State cross country: DV boys use depth, pack mentality to recapture crown

Desert Vista's boys cross country team entered the 2008 season as one of the deepest in the state. No one knew how deep, though, until last Saturday.

The Thunder reclaimed the crown it had missed out on last season not because of one runner, or even two, but because its top five runners all placed within the top 32 at the Class 5A-I state meet Saturday afternoon. It's entire team also placed in the top 53.

"You've got to have a first runner and you've got to have a last runner," DV coach Chris Hanson said. "I think our top seven was the best seven today."

In amassing just 96 points - second-place Phoenix Alhambra, the defending champion, had 98 - DV recaptured the 5A-I title. The Thunder also won in 2005 and 2006.

Mountain Pointe's boys finished 11th.

The Thunder were led by Andrew Kellogg, a junior who took third place. He challenged Alhambra's Jorge Martinez, the eventual individual champion, with about a mile to go but faded in the chute.

"It was so tough," Kellogg said. "The last mile, I tried to make a break, I tried to push the pack a little bit. All of a sudden, I started getting really dizzy. I was just trying to snap into it.

"I don't know what was going on. I tried to tough it out but, at the end, I just completely died."

It was Adam Estavillo, who finished ninth, who had the biggest individual impact in winning the race. The senior had finished a disappointing 45th at the mid-season Doug Conley Invitational, but his top-10 finish as the Thunder's No. 2 shaved five points off when comparing to Alhambra's No. 2, George Ramirez, who came in 14th.

"He didn't have a particularly great Conley meet," Hanson said, "and that was a concern probably in his mind, more than anybody else's, that he couldn't perform at a big meet, but he definitely did that today."

DV captain Mike Johnson was third for the squad in 25th, leading a pack of Thunder runners. Albert Kombe (27th), Ramsey Carroll (32nd) and Ryan Nelson (33rd) soon followed.

"We just wanted to run as a pack," Kombe said. "We knew our (Nos.) 1 and 2 would do pretty good, and the rest of us just had to run as a pack. We thought we had a pretty good chance if we did that."

Desert Vista had also changed its approach to the state meet. Instead of tapering, which is the tradition for most cross country programs heading into larger meets, the Thunder had what Hanson termed a "speed week."

"If we would have let up, there were too many good teams ready to take if from us," Hanson said.

"I think it helped us," Johnson added of the new philosophy. "We were just ready to run and got the pack moving."

Mountain Pointe's 11th-place finish was paced by Dan Wilson at 17th individually.

"Dan had a good race, a very good race," said MP coach Heather Kaiser. "It's a growing year so we'll see what we do next year."

The Pride, though, didn't have another finisher until sophomore Connor Donnelly finished 74th. He was quickly followed by seniors Brian Bauer (76th), Kyle Thomas (77th) and junior Shelby Goodman (88th).

"We were hoping that somebody would be closer to (Wilson)," Kaiser said. "I'm pretty happy with the overall place, that was good."

She was looking forward to next season, when the Pride will return three runners with state meet experience. Wilson and Bauer were the only two runners to have that entering this season.

"They'll be familiar with the course, and they'll understand just the intensity and the feelings that are here the day of the state meet," Kaiser said. "That always plays a huge part in what's going on."