Xavier Esparza’s closest competition was four-legged. Despite being attacked by a dog, Esparza pulled away from the pooch and the pack to lead DVCC freshmen to their 11th straight victory in the Tempe City Meet. Esparza finished the rolling 3.1-mile course at Kiwanis Park in 17 minutes, 19 seconds, a whopping 22 seconds away of his closest two-legged pursuer. DVCC Runner Chris O’Brien was second, D.J. Harris fourth, Matt Anciaux fifth and Jessen Harbertson sixth as DVCC scored a nearly perfect 18 points to easily top Corona’s 41 points on Thursday, Oct. 18. Nathan Chan and Joe Kretschmar gave DVCC seven of the top 10 finishers, and Anthony Ramirez and Brian Kwiecinski finished in the top 14 out of 35 runners.
DVCC also won the Open, or JV, race for the 11th consecutive year. Andrew Hermanski (17:31), Dylan Smith and Austin Tielke finished 2-3-4, and Josh Geiger (sixth), Chris Tang (ninth) and Dylan Quintanar (10th) gave DVCC six of the top 10 spots. Ethan Tang, Josh Ten Eyck, Zack Hubbard, Nick Terreri, Andrew Ruiz, Connor Finuf and Darren De La Riva meant the Thunder had 13 of the top 20 finishers out of 69 runners from five schools.
Varsity had won nine of the previous 10 city meets but with its top two runners out injured, narrowly finished second, with 30 points to Corona’s 26. Ryan Dykstra (16:43) was third, Jacob Walimaa (16:46) was fourth, Alec Hoyt (17:15) was sixth, Kyle Havriliak (17:19) was eighth, Zach Smith (17:19) was ninth, Tyler Bonebright (17:20) was 10th and Mitchell Bogushefsky (17:20) was 12th.
“A valiant effort comes up short on varsity,” Coach Chris Hanson said. “We were dominant everywhere else.”
Hanson hopes to have Carter Macey (quadriceps) and Ryan Smith (hamstring) back soon. Next up is the Sectional Championship Meet at 2:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at Cross Roads Park, followed by the State Meet Nov. 3.