Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain runners compete at Nike Southwest Regional
Charlie Janssen/Courtesy photo
Members of the Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain cross-country teams churned out season and lifetime best performances at the Nike Southwest Regional championship on Nov. 23 at Toka Sticks Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona.
There were 15 races at the event 鈥斅爓ith multiple small, medium and large school divisions for both boys and girls, plus a championship race for both genders as well. Athletes in the championship races were competing to qualify for the Nike Cross Nationals event on Dec. 7 in Portland, Oregon. ‘NXN’ brings together the best athletes from all eight regional meets across the country.
Coming off a program-best fourth-place team finish at the state meet earlier in November, Eagle Valley was hoping to put its entire team in the championship race. However, head coach Charlie Janssen said the meet director didn’t believe the squad could finish in the top-29. Juniors Tyler and Dylan Blair were allowed to enter the top field and wound up placing 27th and 31st, respectively. Tyler Blair reset the program out-of-state record by finishing the 5-kilometer race in 15 minutes, 3 seconds. Dylan Blair still holds the in-state school record (15:04 at the Liberty Bell Invitational).
Brogan Collins finished in sixth with a time of 14:31 to secure the final national meet qualification slot. Last year, Battle Mountain runners Porter Middaugh and Will Brunner qualified for the national meet, with Brunner running 15:03, albeit on a different course.
The rest of the Devils squad competed in the medium school division. Jackson Filmore went under the 16-minute barrier (15:58) for the first time in his final prep cross-country race. Fellow senior Blake Anderson ran 16:55 in his last run.
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“Huge shoutout to Blake and Jackson for polishing off a solid high school career,” Janssen said.
Eric Asselin (16:04), Patricio Morales (18:39) and Cayle Brummer (18:50) all logged lifetime bests and Logan Drever’s 17:40 was a course personal best as the Devils averaged 15:48 across their top-5. According to Janssen’s math, combining all of his athletes times would have resulted in a 17th-place team finish in the championship division.
Former Eagle Valley star Samantha Blair 鈥� who is running at Northern Arizona 鈥斅燿rove over to support the team. The Devils added some cultural education on the return portion of the trip, stopping to camp at the crest of Comb Ridge outside of Bluff, Utah.
“(We) found hundreds of pre-Columbian era potsherds and ancient petroglyphs in one of the most remote wildernesses in the lower 48,” Janssen said.
The Battle Mountain girls鈥斅�who finished second at the 4A state meet 鈥斅爐opped the 59 teams in the small school division. All seven runners ran lifetime personal records, with five dipping under 19:46.
“NXR was great for our crew,” head coach Rob Parish stated.聽” Everyone ran well, and we had nine out of 10 kids with huge PRs.聽Our girls absolutely聽crushed the small school race, winning by 56 points.”聽
Eden Demino led the way, placing fifth overall with a time of 18:36.3. Ruthie Demino (18:59.5) also dipped under 19 minutes in 13th place as Larsen Middaugh (19:02.2), Kylee Buchanan (19:42.5) and Snow Swihart (19:46.3) rounded out the scoring five. The Huskies were without two of their top three runners, included Caroline Provencher, the team’s third runner at the state meet.
Adam Labenski led the Huskies on the boys side, running a lifetime best of 17:05.52 in his final prep cross-country race to place 46th in the small school division. Freshmen Alex Flores (18:35.19) and Austin McWhirter (19:58.96) were 117th and 158th, respectively, but the Huskies didn’t field a full scoring five.
