Competing in front of home fans on a course with which she has become familiar, Montezuma-Cortez High School junior Ridley Dennison raced to a seventh-place finish at the Ancient Trails Invitational cross-country meet in Cortez on Oct. 5.
Dennison’s time of 24:22 ranked best among the Lady Panthers’ four-member team, which included Marina Bradley, who placed 14th (25:40), Emalie Myers, who finished 16th (25:46), and Kalea Hunt, who crossed the line in 25th place (29:01).
Joining M-CHS runners for the women’s varsity race was a four-person varsity team from Mancos High School, which was led by junior Grace Manning, who placed third overall with a time of 25:53.
Also competing for the Lady Jays were Amaris Webb, who placed 15th (25:41), Kylie Guiles, who finished 26th (29:08), and Aspen Bumgarner, who crossed the line in 30th place.
Anaya Martinez, who was the lone female races from Dolores High School, finished 18th with a time of 26:09.
Shortly after the conclusion of the girls varsity race, male runners took to the course, which started and finished at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds, and put on an exciting performance.
Leading the way among local runners was Mancos High School sophomore Edgar Hernandez, who placed fourth overall with a time of 19:36. Sophomore Connor Sehnert crossed the line in fifth place (19:47) for Mancos, and senior teammate John Lund finished sixth (19:58).
Rounding out the varsity finishers for Mancos team Vanfasai Jaijong, who placed 27th (22:48), Zack Steele, who finished 38th (25:21), and Sean Bumgarner, who finished 45th (30:06).
The M-CHS boys were led by Giovanni Carta, who was 24th (22:33), and Jadon Elliott, who was 32nd (24:11). Joshua Chen finished 36th (25:12), and Kiernan Korthank was 37th (25:18).
Michael Brafford paced the Dolores boys team with a time of 21:51, which was good for 20th place overall, and Daniel Vandever finished 31st (24:10). Triston Scott was 25th (24:22), and Kyler Acree was 47th (32:06).
