The Desert Vista Boys Cross Country Team had a successful weekend once again as they competed at the prestigious Doug Conley Invitational Meet at the Shalimar Golf Course in Tempe on Saturday, September 26, 2015.
The meet has been held yearly since 1982 in memory of Doug Conley, a 1966 graduate of Tempe High school who graduated from ASU in 1971 and became a math teacher and cross country coach at Tempe High. His nationally-ranked CC squad won the state cross country meet in 1973.
The Junior Varsity got started right off the bat winning the Open event with just 56 points to lead the 40 teams in contention! The Thunder were led by freshman Travis Kearney with a 7th-place finish and a time of 16:56 over the 3-mile course. Travis was followed closely by seniors Jackson Snedecor in 10th place (17:06) and Joe Kretschmar in 11th (17:11), and juniors Jackson Hickey in 15th (17:18) and Jacob Lemus in 20th (17:23). Also finishing were sophomores D'Angelo Piasecki in 21st (17:24) and David Neighbors in 34th (17:40).
In the Elite race with 22 teams competing, the Varsity finished in 8th place, missing 7th by just one point and a top-5 by a mere 18 points. They were led by Sophomore Reece Donihi and his time of 16:08 on the 3-mile course was good for 15th place overall! DVCC also saw senior Anthony Ramirez finish in 45th place (16:48.2), narrowly edging out sophomore Nick Thatcher who finished in 44th (16:48.8), followed by senior Nathan Chan in 64th (17:03), and juniors Leo Crowder 76th (17:14), DJ Johnson 82nd (17:20), and Solomon Hanson in 110th (17:55).
Great job boys....EMBRACE the STRUGGLE!
Next up for the Thunder is the highly competitive Desert Twilight Meet in Casa Grande in the evening of Friday October 2nd.