Panthers, Jays head to Silverton

Panthers, Jays head to Silverton

Sept. 23, 2000

CORTEZ JOURNAL

SILVERTON — The Panthers and Blue Jays will be competing in the annual Silverton Invitational Cross-Country meet today, Sept. 23.

"This is always a good meet for us," Mancos head coach Tim Dunham said. "It gives us a chance to see several of the northern schools who we will see at Regionals. We like coming to this meet. It’s a lot of fun for the kids. The altitude is a lot higher (more than 9,000 feet above sea level from the start of the course) than at what we are used to running," he said.

This is the first time in a number of years that Montezuma-Cortez High School has taken a team to the meet. Joining MCHS and Mancos will be Rifle, Delta, Montrose, Gunnison, Ouray-Ridgway, Cedaredge, Paonia and Hotchkiss among others. The runners will get started at 7 a.m. with the junior varsity taking to the track first. The varsity should be on the track around 10.

Both teams competed at the Shiprock (N.M.) Invitational. The times may not have been the best in the world for Mancos High School cross-country runners. A tough course plus high temperatures (98 degrees) meant for some difficult running at the annual Shiprock meet.

"We wanted to get out of there because it was so hot. We did not want to wait around to see how the teams finished. Until I receive the official results, I can’t tell you where we actually finished," Dunham commented.

"But I was pleased with our kids. I thought they ran very well considering how it was. Our times were a little slow, but I think the heat certainly had something to do with it," he added.

Jordan Davis clocked 18 minutes, 38 seconds. Dunham said he believed Davis finished in 23rd place. Jesse Rousset was timed in 18:50, Sven McNeil 19:14, Doyle Edgerton 19:26 and Greg Cummings 19:31. Amanda Kennedy had a time of 29:09.

"This was a good meet because there were so many teams (26). We saw a lot of very good runners. Our boys did a good job and they are beginning to come on," Dunham noted.

Timmie Murphy from Farmington had the winning time for the girls in 19:57. The winning team for the varsity girls was Kirtland-Central with 78 points. Cortez placed 11th out of 20 teams and 130 girls running.

The top MCHS runners were: Sara Snyder 24:16, 47th Place; Julie Christenson 24:20, 49th; Chesleigh Keene 25:11, 59th; Becca Whitehead 25:34, 63rd; Holly Smith 25:45, 67th; and Jessica Millican 28:25, 87th.

"There were a number of bright spots at this meet," MCHS head coach Dave Dillman remarked. "First, it was great to see Becca Whitehead have her best meet so far. She had been ill for the first part of the season so its great to see her turn in a much improved performance in hot conditions. Another bright spot was Sara Snyder finishing first among our team. She was finishing as low as fourth amongst our team earlier this season in time trials. After several weeks of great practices, she has become our number one runner. I hope it serves to motivate the rest of our team so we can continue to improve."

On the downside, the Panthers have had a few nagging injuries, namely to Smith and Millican. It has slowed both of them down a bit in practice and in the races.

"We need them to get healthy for their sake and our team. As a team, we scored towards the middle of pack at a large meet against some great schools. That really hasn't happened since I've been here so I think their hard work is starting to pay off," he said.

The Panther girls head to Gallup, N.M., while the Jays stay closer to home and compete at Bayfield on Sept. 30.