On Friday night Oct 3rd, 2014, DVCC took a short trip down I-10 to race in the 8th Annual Desert Twilight Cross Country Festival. This year's race took place at its new location, the Casa Grande Sports Complex in Casa Grande, AZ. The race was held under the lights and featured a flat and fast 5k course that will also be used for the Nike Southwest Regional Cross-Country Championships in November. Teams came from all over the West Region (AZ, TX, CO, and NM) to get an idea of where they stood with less than a month until their respective State Meets.
The Festival provided multiple races (Freshman, Open, and Sweepstakes). DVCC delivered in each, providing the top Arizona HS team performances in each of those races while nearly completing a complete sweep of the meet.
In the Freshman Race (Large School), the DVCC Freshmen continued their impressive season by easily capturing 1st place with a mere 30pts, handily outdistancing the second-place team Corona Del Sol (105 pts). DVCC runners took the top three spots, led by medalist Habtamu Cheney in 1st with a time of 17:49, Nick Thatcher in 2nd (17:20), and J Iannone in 3rd (17:28). Reece Donihi finished 10th (18:14) and Keith Koleber rounded out the scoring in 14th (18:24).
In the Open Race (Large School), the DVCC Junior Varsity delivered the top performance by an Arizona HS Team, placing 3rd with 108pts. The JV was led by (Jr) Anthony Ramirez, who finished 6th overall in 17:02. He was followed by a trio of Sophomores Nick Walrod in 14th (17:17), Jackson Hickey in 28th (17:27), and Ernie Del Rio in 29th (17:28). (Jr) Josh Tarchinski completed the scoring in 31st (17:29).
In the premier event of the night, the Boys Sweepstakes Race, the DVCC Varsity made a dominating statement by winning the race with 74pts, besting all teams from Arizona, as well as those from Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The Varity blazed the course in with a 15:32 average time and a 20-second overall split for their top 5 runners. Every single DVCC runner finished the 5k course in less than 17:00, and the top-5 runners were all under 15:45.
The Varsity was led by (Jr) Xavier Esparza, who finished 8th in 15:22. He was closely followed up by (Sr) Ben Davis in 9th (15:24), (Sr) Kyle Havriliak in 20th (15:35), (Jr) DJ Harris in 21st (15:36), and (So) Chris D'Angelo in 22nd (15:43). Also turning in fine performances were (Jr) Nathan Chan in 83rd (16:26) and (Jr) Jackson Snedecor in 121st (16:55).
Full race results can be found here and pictures can be found here.