RANGELY I The Rangely High School cross country team had a great regional meet.
“They went out and did what they were supposed to do. They ran hard and put everything out on the line. Their hard work this season paid off on Friday and now we’ll see what they can do at the state meet,” said head coach Beth Scoggins.
The Panthers hosted the regional meet in Delta at the Confluence Park on Friday, Oct. 22. Sixteen different teams were represented for the 2A Region 4 championship meet. There were 155 runners, 84 boys and 71 girls. This is the meet that determines which individuals and teams make it to the state meet on Saturday, Oct. 29. In order to qualify for the state meet athletes must be in the top 15 individuals or the top five teams. The competition was intense and everyone knows the importance of this meet.
The girls were once again the first ones to toe the line. Rangely had two girls running for the meet: Mary Scoggins and Macy Morgan.
“I was nervous,” Mary Scoggins said. “I was pretty sure I was going to make it to state but I wanted to run under 20 minutes and have a good race.” She accomplished all three of those items. She took second place, ran a 19:48 and had an excellent race. Scoggins took off with the lead pack and by the first 800 meters it was only Ruby Pendy from Crested Butte and Mary running together. Pendy had a great race and was able to pull ahead of Scoggins at about the two mile mark and ran a 19:42. The next girls were more than a minute behind the leaders. Morgan had a great race; she completed the course in 28:47.
The boys were ranked fourth in the region so they knew they had to work hard if they were going to be one of the top five teams to advance to state. They hoped to place higher than fourth but knew teams were going to be going after them also. The boys placed third overall and each of them had amazing races.
“They all had a job to do and they did their job,” said coach Scoggins. “We weren’t worried about having personal best times but wanted the boys to race well. They all had other runners they knew they had to beat and they went out and did it.”
Andrew Dorris was the top male runner for the Panthers. He took off with the lead pack and outran another runner at the finish line. Dorris finished fourth overall with a time of 17:25. “It was RUNerful,” Dorris quipped. Colton Noel set some high expectations for himself. He was ranked 18th but hoped to be in the top 15 and break 19 minutes. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the top 15 but took 17th place and ran the race of his life with a new personal best of 18:31. Next to come in was James Talbot, he didn’t know what to expect so he just went out and ran. He also got a new personal best of 19:14 and took 27th place. Anthony Dorris and Kevin Wren were right behind him taking 30th and 31st place and running a 19:23 and a 19:29, both personal bests. Fisher Winder, who has been fighting a cold, was able to come in with a 21:14. Justin Allred and Joseph Adams had a photo finish of 21:48. The boys team scored a total of 78 points and will take six runners to state with two alternates.
The state meet is on Saturday, Oct. 30 in Colorado Springs at the Norris Penrose Event Center. The boys will run at 9:40 a.m. and the girls will run at 11 a.m. CHSAA Now will be posting live results as well as co.milesplit.com.
