Kylie Wild (left) and Evelynn Carr (right) race neck-and-neck in the D3 Girls race. (photo by John Hays)
Like with the boys, the Division 3 Girls race featured a head to head matchup between favorite Kylie Wild of Salpointe Catholic in Tucson, and challenger Evelynn Carr of American Leadership Academy in Queen Creek.
Though Wild had pulled off a split second victory over Carr, Wild returned to Cave Creek Golf Course as the only girl in the field who had run sub-18 minutes over 5km, this season. Of course, that wasn't going to stop Eve Carr from giving Wild a run for her money and vying for the individual title.
As expected, the rival juniors Wild and Carr led the way for the D3 girls' field and remained only a split second apart through two miles.
However, by eighteen minutes and a quarter, the anxious spectators along the finish chute were able to spot a young lady clad in the burgundy and black colors worn by the Lancers of Salpointe Catholic. Even through the last mile of the hilly course in Arizona heat, Wild had built the lead she needed over Carr to secure her second State Title, and with a 14 second gap she jogged through the finish having left it all on the course.
Carr finished runner-up in 18:55 as the fourth fastest girl of the day, but behind them a tight grapple for the team title was still being contested.
The Salpointe Catholic Lancers had entered the State Championships as the returning favorites. However, through the first mile of the race, the Panthers of Coconino HS in Flagstaff held a miniscule lead of just one point over the Lancers. By the two mile mark, the Lancers had taken control of the race with just 72 points. Meanwhile Panthers maintained a tight spread of just 72 seconds, far less than Salpointe Catholic's of 96 seconds.
Wheaton Smith (Coconino, Jr.) ran a truly rock-solid race to secure the vital third place low stick for the Panthers, while Temyra Bia (Chinle, Jr.) placed fourth in 19:53. Next, superfrosh Mary McGinlay (Coconino) came through after creeping up and overtaking four spots to finish fifth, followed by Addison Craner of Snowflake and Evangeline Dunckley of Saguaro.
Tumayah Bia (Chinle, Fr.) finished 8th as the Wildcat's second scorer, and slowly but surely, while the finishers condensed, the timers tallied each team's runners, their individual scores stacked one by one.
Salpointe Catholic's Alex Montano (So.) and Maria Fernanda Ruiz de Chavez (Sr.) finished 12th and 13th respectively. Then, Janessa Segay (Chinle, Fr.) came through the line in 14th, and a few spots later Zoe Sather (Coconino, Jr.) took 18th to keep Coconino in the mix followed immediately by Nevaeh Scott (Chinle, Sr.) in 19th. Anaelle Depoint (Salpointe Catholic, Sr.) moved up another seven places to finish 21st, but it was Coconino's Akasha Ashley (Sr.) and Zofia Sawaskey's (Jr.) respective fights for top-thirty finishes in just under 22-minutes that allowed the Panthers to roar back and come out on top with a total of 72 points.
In contrast to the boys' race an hour earlier, a nail-biter team contest among the girls concluded with the Coconino Panthers seizing their first State Title in program history, by just two points over Salpointe Catholic. Chinle took third with 97.