Competing against 14 other schools at the Shiprock Invitational on Saturday, the Mancos High School boys and girls cross-country teams acquitted themselves well.
Senior Simon Kearns led the way for the boys team with a 12th-place finish (17:07), while teammate Caleb Yoder ran a season-best 17:25, which was good enough for 17th overall.
Other top finishers for the boys included Jake McKie and Zane Wilson, who finished in 34th place (18:10) and 52nd place (19:17), respectively. Alex Fleitz rounded out the boys varsity scorers with a 57th-place finish (19:58).
As a team, the Bluejays finished seventh, but according to head coach Brady Archer, missed fifth place by just 3 points.
“We had been running mostly controlled races with the runners grouped together through the first mile until (this meet),” Archer said. “Today, everyone went out and ran their own race and almost all of our sophomores and freshmen had personal best times. Caleb Yoder ran a really good race.”
Grace Manning, the only varsity girl to compete, finished 16th overall (21:24). In the junior varsity race, Hakayla Snow finished 14th (24:17), and Kylie Guiles finished 21st (25:09).
The Bluejays will next compete at the Pagosa Springs Cross Country Challenge on Reservoir Hill on Sept. 22. The race will be the teams’ first in Colorado this season.