And then there was one.
Able to earn an “unattached” berth into the 2020 CHSAA Class 2A State Cross-country Championships, Mancos’ Grace Manning will be Montezuma County’s only representative in Colorado Springs at the season’s grand finale.
Competing at the 2A-Region IV Championships in Delta on Friday, Oct. 9, the Lady Jays’ leader clocked an eighth-place 21:11.93 – not too far off the winning 20:31.58 pace set by Crested Butte Community School’s Ruby Pendy. Chloe Endres was Mancos’ No. 2 finisher, taking 26th in 23:14.21, and Clara Most (33rd, 23:55.32) came in third.
Overall, Mancos tallied an adjusted score-4 102 points to rank sixth in the team standings. Led by top San Juan Basin League individual Maci Barnes (third, 20:44.11), Ignacio grabbed first with a meet-low 51, and Carbondale-based Colorado Rocky Mountain School (69) and Kremmling West Grand (71) followed in second and third.
At Norris-Penrose Event Center this Saturday, Oct. 17, the 2A boys will begin running at 2 p.m., and the 2A girls will start about 2:45 p.m. Manning will head out onto the course in the second of four 25-runner waves — a safety measure implemented amidst the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
Also at the regionalsDolores’ Michael Brafford finished the boys race seventh in 18:12.69, while Crested Butte’s Connor Williams clocked a winning 16:36.08 – nearly a full minute over Ouray’s Vincent Schierenberg and Oak Creek Soroco’s Alex Colby. Dolores’ No. 2, Dillon Brengle, placed 47th in 20:57.63, and Daniel Vandever was 54th in 21:37.92.
Unfortunately Brafford’s effort wasn’t enough to earn him one of only two available “unattached” tickets to the championships, and neither was the 10-place 18:26.37 posted by Mancos’ Edgar Hernandez; places 2-10 were separated by about 51 seconds.
Connor Sehnert took 22nd in 19:16.65, and Connor Lee 63rd in 22:19.07, but Mancos finished 11th as a team with 166 points. Among SJBL boys teams, however, that score ranked second-best behind only Ouray’s title-taking low of 56. Ignacio (173) and Dolores (178) immediately followed the Jays in the standings, while runners-up Rangely (91) and third-place Grand Junction Caprock Academy (92) snapped up the final two team-qualifying spots.
Anaya Martinez led Dolores’ Lady Bears by placing 50th in 25:43.80. Noble Traweek took 65th in 28:52.58, and Piper Singleton was 71st in 35:33.39, but with just three entrants at Confluence Park, Dolores did not factor into the title chase.