Cross Country: Pride use region meet as a tune-up for state

Coming off a second-place finish at the Tempe City meet, poor finishes at last week's Central Region meet wasn't exactly what the Mountain Pointe boys cross country team was expecting.

Although Dan Wilson won the race individually, the team was hoping for better performances from the rest of the team to prepare them for the Class 5A-I state meet this Saturday.

The Pride finished third overall, beating Chandler Basha, but falling behind Desert Vista and Tempe Corona del Sol.

"It's kind of a tune-up," MP coach Heather Kiser said. "It's going to get us ready for where we need to be for state."

The Pride finished ninth as a team at last year's state meet.

Mountain Pointe's No. 2 runner, Brian Bauer, did not race Wednesday because he was sick, and its No. 3, Shelby Goodman, finished 13th overall in 18:08.

Wilson's 16:56 finish placed him 16 seconds before the second-place finisher, but did not leave him very satisfied.

"I wasn't mad, but I wasn't happy about my time," said Wilson, who pinpointed a mixture of the heat (the temperature at Kiwanis Park reached 93 degrees), and lack of a pack to run with as reasons for his time.

Wilson finished 28th in last year's state meet and second on the team.

Wilson, Goodman, Bauer, Kyle Thomas and Connor Donnelly will be among the Pride's line-up for the state meet. The other two runners are still undecided.

Thomas finished ninth overall Wednesday, setting a PR by about 25 seconds.

"He stepped it up for the team today," Wilson said.

Callie Baumgartner is interning this semester at the AFN. She is a sophomore at Arizona State University.