The girls varsity team from left, Emma Montoya, Hailey McDowell, Anna Wetteland, Zorah Fullop, Rebecca Beaux, Mila Mosley and Nyla Lee. Photo by Steven Montoya

LAHS cross country team member Benjamin Sanchez. Photo by Steven Montoya

By KATHY HIPWOOD & STEVEN MONTOYA
Head Girls & Boys XC Coaches 
Los Alamos High School

The girls and boys cross country teams traveled to Northglenn, Colo., to face more than 40 teams, including Rapid City Stevens, S.D. Friday, Oct. 7 for the Pat Amato Invitational.

The JVs and varsities of both squads exceeded the pre-meet 10th and 11th place rankings. 

Each girl capitalized on the opportunity in cloudy and cool conditions against great competition to earn personal best times, a fabulous and rare accomplishment. Sophomores Sadie Evans and Lena Ronning led the JV squad, positioning themselves early and running together for much of the race, ultimately finishing only one second apart in 21:47 and 21:48 for 16th and 18th place.

The rest of the team moved up significantly throughout the race and junior Lucy Kelly, ninth-grader Celia Pesiri and sophomore Ella Miranda rounded out the scoring in 23rd, 36th and 41st place to secure the 5th place team finish. Ninth grader Catherine Price was close to the scorers in 44th place and senior Kim Prada ran to a PR after a few week layoff, finishing in 72nd place.

The varsity girls had a big day and earned a hard-fought 2nd place team trophy. Senior front runner Emma Montoya ran with some of Colorado’s best to finish in 4th overall in a personal best of 18:33. Senior Hailey McDowell newcomer junior Anna Wetteland worked together to navigate the competitive field and run to great times, finishing in 13th and 16th place, respectively. In their first varsity cross country season, senior Zorah Fullop and sophomore Rebecca Beaux, who have made significant gains from a year ago, also ran near each other for much of the race and rounded out the scoring, finishing in 29th and 31st place. Ninth-grader Mila Moseley finished in 79th, and senior Nyla Lee, also running in her first varsity season, rounded out the Hilltopper places in 99th in the field of 175 runners.

The JV boys paced themselves well and were able to move up in the race as it progressed. The team was led by junior Grafton Urbatsch who finished in 18:14 in 13th place. The next 2 Hilltoppers were 8th grader Will Gartz and freshman Rocco Del Mauro who ran together much of the race and pushed each other to nearly one minute personal best times of 18:44 and 18:49 respectively. Finishing the scoring for the team was sophomore Andy Enriquez and freshman Garrison Sison. Finishing in 6th position for the JV boys was freshman August Ovaska. The boys JV placed 4th out of 31 teams in their race. 

The varsity boys ran as a strong pack, finishing their scoring five runners within 49 seconds of each other. The varsity team was led by sophomore Duane Sena who has paced the Hilltoppers in all but one race this season. Duane’s finish time of 16:21 was his career personal best and he currently leads class 4A in NM with the fastest 5k time recorded this season.

Running a career personal best was contagious in a good way as all 7 runners for the Hilltoppers varsity squad did just that. Seniors Beck Ellis and Jack Ammerman were next across the line in 16:30 and 16:55. Sophomores Benjamin Sanchez and Eddie Garts finished in 16:57 and 17:10 respectively. At this point, the Hilltoppers were tied with Arapahoe High School of Denver but were able to break the tie by having the higher placing 6th runner. Junior Armando Inbody finished in 17:26 and sophomore Michael Bane completed the impressive sweep of career personal best times in 17:38. Like the JV boys, the varsity team placed 4th among 37 teams in the field. The Hilltopper boys varsity ran their best race of the season and will be riding into the Los Alamos Invitational with strong momentum.

LAHS cross country team members Anna Wetteland and Hailey McDowell. Photo by Steven Montoya

LAHS cross country team member Garrison Sison. Photo by Steven Montoya

LAHS cross country team member Duane Sena. Photo by Steven Montoya