[This article is courtesy of Senior Co-Captain Clark Scalia]
The Thunder traveled down to Casa Grande this past weekend to the Desert Twilight Invitational to run at arguably the most popular, and maybe most competitive, race in Arizona. Powerhouse teams from states like California and Colorado come to this meet to compete against the best teams of Arizona while also offering an insight to the regional NXR meet later in the season.
To start off, the Thunder freshman once again had a respectable showing as they took second in team scoring with a score of 86 points. The weather was not very agreeable at all during this race as the thermometer reached over 90 degrees at the start time. Starting off for the Thunder was none other than Sammy Van Alstine who won the race with a time of 16:58. Coming in next for the team was the ever consistent Noah Werbelow in 21st (18:49) followed closely by Niccolo Perciballi (18:55) in 23rd. Another freshman duo finished within seconds of each other with Adam Hansen (19:06) in 33rd and Nick Basha (19:11) in 34th. To round out the top seven was Vincent Laurente (19:35) in 43rd and Mason Krug (20:47) in 86th.
Following up the impressive freshman race, the junior varsity competed in the open division race and once again had a convincing win with a team score of just 19 points. Starting off the JV was a startling 1-2-3-4 finish for the Thunder with junior Nick Thatcher (16:22) in 1st, junior Bryce Schmisseur (16:51) in 2nd, sophomore Lee Nasewytewa (16:55) in 3rd, and senior Leo Crowder (16:57) in fourth. Completing the dominant run for Desert Vista was junior Michael Tuli (17:08) in 9th, senior Jackson Hickey (17:17) in 12th, and senior DJ Johnson (17:26) in 14th. As if these finishes weren’t enough, three more Thunder runners finished in the top 20 giving DV 10 of the top 20 placers in the race.
After the JV came the main event of the night, the Sweepstakes race. The Desert Vista varsity team clashed with some of the top teams in the Southwest Region as they ran in this ultra-competitive race, ending up in a fantastic 3rd place with a team score of 163 points. Kicking off the Thunder’s race was junior Habtamu Cheney (15:36) and senior Chris D’Angelo (15:39), each coming in with blistering times and finishing 16th and 18th respectively. Junior Askel Laudon (16:05) came in next in 38th place, junior D’Angelo Piasecki (16:12) in 47th, and sophomore Travis Kearney (16:26) in 61st. Completing the Thunder’s top seven finishers were junior Jerome Iannone (16:59) in 112th and senior Nick Walrod (17:13) in 137th.
While some runners may not have had their best runs of the season, others did. This race shows the depth of the Desert Vista cross-country team this season and leaves everyone to be able to rest assured that the Thunder are in great shape as they head into the latter part of the competitive season.
Next week, Desert Vista heads to Gilbert to race in the 3rd Annual Titan Invite at Crossroads Park on October 15th. As always, a big thanks must be given to the boosters, parents, and coaches of DV/CC. All of you make the success of this program possible and deserve the same recognition that the athletes receive. Thank you for all that you do. Go Thunder!!