Desert Solstice Results Merge Coming!
Photo Gallery by John Hays
Much in the same way a small team, even with a thoughtful Coach, needs buy-in to grow, an attentive Meet Director needs to attract a variety of competitive athletes for their field to keep growing for years to come. This year, three out of the top four recurring podium finishers at the Arizona State Championships flocked south to the Desert Solstice XC Festival held at the Crooked Tree Golf Course in Tucson, Az. With the additions of Xavier College Preparatory as well as the Highland Hawks to race against the Desert Vista Thunder and Rio Rico's Allie Schadler making her Senior Season debut, this race was sure to light up the desert night on Friday the 9th of September, 2016.
A rather interesting layout was established last year for this meet and the tradition continues. Male and female teams are separated into race categories of Gold and Silver respectively, where teams submit their 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th runners and Maroon and Black in which they register their runners no. 2, 4, 6 and 8. The top five athletes from both genders' categories are then combined to calculate a team score.
Morgan Risch (Flowing Wells, Sr.) took the individual win in the Boys Black race with 16:18.5, and Sophomore Lee Nasewytewa led the charge for Desert Vista Thunder in 16:33.9, only 52 seconds ahead of their no. 8, Jack Willems (Jr.). However, within an hour the scheme changed in the Boys Silver race as Rincon University poured in with Sophomore Thomas Leitner at the helm in 15:44.8. Rincon University would come out on top Friday night, with Desert Vista in second and Highland taking third. In another surprising twist, Junior Aron Orar of Central High School gave the fastest time of the night in 15:33.6, over Buena's Joshua Sieler (Jr.) and Campo Verde's Rylan Stubbs (So.).
The girls races were equally if not more impressive than the boys. Desert Vista superfrosh Brooklyn Christofis came out swinging and overtook Allie's younger sister, Samantha Schadler in the Blue race 17:52.2 to 18:00.8. Desert Vista Seniors Emily Crall and Amanda Davis followed in 3rd and 4th place respectively and Madeline Bucci (Sr.) rounded out the Blue racers for the Thunder. Finally in the Gold race, Allie naturally blew the doors off her opener with a time of 17:01.8. The next finisher was Xavier's Sarah Carter (Sr.) 18 seconds later and Haley Wolf's (Jr.) and Baylee Jones's (Sr.) finishes sealed Desert Vista's victory for the night. Xavier finished second as a team and the Highland girls took third.