The Thunder Boys cross country season kicked off with the King of the Mountain Invitational at the Longbow Golf Course in Mesa. This year will mark their third appearance in a row and is one of the smaller meets the team will tackle. The meet consisted of Freshman, JV, and Varsity races, which happened in a quick succession.
The meet started off with the running of our own Freshman and ended up with our freshman Captain Nolan Billeter winning the race (18:09), Ryan Hoyt as the runner up (18:11), and Ethan Bukowski for bronze (18:22.7). Only the top three score in the freshman race. With all of those amazing times, the Thunder had a freshman shutout with only six total points to take the trophy home.
Only 40 minutes later the Junior Varsity race started with a bang. The JV runners from Desert Vista are experienced runners who have many races under their belts so they are commonly called “The Veterans”. And the Vets did not disappoint by scoring with Martin Fuller at the head with a 4th place (17:51), Nick Basha not far behind in 9th (18:08), promising sophomore Makay Blackburn in 18th (18:36), Chris Broze in 19th (18:40), and finally Jacob Cardon in 20th (18:46). All the times added up to 70 points which was a strong third-place finish for the thunder.
As the temperature started rising, so did the tensions with the Varsity race. Leading the Varsity for the Thunder was a promising Senior, Pierre Cuyeu in 13th (17:51). Next were, Vincent Laurente in 14th (17:55), Nicolo Perciballi in 18th (18:09), Noah Werbelow in 23rd (18:32), and Mays Jones in 29th (19:21). This amounted to a tough 4th-place finish for Desert Vista in the Varsity race.
An overall finish of 3rd by combining both boys and girls scores for Desert Vista, which is a strong season opener. Also a huge thank you to the Coaching and staff. None of the boys would be anything without them!
Join the Thunder this Friday night under the lights at the Desert Solstice invitational!