Lady Devils cross-country takes second

Eagle Valley cross country may be in just its second sea-son, but the girls’ team is deep – really deep.

Normally the team’s top runner, Kelly Cassidy got the Dakota Ridge Invitational off to rest as did Blanca Gonza-lez and Pearl Nanin, also regular scorers for the Devils.

Eagle Valley didn’t miss a beat, finishing second ahead of their cross-county rivals.

Shanna Zoch assumed the mantle of No. 1 Tuesday, fin-ishing eighth for the Devils in 23:16. Megan McQueeney was one tick behind her in ninth. Logan Kinsler, one of Tuesday’s Hoss Award winners, took 14th in 23:29, while Rachael Burnett was 21st in 24:40.

“I think the ladies are coming on strong. It’s very char-acteristic of last year,” Devils coach Melinda Brandt said. ” They’re learning to run as a pack. They were running together. If someone doesn’t have their best race, someone else steps up. Shanna did a great job for us.”

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And as is usual, Wade Fowler did a great job, too. His 18:42 paced the boys’ team to a fifth-place finish. Fowler ended up in 13th, followed by Hunter Burnham ( 18th, 18:57), Ben Muehlethaler (27th, 20:01) and Prather Silver-thon (28th, 20:06).

Matt Durbin won the Hoss Award for the boys, cutting 40 seconds off his previous personal record.

Both the Devils and Huskies head to Aspen Saturday.