On Thursday, September 21, the Lamar Thunder Boys Cross Country team took part in the 2023 Coronado Cougar Classic at Monument Valley Park in Colorado Springs. The Thunder runners secured 11th place among the 30 teams in attendance, with numerous athletes achieving personal records and a couple of them achieving their season bests.
Coach Savhanna Davis provided her assessment of the team’s overall performance, stating, “11th place was a solid outcome for the boys, considering many teams we raced against were outside of our classification. However, we did get beaten by two schools out of our region, and we will use that as motivation in our training in the coming weeks as we prepare for the League and Regional Meets.”
Davis continued, “We raced on tired legs with lots of miles on them from the last couple of weeks... We were very proud of how our boys raced but are looking to try to close the gap between our first two boys and our next scorers. Either way, we have been extremely proud of how the team has raced.”
The Monument Valley Park Cross Country Course, known for its challenging terrain, will also be the venue for the upcoming League and Regional meets in October. This provided the runners with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the course in advance. Davis remarked, “For many of our athletes, this race was just about getting to know the course.”
Here are the personal results from the Coronado Classic:
- 9th Place: Cole Krug–16:31.30 (Varsity)
- 20th Place: Joel Davis–16:57.30 (Varsity)
- 84th Place: Ryan Harbour–18:40.20 (Varsity)
- 129th Place: Armoni Moreno–19:56.70 (Varsity)
- 140th Place: Ethan Tellez–20:21.30 (Varsity)
- 143rd Place: Connor Lynch–20:27.20 (Varsity)
- 174th Place: Thomas Hainer–21:13.20 (Varsity)
- 41st Place: Will Durst–21:34.50 (Junior Varsity)
- 116th Place: Parker Daniel–25:39.70 (Junior Varsity)
Looking ahead, on Thursday, September 28, there will be another exciting and highly competitive race, the Canon City Cross Country Invitational 2023, held at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. Coach Davis expressed her enthusiasm for this event, saying, “We really enjoy going to the Royal Gorge because we typically get to see some schools outside of our normal racing schedule, including some Kansas schools. It is an exciting race where the runners actually finish across the bridge, and we enjoy finishing off our normal season with this race.”
