The Dolores, Mancos and Montezuma-Cortez cross-country teams came together on Saturday in Mancos for the Chicken Creek Challenge.
The Blue Jays boys finished first as a team at the familiar course.
Mancos senior Ro Paschal won the meet with a time of 17 minutes and 33 seconds, finishing just 11 seconds away from the course record.
Simon Kearns (18:09) and Nic Archuleta (19:06) also finished in the top 10 for Mancos, with Kearns in third place and Archuleta in eighth.
Asa Kearns (19:55), Jake McKie (20:31), Vincent Grego (21:16) and Zane Goodell (21:43) rounded out the Mancos varsity boys.
The trio of Reid Littlefield, Josh Ramos and Sonny Bored led the M-CHS Panthers. Littlefield and Ramos finished 10th (19:29) and 11th (19:41), with Boren placing 16th (20:06).
Ben Castillo-Calvillo (23:33), Brenden Quinonez (23:49) and Blair Rice (25:07) finished in 50th, 51st and 55th, and the Panthers team finished in sixth.
The Dolores Bears did not score as a team, but Brennan Hite and Phillip Hufman finished consecutively in 25th (20:51) and 26th (20:53), and Cael McHenry finished 49th (23:31).
Mancos was the only school of the three to place as a team in the girls race, finishing in fourth.
The Lady Blue Jays were led by Emma Most and Brittney Peacock, who finished 10th (23:43) and 11th (23:47), respectively. Kaylee Rose (25:10) and Jessalyn Bay-Voit (26:52) followed in 21st and 27th, and Mimi Archuleta closed out the team in 36th (28:57).
Emma Thissen paced the M-CHS girls in 17th place (25:00.3), with Dolores’ sole runner Teegan Hite just behind in 18th (25:00.8)
Corinne Damore (26:45), Rachel Zetts (27:55) and Judy Ha (29:01) were the other Panthers runners, finishing in 26th, 32nd and 37th.
The three area teams will meet up again next week at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds for the Montezuma-Cortez Ancient Trails 5K Invitational.
