Huskies girls’ XC dominates at home meet
Justin Q. McCarty | Special to the Daily |
BEAVER CREEK — Meet the super sophomores for Battle Mountain girls cross-country.
Kaela Fahrney, Elizabeth Constien, Alex Raichart and Meg Rossman went 2-3-7-8 as the Huskies ladies rolled to a win at the Battle Mountain Invitational on Saturday at Beaver Creek. OK, Rossman isn’t a sophomore, but the point stands.
Battle Mountain’s girls defeated Cheyenne Mountain, 33-55, while Eagle Valley was seventh. On the boys’ side, Durango threw down for the second week in a row, lapping the field with just 25 points. The Huskies were second with 95 and the Devils sixth.
Depth is our friend
“We’re happy with our schedule. We want to put ourselves in challenging situations and gain experience. I think we’ve done that.”Melinda BrandtDevils cross-country coach
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Rychelle Denardo was Battle Mountain’s top runner at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede, aka pre-state, last weekend. She and fellow senior Hannah Gaylord had tough days — it happens during regular season meets and postseason ones.
Depth makes up for those inevitable moments.
“Kaela was our No. 1 today, and she ran out of her mind,” Huskies coach Rob Parish said. “At different points of the race, Rychelle was leading our team, Megan was leading our team and Alex was leading our team. To have four different No. 1s shows our depth.”
As if to hammer the point home, Battle Mountain’s JV swamped the first six spots of its race. That means there’s some competition spots for an already good team. And if none of those ladies work out, then Huskies volleyball player Jordan Brandt won the women’s Eric Spry 5K Race, which was open to the public.
Demonic
Durango cross-country camped out at Battle Mountain High School on Friday night and did not catch pneumonia. While Palmer Ridge is No. 1 in the milesplit.com 4A rankings, there’s a reason Parish thinks the No. 2-ranked Demons are the best in the state.
Despite being swamped by Durango, the Huskies still had a very good day.
“We’re happy with what the guys did today,” Parish said. “I think the guys were a little too excited from pre-state. They’re still working hard in training.”
And it’s important to remember that it’s still very early in the season. Along those lines, Eagle Valley cross-country had a good day during a challenging portion of its schedule.
“We’re happy with our schedule,” Devils coach Melinda Brandt said. “We want to put ourselves in challenging situations and gain experience. I think we’ve done that.”
Eagle Valley’s Hosses were Bailey Beckum and Maddlyne Schenck.
Battle Mountain heads to the Liberty Bell on Friday, while Eagle Valley is at Hotchkiss on Saturday.
Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.
