A month after becoming the second-fastest 5K runner in Sedona Red Rock High School history, one more opportunity to break the record awaits senior Wyatt Stevenson on Saturday, Nov. 7.
That is when, at 9 a.m., the senior leads five other Scorpions, all with sub-20-minute 5K times, into the Division IV state cross-country championships at Cave Creek Golf Course.
“It’s a little rocky on some of the hills,” said junior Luke Doerner, the third Scorpions runner to finish at the Section I meet Oct. 30 in Holbrook. “It’s kind of muddy. It was dark. We slipped in some mud patches [last year].
“Other than that, I like it.”
With a 16:20.8 finish Oct. 2 at the Desert Twilight Invitational in Casa Grande, Stevenson came up just five seconds short of the SRRHS 5K record, set at State in 2009 by runner-up Jesus Rivera.
While Rivera would go on to become the eighth-fastest 800-meter runner at Arizona State University, his final State time of 16:15.6 is within Stevenson’s grasp.
“The other boys were grouped together — they didn’t make top 25,” said Stevenson’s cross-country head coach, Taryn Kunkel. “They came in within, like, a minute of each other, which was awesome.”
The SRRHS boys team of Doerner, Stevenson, senior Nick Malmgren and sophomores Nathan Hoyer, Eduardo Jimenez and Tennyson Wilson qualified for State Oct. 30 on the Hidden Cove Golf Course in Holbrook.
The Scorpions finished sixth, ahead of such hard-running high schools as Alchesay and Red Mesa.
“I was pretty surprised about that,” Kunkel said. “Last year was incredibly hot; this year was exactly the opposite: very, very cold, very windy — freezing.”
That weather was a factor in slower times, said junior Mychael Saczalski, who was the only SRRHS girls runner to place at sectionals.
For the full story and more photos, please see the Friday, Nov. 6, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
