For the seven girls on the varsity team, the win Oct. 28 was the culmination of a season of hard work.
“Everyone just worked so hard this season, so it was fun to see the results actually play out,” senior Paige Wagner said.
She and her teammates bested Desert Hills High School by just four points for the team victory.
Sophomore Tatum Flach came in second overall, flying through the course in 17:51. She said she raced with the rest of her team in mind.
“My team is back there and they’re working just as hard as me, and so I need to do it for them, too,” she said.
The girls said they’ve trained to work together through the races, pushing each other to run better.
“This year especially, we had such a big group of runners who were so similar in times to each other,” senior Ava Shewell said. “I think just having that group of people, who are also such good friends – to be able to run like that all together just made a huge difference.”
Wagner agreed. She said even more than hearing people cheering along the course, having friends to run with makes all the difference.
“Like, if Sonja decides to push up a hill, then we all kind of do the same,” she said. “And I think that speaks a lot louder than anything anyone says to me on the course.”
The seniors on varsity said winning the state championship is the perfect way to end four years of cross-country.
Coach Steve Cuttitta said he’s proud to see his team succeed.
“I know how hard they’ve worked and how much it means to them,” he said. “And so to see them happy and excited after, you know, weeks, months, years of hard work – it’s really satisfying.”
He also commended the four women who serve as the team’s assistant coaches – and as strong role models for the girls.
“I just think that was really empowering for our girls’ team to see these women showing up every day, even though they had jobs and they had kids and they had pregnancies,” he said. “I think that was kind of our secret weapon this year, to be honest.”
For Flach and senior Sonja Preston, the season is not yet over. They’re heading to Nike Cross Regionals Southwest in late November in Mesa, Arizona.
There, they’ll compete against the best runners from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The top five individual finishers will make it to Nike Cross Nationals.
