When Sedona Red Rock High School’s cross country team headed to the Bradshaw Mountain XC Invite on Saturday, Oct. 17, it was eager to leave a less-than-stellar showing in its prior meet in the dust. By and large the SRRHS team did that.
The Bradshaw Mountain trail wasn’t the fastest track the Scorpions have competed on throughout the year. The trail had an especially tight start and was narrow throughout, making it easy to get boxed into the back. Still, four runners set personal records. Junior Jack Pierce [20:24] and senior Nick Rubin [23:51] PR’d for the boys while freshmen Ava Witte [28:27] and Leila Bradley [35:36] did the same for the girls.
“It was pretty good,” coach Ben Scamihorn said. “Definitely better than the Dave Conatser Invitational the week before. There weren’t a ton of PRs. It was a little bit of a hilly course so I wasn’t really expecting them. What I really cared about was how they competed that day because we have to get in a competition mindset for sectionals.”
Pierce has been running with the SRRHS cross country team for almost three full seasons now, making his PR even more noteworthy. His time was not only a personal best but also good enough for sixth in the boys open division.
“I think I did pretty good but I could have done a bit better,” Pierce said. “I just focused on the people in front of me and trying to catch them and not focus on being tired.”
“Jack really established himself as an important member of the varsity team, which was awesome,” Scamihorn said. “I’ve been waiting for him to have a breakthrough race and he did that.”
Fellow junior Shota Yabuuchi [17:43.50] was eighth in the boys open division and the Scorpion boys were the second best Division 4 team at the meet.
The girls had a pair of medalists, as well. Freshman Skyla Bird [22:13.74] finished ninth in the girls varsity race while sophomore Jackie Palmer [23:06.69] was 15th. As they’ve been through the course of the season, those two and junior Yaritza Landa [24:23.72] were the top SRRHS girls. The girls team was rounded out by freshmen Soyoka Yabuuchi [27:07.50], Arabella Leicher [28:15.53], Witte and Bradley.
Those times are helping Scamihorn achieve his goal of a more balanced roster on the girls side.
“I need to close the gap between my No. 3 runner and No. 4 runner — they really worked on that,” said Scamihorn, who was especially impressed with the performance of Witte. “Ava had a huge PR — like three minutes I think — which was really great,” Scamihorn said. “She’s been on the verge of a breakthrough for a while. It finally happened. She put herself in it, which was great.”
“Since I was in the open race instead of the varsity this time, I was competing more with girls that have my type of speed,” Witte added. “It gave me motivation
to catch them and I kept catching them and catching them. It ended up giving me a PR.”
Next up for the Scorpions is the Holbrook Invitational on Friday, Oct. 23. After that is the AIA Cross Roads Wednesday Sectionals on Nov. 4 and then, if they qualify, the state meet after.
Runners will have a chance to qualify for state as individuals and as a team. Qualifying as a team is something that Scamihorn sees as possible for both the boys and girls, as long as they keep on improving and show up strong at sectionals.
The runners on his team are similarly hopeful that state is in their futures.
“I can’t really think of much besides making it to state — that’s always really been the ultimate goal,” Pierce said, when asked what he wanted the team to accomplish for the rest of the season. “I think we’re doing really good. I think we have a good chance of making it to state.”
