Closing out their season at the Colorado State Cross-country Championships, which were held at Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs on Oct. 26, members of the Mancos High School girls and boys teams performed well.
Leading the Bluejays among the boys, as he did throughout the season, was sophomore Edgar Hernandez, whose season-best time of 17:58.40 was good enough to place him 21st in a race that featured 131 runners.
Also cracking the top 100 for Mancos were sophomore Connor Sehnert, who placed 61st (19:01.30), and senior John Lund, who concluded an impressive prep career with a 79th-place finish (19:32.20).
Other finishers for the Mancos boys included sophomore Vanfasai Jaijong, who placed 119th (22:12.50), freshman Zack Steele, who crossed the line in 129th (24:46.40), and junior Stephen Knezek, who crossed the line in 131st (27:26.70).
Mancos finished 14th overall in the boys’ team standings as perennial powerhouse Lyons High School captured the boys team championship in Colorado’s 2A Classification.
“The boys’ team did such a great job this season of being patient in their races,” Mancos coach Brady Archer wrote in an email to The Journal. “We weren’t exactly where we wanted to be at the end of the meet in terms of team standings, but sometimes races don’t work out the way we had planned. We had a number of great races today against the best in the state.”
On the girls side, Mancos was represented by junior Grace Manning, who placed 22nd overall (21:59.60) in a race that included 121 runners.
“Grace had a great race and ended up beating some runners who had beaten her at regionals,” Archer said. “I am proud of the grown that all of our runners made this season, and I’m looking forward to next season.”
