Taking a cue from the Major League Baseball playoffs, DVCC pitched a shutout in the junior varsity race at the 40th annual Doug Conley Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 13.
DV shut the competition out of the top five spots, earning a perfect 15 points, to easily outdistance the second-place team’s 66 points. Impressive freshman Xavier Esparza led the way, covering the 3.1-mile Rolling Hills Golf Course path in 17 minutes, 24 seconds. Kyle Havriliak (17:32), Mitchell Bogushefsky (17:33), Dylan Smith (17:34) and Andrew Hermanski (17:38) were close behind. But DV wasn’t done, with six of the top nine and eight of the top 17 finishers out of 315 entrants. Austin Tielke was ninth, Chris O’Brien 15th, Matt Anciaux 17th, Nick Terreri 26th, Chris Tang 31st, Josh Geiger 40th, Zever McGary 43rd and Jessen Harbertson 45th.
Varsity had an off day and finished fifth. Carter Macey (16:17) was 10th overall. Continuing his comeback from injury, fellow senior Ryan Dykstra (16:47) was 25th. Jacob Walimaa (16:49) placed 28th and also broke 17 minutes. Alec Hoyt, Ryan Smith, Zach Smith and Tyler Bonebright gave DV a whopping 13 runners finishing in less than 18 minutes.
Next up is the Tempe City meet. Come on out to see the freshmen and JV teams compete in their last races of the season and each go for 11 straight City Meet championships. The freshmen run at 8:30 and JV at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at Kiwanis Park in Tempe. At 10 a.m., Varsity chases its 10th city title in 11 years.