Cross country teams qualify for state meet

For the first time since 2021, both the boys and girls’ cross country teams at Gunnison High School qualified for the CHSAA State Championships.

Despite the inclement weather and the historic flooding in Pagosa Springs on Thursday, Oct. 22, the boys’ team placed fourth and the girls’ team placed second at the Colorado 3A Region 2 meet. 

Because of the weather, the Cowboys had to travel to Pagosa Springs the night before. They also weren’t able to get a pre-meet in due to the lightning in the area. All the added variables didn’t seem to affect the Cowboys on Thursday morning though.

“I'm very proud of how our kids handled the uncertainty,” said head coach Blake Davis. “We talked all week long about controllables, and their effort, their energy, their intensity was as good as you could have asked for throughout the whole week, and it was pretty special to see.”

Ian Baker led the way for the boys with a sixth-place finish and a time of 17:32.92. Ari Eberly finished next, placing 13th with a time of 17:50.06. Jesus “Chuy” Chona placed 21st with a time of 18:34.42, Brandon Hallock placed 22nd with a time of 18:40.36 and Beck Schwab placed 38th with a time of 19:47.02 to round out the top five scoring Cowboys at the meet.

Riego Koepsel placed 41st with a time of 19:58.21, Roman Loken placed 46th with a time of 20:21.16, Rylan Sahgagun placed 48th with a time of 20:23.41 and Nick Montello placed 51st with a time of 20:26.34.

The boys placed fourth overall out of the nine teams competing from the region with 94 points.

“Ian Baker had an incredible race,” said Davis. “He really stepped up huge for us. We were dealing with a couple sicknesses on the team, and we needed everybody to step up, and he ended up finishing sixth in the region, which, I mean, it's not necessarily an easy region behind him, he did an incredible job.”

Davis was also impressed by Chona’s performance in Pagosa Springs. Knowing that he needed to have a good day, he went out hard and managed the whole race, noted Davis.

Elora Jones led the way for the girls, placing sixth with a time of 20:40.42. Right behind her was Brooke Terry who placed 14th with a time of 21:53.03. Lucy Orgill placed 21st with a time of 22:31.34, Bristol Buffington placed 24th with a time of 22:55.27 and Avery Crean placed 27th with a time of 23:17.11 to round out the top five scoring girls.

Caris Storkel placed 32nd with a time of 24:00.81, Autumn Terry placed 34th with a time of 24:31.23, Sophie Nold placed 35th with a time of 24:34.40 and Kinley Dziekan placed 39th with a time of 25:13.31.

The girls placed second out of the seven teams competing in the region with 72 points.

“Caris Storkel had an incredible race,” said Davis. “She really helped our backpack, that seven, six, fifth positions, helped those kids move up quite a bit, and had her best day of the year.”

Davis also highlighted the races of Crean, Jones and Brooke Terry. 

The Cowboys are now preparing for the CHSAA State Championships in Colorado Springs. The boys and girls’ races will be on Saturday, Oct. 31.

“We've been telling our kids we have to go into every day saying, do we get better today?” said Davis. “It's really easy for kids to get done with the race, complete a big goal, and then coast. So, we've been trying to make sure our kids understand that, yes, we accomplished something really cool, no, that's not the end of our season. We've got to make sure that we come in every day ready to work, ready to be better than when we came into that practice.”