Kat Howard

 5A II State Champion Freshmand Lacey Kalinen from Pinnacle and 4A II State Champion sophomore Aeoleone Bristow from Rio Rico

 1A - 2A   Junior Andrea Klimowski from Northland Prep is the clear favorite in the Division 1A-2A State Meet this Saturday.  Some highlights from Klimowski's season include, 2nd at the Blue Ridge-Shane Morris Inviteand 6th at the Four Corners Invitational.  Klimowski also led her team to a 9th place finish at the Mt. Sac Invitational in California two weeks ago.  Klimowski may get some competition from teammate Corrie Bain(So.) who took 5th at the Blue Ridge-Shane Morris Invite.  Other contenders for the title could be FreshmanBrittany Little (Hopi) and Sophomore Caitlyn Mains (Northwest Christian).  Little finished 4th at the Hopi Invite,6th at the Jack Boehle Memorial, 7th at Ojo Rojo and 9th at the Blue Ridge-Shane Morris Invite.  Mains won the Tempe Prep Invitational and finished second at Phoenix Country Day School Invite.

History of Mt. Sac Cross Country Invitational  Celebrating it's 61st year, the Mt. Sac Cross Country Invitational has come a long way since it's start in 1948 with ten schools (only boys) participating on the 1.2 mile course.  In 1965 a new 3 mile more spectator friendly course was redesigned with added hills (Poop-Out) and some "switchbacks" but it wasn't until the 1970's when girls and women started running in the event. Each year the Mt. Sac Invitational has grown in size and in the number of races needed to accommodate all the runners.  The event this weekend is host to 570 teams and 20,000 athletes not including the 5,800 Junior College runners last weekend or the Middle and Junior High runners this weekend. 

  John Winfred from Ironwood Ridge led the day with the first win for the boys at the Chandler Invitational at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler. Winfred's time of 16:56 in the Freshman race was 13 seconds faster than 2nd place Manuel Aguilar from Highland.  In the same race Taylor DelaVega from Perry placed first for the girls in a time of 19:30, a minute faster than Tuba City's Allissa Dallas.   (Photo: Cody Smith of Shadow Mountain)