A year after ending their season 22nd in their division, with no runners in the top 20, the Sedona Red Rock High School boys cross-country runners enjoyed their best finish in four seasons Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Division IV state championships.
In his final 5K for the Scorpions, senior Wyatt Stevenson improved 10 places and 27 seconds on last fall’s finish at the Cave Creek Golf Course with a 17:10.60, good enough for 14th place.
“State was a little hard, just because my legs were sore from the training I had been doing,” he said. “The winner ran 16:34, so I could’ve done a lot better if I hadn’t have ran as fast in practice the day before.”
It marked the highest finish for a Scorpions cross-country team since 2011, when a 17:53.03 finish by that class’s fastest runner, Brandon Snickers, led seven boys runners to a fifth-place finish.
“I used to come down to the track in fifth grade to watch him race,” said Stevenson, who was only a two-year letterman at SRRHS even though he ran in the sixth through eighth grades at West Sedona School. “When you’re younger, you look up to those kind[s] of kids.
“We’re good friends now, but in eighth grade, we did a little 800-meter relay on the track against each other. He smoked me by more than a minute.”
But it may be far longer than four years before any young local runner can surpass Stevenson, who, officially, is currently the second-fastest 5K racer in school history.
“My whole high school career, I just wanted to be an inspiration to other kids,” Stevenson said. “It’s definitely been an amazing adventure and an honor racing with everyone.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Nov. 11, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
