Maricopa High harriers race to strong times in only home meet

The Maricopa High cross country team dominated Baboquivari in its first home meet of the season last Wednesday afternoon at the Duke.

All four Maricopa boy runners finished before the first Warrior crossed the finish line. Since there were only two teams competing, the coaches from both schools agreed on a combined race where the girls and boys ran together.

“It was a fun meet,” Maricopa High head coach Duane Anderson said.

Anderson said the only setback was having just two teams compete. He hopes to build up to a six-team invitational meet in the future. Globe High School was invited to the meet but was unable to attend.

Maricopa’s Taylor Martin came in first with a time of 20:46. “My goal for the season is to finish under 19 minutes,” Martin said.

Following Martin were Chris Collett (20.49), Justin Ballatin (23.26) and Edward Thompson (23.36).

The girls weren’t far behind as they compiled some good times. Maricopa’s Alyssa Joaquin finished in 25:21, and teammate Carisa Fletcher came in at 26.49.

Martin said the cooler weather helped the runners, but the difficulty of the course outweighed the favorable temperature.

“There were a lot of small hills,” Ballatin said, agreeing with Martin.

Other runners mentioned the stretch of course on soft dirt proved to be the most difficult aspect.

Anderson said it took several trial runs to find a suitable course, and he’s happy with the one he finally chose.

Maricopa was back in action Saturday in a meet at Estrella Foothills.

Photos by Mandy Hank