Doug Conley Invitational 2017

author Web Master - DVCC (Sep, 24 2017)


Back in Town

DVCC

Thunder runners compete in the 45th Annual Doug Conley Invitational in Tempe.

[This article is courtesy of Senior RunnerĀ Reece Donihi]

On Saturday, September 23rd, the DVCC Boys returned from their success at Woodbridge to local competition. The 45th annual Doug Conley Invitational was held on the almost pancake-flat Shalimar Country Club Golf Course in Tempe. A new course layout this year provided a full 5k race distance for the event. Held under warmer conditions as opposed to last week, the course certainly posed a challenge for pacing.

The meet has been held yearly since 1982 in memory of Doug Conley, a 1966 graduate of Tempe High school who graduated from ASU in 1971 and became a math teacher and cross country coach at Tempe High. His nationally-ranked CC squad won the state cross country meet in 1973.

The first race of the day was the combined Non-Varsity 5k. This race saw almost all of the DVCC Boys (minus the seven in the Varsity race) compete together in the earliest race. Scoring for the team were Freshman Martin Fuller (17:17.0), Juniors Ceth Reeves (17:22), Marshall Smith (17:33), Milan Patel (17:40), and David Syms (17:42.5), followed closely behind by Sophomore Nico Perciballi (17:42.8) and Junior Will Strickland (17:43). These efforts brought the Thunder Junior Varsity a 3rd-place finish with a score of 102 points.

Following the Non-Varsity 5k came the Elite 5k. This was the final race of the day and the weather was surprisingly nice for the Arizona desert. The DVCC Varsity Boys team was led by Juniors Travis Kearney (15:56) and Lee Nasawytewa (15:59). Following the duo came Seniors J Iannone (16:19) and Jack Willems (17:07), Junior Neal Saxena (17:22), Senior Grant Cuyler (17:25), and Junior Carter Sokolovich (17:36). The DVCC Varsity brought together an eighth-place finish with 207 points against some strong in-state competition.

Check back here later this week as DVCC travels to Casa Grande on Friday, September 29th to compete in the highly-anticipated pre-regional meet: Desert Twilight Classic. GO THUNDER!!!

Related Information:

  • Meet website can be found here.
  • Race Results can be found here.
  • Pictures can be found here.

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