XC: Salpointe girls, Page boys claim Ojo Rjo crowns

September 14, 2019 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Vista Grande's Brynna McQuillen records a 12-second win in Ojo Rojo girls varsity race. (AzPreps365 photo)

Salpointe's girls cross country team brought an end to host Chandler's four-year reign as varsity team champs on Saturday at the 31st annual Ojo Rojo Invitational at Tumbleweed Park.

Chandler's girls managed to finish second, but were a distant runner-up to the Lancers who posted a team score of 39 to Chandler's 125.

While the girls team-title streak was ended, Page's boys made it two in a row outdistancing Salpointe for the top spot in a much tighter fashion. Page totaled 59 points to Salpointe's 77. Corona del Sol was a respectable third with 95.

Salpointe's girls placed four of its top five runners in the top 10 led by senior Zoey Delgado (third), junior Laurel Froelich (fourth), freshman Kyline Wild (fifth) and junior Reagan Kraft (seventh). Junior Lexi Lambert was 22nd (20th for scoring purposes). Salpointe is the defending D-III girls champs.

The winner of the girls varsity race was Vista Grande senior Brynna McQuillen. McQuillen's winning time over the 5,000 meter course was 18 minutes, 41 seconds. That bested Rincon's Grace Driskill by 12 seconds. McQuillen finished fourth in the D-III state meet last November and Driskill was ninth at the D-II state meet. Delgado took third at the D-III state meet last year.

Page's second title was achieved again with the individual champ in tow. Junior Trent Holiday covered the course in 16:04. That was 12 seconds better than Corona del Sol senior Zachary Johnson. Holiday placed third at state in Page's huge D-III team win last year.

Page's other scoring runners were freshman Quentin Davis (11th scoring), freshman Shayden Begay (13th scoring), sophomore Colton Yazzie (16th scoring) and senior Skyler Sandoval (18th scoring).

Page's Trent Holiday has his eyes fixed on the finish line in winning the boys varsity race at the annual Ojo Rojo Invitational on Saturday. (AzPreps365 photo).

Rounding out the top 10 finishers in each varsity race, girls - eighth was Higley's Laci Simmons, Arizona College Prep's Eryca Fawkes was ninth and O'Connor's Madeline Davis was 10th.

For the boys remaining top 10, third went to Casa Grande's Joseph Carlson, fourth to Cienega's Ayden Schilb, fifth to Westview's Jose Palafox, sixth to Gilbert's Javier Garcia, seventh to Ironwood Ridge's Logan Marek, eighth to Gilbert's Terrence Keyes, ninth to O'Connor's Noah Fleming and 10th to Corona del Sol's Dominic Arellano.