26.85, Bryan Gram came in 57th at 22:53.97 and Justis Herrer rounded out the team in 23:18.13.

The BHS boys finished sixth out of nine scoring teams with 94 points.

Durango High School took second on the boys side with 42 points to Mancos’ 37 points.

All seven DHS runners crossed the line with exactly the same time at 19:17.39, perfectly encapsulating head coach David McMillan’s pack mentality.

Nicholas Turco was given ninth place, Gordon Gianniny 10th, River Weiss 11th, William Chandler 12th, Benjamin Lachelt 13th, Seamus Millett 14th and Jordan Helms 15th.

“It was perfect. Mancos ran well. They’re a team to watch,” McMillan said. “We got exactly what we wanted out of the exercise.”

Durango’s girls team finished in first place with 23 points to retain the event’s traveling trophy instituted last season.

DHS junior Shannon Maloney finished second in 22:06.64, just behind winner Rachel Demby of Cortez, who crossed the line in 21:02.53.

“It felt good. We decided to pack for the first mile and a half and break free after that,” said Maloney, daughter of Melissa and Murdoch Maloney. “I felt like after a mile and a half that I could pull free.”

Emily Edwards-Colsman (22:58.58), Sarah Smagacz (23:00.84) and Maggie Wigton (23:13.95) took sixth through eighth, respectively, for DHS.

Marit May took 13th in 23:52.86, and Lilah Slaughter was 21st at 24:32.43.

Durango’s next meet is Thursday at Coronado, which is why the Demons didn’t push as hard as they could have Saturday.

“That’s a whole different course; it’s flat and fast, some of the fastest times in the state came out of the Coronado meet (last year),” McMillan said. “We’re gonna unleash what we have and see what we have at this stage in the season.”

Bayfield’s girls team took eighth led by Rachel Cooper, an Ignacio High School student running for BHS because the Bobcats don’t have a program, in 23rd at 24:33.62.

Bridget Gorddard, who is still working her way back from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, finished 27th in 24:57.03.

Amber Johnson was 34th in 26:04.86, Brittany Birk took 55th in 30:32.95 and Jessica George was 58th at 31:23.37.

“Rachel Cooper and Bridget Goddard both did awesome,” BHS head coach Josh Walton said. “Bridget’s still coming back from her injury, and she’s still trying to figure out races and trying to gain the confidence to run again. Rachel just keeps improving every week.”

There was a moment of silence at the ceremony to honor Joe Garcia, the Pagosa Springs bus driver who passed away at last year’s race.

The U.S. Forest Service was conducting a prescribed burn around Saul’s Creek on Saturday, and smoke still was present for the middle school races at the beginning of the event.

That caused Piedra Vista to pull out of the race and opt to workout in Durango, instead.

Piedra Vista head coach Sampson Sage said his team had a respiratory illness going around the last two weeks, and Sage didn’t want to risk it.

“I would assume with it being the forest service, unless they pick some random date to do a burn like that, you would think they would have it planned out. Every time we host a race and reserve Lions Wilderness Park, we do it eight months in advance, because we know they have other events to plan,” Sage said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I’m not sure the logistics of it, but it is unfortunate because we now have to find an extra race next weekend.”

The smoke cleared and only was visible in the distance by the time the varsity girls race started at 11 a.m.

“I don’t really think it had an affect on the varsity races,” Walton said. “I was glad that the smoke got out of here. I’m glad that we didn’t have any respiratory issues.”

Saturday may have been the last time the meet is held at Saul’s Creek.

Walton and the event organizers are looking at moving it to a spot near Three Springs to place the race between Bayfield and Durango.

“It’s possible this might be the last time on this course,” Walton said. “It’s basically behind all the development right now. It’ll be a designated course to where we can have multiple races on it every year, which will be nice.”

Durango Herald sports writer John Livingston contributed to this report

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com

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