Fall Preview: DV boys cross country uses depth to continue success

Desert Vista's boys cross country has turned its success into a philosophy. Or maybe its philosophy has turned the Thunder into a success.

Either way, DV's boys squad has finished in the top three at the state meet every year since 2002, including championships in 2002, 2005 and 2006 as well as runner-up finishes in 2004 and last year.

The secret lies in numbers - literally. Sixty-one runners dot the Thunder's roster, including nine seniors. To put that in perspective, some squads struggle to field nine runners on the whole.

"If you look at all the good programs across the nation, that's what they do," said DV coach Chris Hanson. "They tend to have, especially on the boys' side, heavy numbers of seniors with a sophomore and a couple juniors sprinkled in that they don't replace, and then the next year, (those sophomores and juniors) get their time to shine and so on and so forth."

It's the reason for DV's continued success: Once one part to its machine graduates, the next steps up.

So, yes, it will be tough to replace two-time defending individual champion Matt Boughton, now of Arizona State University, or No. 2 Chris Conway, or No. 3 Sean Barr, or No. 5 Chris Dunker - four of the team's top five that ran at last year's state meet - but if Hanson has his way, the transition should be a fluid one.

"A long time ago, I set a goal to have two to three talented athletes a year and then progress them," Hanson said. "So you only need five (runners to score at a meet), but if you have two or three freshmen, two or three sophomores, two or three juniors, two or three seniors, you're going to have plenty.

"That was good and a lot of teams would love to have that, but then I started thinking I need to have eight to 10 kids per grade level, so we started getting that."

Hanson soon realized that while he'd have decent numbers of underclassmen, it began to wean by the time they were juniors and seniors. So that vision, too, expanded.

"We needed more leaders," Hanson said. "And, also, we believe every kid brings something to the team. He may not be the fastest kid, or even the fourth-fastest, but maybe he's being a good leader in stretching or maybe he's encouraging to his teammates - those kinds of things."

The Thunder's numbers on the lower levels began to increase further to compensate for kids who drop out as they get older. In each of the last two seasons, DV has had more than 15 freshmen, over 12 sophomores and between 8 to 10 juniors and 8 to 10 seniors.

"We're starting to retain them a little better," Hanson said. "And not all those kids are going to get the opportunity to compete on varsity, but every one of them brings something to the team."

This year's varsity squad is led by Andrew Kellogg, a junior who was running as the team's No. 3 before an injury ended his season last year. In addition, seniors Mike Johnson (42nd at the Class 5A-I state meet last year) and John Serfilipi (66th), as well as junior Adam Estavillo (68th), return major varsity experience.

Also expected to have some impact are senior Nick Rice, juniors Ben Ten Eyck, Albert Kombie, Tucker Kidd and Sean Gormley; and sophomores Trey Kennedy and Ryan Maack.

Because DV lost four of its top five in finishing second at the last year's state meet, some are looking past the Thunder in 2008.

"That's OK with me," Hanson said. "We'd like to be the team people are overlooking a little bit."

But make no mistake, DV and it's machine-like philosophy have its eye set on continued success - and maybe a fourth state title in seven years.

"We want to get it back," Hanson said. "That left a bad taste in our mouth. We're certainly hungry, and we want to hopefully return back to where we want to be - and that's at the top."