Season success
Girls’, boys’ cross country teams perform well at 4A-I state meet

A young runner that earns a medal at state, six that earned all-region honors and a coach of the year designation.

The Lady Knights cross country team can justifiably call the 2008 season a success.

“Our main goal was to do well at regionals, so I’d say we accomplished our goals,” Lake Havasu High School cross country coach Erika Washington said.

The girls finished 12th of 17 at the 4A-I state meet Saturday, but Washington said the placement doesn’t tell the whole story.

A meet like this, you have the fastest teams from each region. So when you look at their times they ran really well,” Washington said. “Lynsey (Ryan) as freshman was able to medal (and) that’s a tremendous accomplishment. She ran a nice steady race.”

Ryan finished in 24th place in a time of 20:54. She was followed by Nikki Morris in 51st in 21:51, Hanna Henson in 53rd in 21:57, Rachael Cortez in 73rd in 22:48, Shannin Martin in 78th in 22:59, Maria Wesley in 83rd in 23:25 and Gloria Moreno in 101st in 26:57.

“Everybody really improved their times,” Washington said. “Four of them ran it last year, and they all beat their time this year. Rachael took over three minutes off.”

In addition to improving at the state meet, Ryan, Morris, Henson, Cortez, Martin and Wesley were named All-Region for their work in helping the Lady Knights win the West Valley Region title.

Boys cross country

The Knights wrapped the 2008 season with a 16th place finish.

“The guys who ran state last year had experience with a race this big and a course this challenging. The new guys may have struggled a bit with the pacing,” Washington said.

Havasu’s lead runner, senior Malachy Ryan, took almost a minute off his time from last year, finishing the race in 39th place in 17:46.

He was followed by Garrett Zuber in 60th in 18:30, Connor Kassik in 83rd in 19:07, Chad Zeman in 96th in 19:38, In Hyub Jeon in 100th in 19:56, Devin Sheehy in 107th in 20:32 and Tyler Locatis in 108th in 20:33.

The Knights move up to the 5A-II conference next year and into the Gila Region, facing a quintet of Yuma schools — Cibola, Gila Ridge, Kofa, Yuma and San Luis. Washington said her team has already raced some of the schools — most recently at the Mark Weston Invitational — and this year’s performance should prepare the Knights for the challenge ahead.

“Our freshmen did a super job this year (and) we only lose three senior boys and three girls, so I think we’re in good shape for next year,” she said. “We’ll have to see what next year will bring. The West Valley Region was tough so if we did OK against them, I’m confident we’ll do OK in the new region.”

You may contact the reporter at dbell@havasunews.com.