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Huskies, Devils XC off to good start for the season

Battle Mountain girls cross-country celebrates its second-place finish at Friday's Cheyenne Mountain Stampede down in Colorado Springs.
Special to the Daily |

Cheyenne Mountain Stampede

Girls

3. Joslin Blair, EV, 19:10

7. Elizabth Constien, BM, 19:58

8. Lizzy Harding, BM, 19:59

13. Kaela Fahrney, BM, 20:37

21. Alex Raichart, BM, 20:59

22. Avery Doan, EV, 21:03

71. Brogan Murray, BM, 22:38

75. Michaela Mitchell, EV, 22:43

77. Hannah Zivelonghi, BM, 22:47

83. Shelby Essex, EV, 23:01

86. Gabby Trueblood, BM, 23:05

93. Katy Grewe, EV, 23:31

98. Zoe Braun, EV, 23:50

Boys

29. Nate Badger, BM, 17:20

30. Ty Willoughby, BM, 17:28

32. Franklin Reilly, BM, 17:38

38. James Moran, BM, 17:51

59. Luke Morrisey, EV, 18:19

65. Jack Neifert, EV, 18:26

76. Bailey Beckum, EV, 18:39

81. Patrick Johnson, BM, 18:42

89. Douglas McMurrain, BM, 18:53

96. Nick Apps, BM, 19:04

100. Gerardo Lopez, EV, 19:09

114. John Papadopoulos, EV, 18:33

119. Dean Smith, EV, 19:43

133. Tony Hernandez, EV, 20:06

COLORADO SPRINGS — Both Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley cross-country made some serious waves at Friday’s Cheyenne Mountain Stampede down in Colorado Springs.

In the event better-known as pre-state, the Huskies girls finished second, while the boys were sixth out of a field of 20-plus teams, while Eagle Valley freshman Joslin Blair had a stunning debut. She finished third individually and set a new school record with a time of 19 minutes, 10 seconds.

She will likely retain her spot on varsity.



Huskies overcome adversity

The Huskies’ ladies were reeling a little bit after Naomi Harding had a cycling accident last week and is out indefinitely. Yet, Battle Mountain is very deep and it showed on Friday. The Huskies finished only behind defending state champion, Air Academy, on Friday.

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Elizabeth Constien and Lizzy Harding both cracked the top 10, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively. Harding is the biggest jumper from last year. She didn’t race varsity until the last month of last season.

Huskies coach Rob Parish was also happy with Brogan Murray jumping in and being the team’s fifth scorer in Naomi Harding’s absence. Another thing that pleased Parish was that Megan Bamford took second in the JV race. That’s going to get her a look at the varsity level in the next few weeks.

The gents had four faster than 18 minutes, always a nice starting point for the season. Those would be Nate Badger, Ty Willoughby, Franklin Reilly and James Moran. Parish called Badger, “Jake Borel,” which is Huskies-speak for a guy who seems set to bloom this season. Willoughby also had a triumphant return to racing after missing last year with an injury.

All in all, the boys were running six newcomers — Reilly is the only holdover — in this race, so that is promising.

“It’s a great starting place,” Parish said. “We know exactly where we are. We have a bit of a pecking order. We know we’ll have significant improvement in the next two months.”

The new kid

The new girl at Eagle Valley is fast.

Joslin Blair, who’s been a poorly kept secret while in middle school, exploded onto the high school scene with a 19:10, good for a bronze medal. That’s pretty darn impressive for a varsity debut.

She goes up on the board in the gym with a new Devils female record in the 5K, though she might break that a few times before she’s done.

Eagle Valley’s girls took 12th, while the boys were 15th.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.


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