Individual Boys
Last year, Leo Daschbach (Highland, Jr.) had an enormous breakout performance at Cave Creek when he ran down Habtamu Cheney (Desert Vista, 2018) for the individual victory. This season, he's only gotten better taking six victories out of his seven total races this season. His only loss was his 5th place at Desert Twilight for which he is ranked US no. 11 thanks to his 14:52 performance in the Sweepstakes race.
The Cave Creek course record was set at 15:03 by Billy Orman (Tuba City, 2011), and only three guys have run under 15:20 at State since the AIA State Championships were first held there in 2005. Last year, we saw four guys run under 16-minutes at State and only one of those will return to Cave Creek this Saturday but could we see a massive leap in times over Cave Creek Golf Course?
If there's anyone who can keep up with Daschbach, it's gonna be Lee Nasewytewa (Sr.) of the Desert Vista Thunder. This season Nasewytewa set two Desert Vista's school records this season, first at Woodbridge and then at Twilight. His ultimate goal this Saturday will be to lead his team to a State Title.
As we look at the season best times while heading into State Championship week, it looks like the D1 Boys contest will likely be a race of low-sticks with Anekin Hetman (Brophy, Sr.), Hunter Krasa (Mountain Ridge, Sr.) and Sammy Van Alstine (Desert Vista, Jr.) looking to secure some single-digit finishes.
D1 Boys Race is set to go off at 1:45 pm as the final race of the day.