Region meet final tune-up before state for AF cross country teams

There's a week-and-a-half to go in the cross country season, and Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe's teams will get one final tune-up at Wednesday's Central Region meet at 4 p.m. at Kiwanis Park.

"We're just going to use it as a build-you-up," said Desert Vista's Andrew Kellogg, his team's top runner.

The boys' race will start at 3:45 p.m., with the girls' race at 4:15.

In the wake of a disappointing seventh-place finish at the prestigious Doug Conley Invitational, the Thunder have been focusing on hill work in preparation for the course at Nov. 8's state meet, which has its fair share of ups and downs. That meet will be held at Cave Creek Golf Course.

"We've put a lot of effort into that," Kellogg said. "We've actually been using the water tower hill (behind the school), doing some work with that and then mixing it in with some trail runs. We've been getting a bunch of that in, so that should help."

Though it remains a source of motivation, DV is moving past the Conley finish.

"We've just put it behind us," Kellogg said. "We're just looking ahead."

Mountain Pointe boys

The Pride boys finished second to DV at last week's city meet, also held at Kiwanis.

"Obviously Desert Vista's the team to beat in our region," said MP assistant David Allison. "If we have a really good race, and they're a little off, we possibly could beat them, but for me, it's more of just building off our times and getting our times a little lower and getting ready for state the week after."

Even with the finish, some of Mountain Pointe's runners struggled at the city meet.

"We didn't have our best race the other day, and we still got second," he said. "Some of them were a little flat, but we had a good practice this past weekend, so I think they should be more on point."

Mountain Pointe is coming off a ninth-place finish at last year's state meet.

"I think it's an OK course to get us ready for (state)," Allison said. "I mean I think Kiwanis is a fair course. Would it be as challenging as the state meet? Maybe a tad bit easier."

Desert Vista girls

The region meet has long been circled as the return date for the Thunder girls' top runner, junior Ali Connell.

Out the entire season while recovering from a fractured tibia, Connell has been rehabbing with DV's swim team. Still, she wanted to get back on the cross country course.

Now the region meet is finally here, and though coach Doug Christofis has her penciled in to run, whether or not Connell actually does remains up in the air.

"She needs to talk with her family and decide," Christofis said Tuesday. "Either way, I will support her. Ali is the type of kid that when she says something's bothering her, something is bothering her. She says she's feeling it a little bit. To what degree? We don't know. Is it residual soreness from not being on it for six, seven months? We don't know.

"We don't want to jeopardize her career as a runner," Christofis said. "I'd like to see her have a successful track season, and we don't want to have her re-break it."

Even without Connell, Christofis said he has four spots solidified for his lineup at next weekend's state meet: senior Erin Leonard, junior Paige Pyper, sophomore Megan Kupres and junior Katie Conway will all run.

The final three spots remain up for grabs and will be decided from a pool of six girls that run at the region meet in addition to Leonard, who aiming to win the meet itself.

The six angling for the final three spots are Connell, Hali Gamez -- who is also recovering from a hip flexor injury -- Tamlyn Kalal, Carissa McAtee, Katelyn McElhaney and Jessica Hammer.

Christofis said in trying to finalize his state roster, he broke down each of the runners head-to-head in terms of times, and also in terms of how many times each placed in his top five and top seven.

"These girls are basically two wins, two losses against each other all the way down," he said.

That left one option.

"I'm trying to figure out who my best seven are, because that's who you want to bring to the (state) race," he said, "and so the only way to do that at this point is the region meet."

Mountain Pointe girls

Sophomore Lindsey Schader is the Pride girls' top runner, having finished 51st at September's Doug Conley Invitational.

She's joined by senior Shandiin Sam (67th at Conley), senior Daisha Hill-Hurtado (91st), sophomore Ellen Hill (108th), sophomore Andrew Garcia (169th) and junior Larissa Haugan (170th).