Mingus runs to victory

Nabbing three of the top four places helped Mingus Union’s boys cross country team capture gold in its season opener Wednesday.

Freshman Jack Mann earned second place, sophomore Colton Noble took third and senior Jared Cienega placed fourth as the Marauders won the Prescott Quadrangular meet. It was the boys’ first meet victory in more than four years.

Mingus beat Greenway 34-37 (lowest score wins). Washington and Prescott did not field full teams.

"This was a big boost to our young team as Greenway is a perennial top-10 4A team in the state," said Marauders coach Jim Bostwick. "They finished ninth last year."

Mann, a state champion in the mile and two mile as a junior high runner, clocked a time of 18:11 on the 3.1-mile course Wednesday. Noble finished in 18:19 and Cienega came in at 18:33. Other top finishers for Mingus included sophomore Cory Romine in ninth at 19:25 and senior Jasson McGuire in 16th at 20:59.

"Although I was pleased with the win, I was more pleased with the fact that the four guys who ran this last year improved their times significantly," Bostwick said. "Colton improved 2:06, Jared 1:46, Cory 1:35 and Jasson 54 (seconds)."

The Mingus Union JV boys also won in Prescott, topping Greenway 29-45. Peter Valencia led the JVs with a second-place finish in 16:22 on a 2.5-mile loop. Junior Neal Blackford placed fourth in 16:39, followed by sophomore Jordan Goff in fifth (16:56), junior Reggie Barron in sixth (16:57) and junior Ben Rolfes in 12th (18:52).

"This was a definite moral booster for this young team against these Skyline division schools," Bostwick said. "We will find out if this team is for real this weekend at the Peaks Invitational in Flagstaff when we see how we stack up against our own Grand Canyon Region schools.

Lady Marauders place second: Mingus Union’s girls squad missed first by a point, falling to Prescott 37-38. Greenway earned third with 45 points, followed by Washington.

"This was payback for the girls as we beat the Prescott team by one point here last year," Bostwick said.

Sophomore Ariel Latimer paced the Marauders with a second-place run against a field of 31. She clocked a time of 16:27 on the 2.5-mile circuit — an improvement of 1:16 from last year’s meet.

Junior Kiera O'Connor improved 1:44 from last year and finished sixth. Junior Abbie Swavee finished eighth in 19:15. Sophomore Heather Bradbury dropped her time 49 seconds from last year and finished ninth. Senior Elysia Goff improved 19 ticks from last year and finished 13th to round out the Mingus scoring.

Other runners were sophomore Hannah Dibble (22:14), freshman Rachel Heydorn (22:48) and Senior Katy Grosetta (23:28).

"I was really proud of how the girls ran considering we have had tough week of practice and didn't really rest up for this meet," Bostwick said.