Sedona Red Rock High School’s cross country team will look back on last week as a busy one. The Scorpions were on the trails on Wednesday, Sept. 23, and Saturday, Sept. 26, for their second and third meets of the season. Coach Ben Scamihorn was happy with the results and improvements from his team.

A total of nine Scorpions set personal records at the Wednesday meet, the Chino Valley Multi. The SRRHS girls to PR were Skyla Bird [21:26], Yaritza Landa [23:19], Jackie Palmer [23:31], Soyoka Yabuuchi [30:40] and Arabella Licher [30:49]. The boys got PRs from Carlos Villegas [19:54], Kale Emerson [20:43], Isaac Montes de Oca [21:18] and Nick Rubin [25:36].

The boys were the top Division-IV school at the meet and while his time of 18:20 wasn’t a PR, Shota Yabuuchi was the top finisher from any division. Bird, meanwhile, was third among the girls, finishing behind only a pair of runners from Coconino High School.

After the first race of the season Scottsdale, the Scorpions welcomed the cooler climate of Chino Valley. Still, the trail wasn’t easy. It was a loop that the team had to run twice and featured a hill. But runners, like Emerson, were surprised by their own performance.

“I was better than I thought I was going to be, I stayed with the faster kids, really stuck with them, he said. I just had to push through it. After getting up the hill, I had a nice, steady downhill. It was perfect from there.”

Emerson’s time was so strong that Scamihorn noted Emerson earned himself a place on the boys varsity team.

Saturday’s meet, the Ray Wherley Invite at Kuebler Field in Prescott, didn’t yield such good times — though that was expected. Emerson had prior experience on the trail, only in a different setting. The runners traversed a mountain bike trail that Emerson, as a member of the Sedona Schools Mountain Bike Club, had previously ridden his bike through.

While a more challenging trail naturally yielded slower times, the results against the competition were good. Villegas was eighth in his flight, earning a medal. Also earning medals were Landa, Palmer and Leila Bradley. Landa was seventh in her flight while Palmer and Bradley were each eighth in theirs.

Given that it was a bigger meet on a tougher trail, Palmer didn’t go into the race with a lot of confidence. But with the help of some friendly advice from a teammate, she exceeded her expectations.

“At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to do,” she said. “The meet was really big. There were a lot of top teams and a lot of good girls. But I used one of my teammate’s advice and it went really well. Shota said to go hard on the hills and when you go back down, just relax.”

Next up for the Scorpions is an even bigger meet, the Desert Twilight XC Festival in Queen Creek on Thursday, Oct. 1. The race will be different because, as the title suggests, it takes place at night. Since the trail is on a flat golf course, Scamihorn is expecting good times from his team.

Prior to the start of official practices on Aug. 24, Scamihorn was pretty sure the boys team was going to be good. Due largely to a lack of numbers, the girls team was more of a question. But both teams have seen an increase in their numbers in the last month. With that, the performances have given Scamihorn good hopes for what can be accomplished over the rest of the season.

“Every meet I just see each of them having really big improvements,” Scamihorn said. “Right now we’re not a top tier team. But I think by sectional time, the boys for sure will have a chance of qualifying for state and the girls are going to get into that shape and have a good shot as well.”