Runners from seven schools gathered at Camp Verde High School on the morning of Oct. 3 for the 2020 Camp Verde Invitational. Mingus was one of the teams to attend and judging by the results, the Marauders were happy that they did.
A number of Marauders were among the top finishers. This included a 1-2 finish in the boys’ race. Sophomore Cesar Diaz finished first with a time of 17:22.31, while junior Isaac Reynolds was came in second with 18:04.22.
“I didn’t remember how flat it was,” Reynolds said of the course. “There’s one part that’s difficult but after that it’s pretty easy.”
The course featured one run up a steep hill but was otherwise relatively flat. That made running up the hill aggressively a particularly important strategy for Diaz.
“I tried to go as fast as I could going up that hill,” he said. “I kind of lost my stride going up the hill but I got it back.”
It was not a two-man show for the Marauders. Senior Jehiah Rodgers finished seventh with 18:43, sophomore Keenan Brekke was 10th at 19:27, junior Retief Tapija was 12th with 19:56, and freshman Matthew Reynolds was 29th with 22:44.
The Mingus boys finished with 26 points total, which was good enough to win the team competition, beating second place Winslow, which scored 42 points.
“I’m very pleased with how the boys ran in the meet,” coach Dave Moncibaez said. “They’re starting to become tighter and tighter within their spacings, which we strive for every year. I think that meet gave us the confidence that we kind of belong in these meets against these good teams.”
The meet was similarly successful for the girls, who had a pair of top-five finishers in sophomores Makena Bliss and Maisie Babcock. Bliss was fourth at 21:11 while Babcock was fifth at 21:36. Another sophomore, Nina Willoughby, notched a Top-15 finish, running in 23:22 to finish 14th.
The Marauders’ lineup was rounded out by junior Claire Peterson [25:27], sophomore Safiya Sweeney [27:03] and freshman Katy Rodriguez [44:22], who finished 28th, 37th and 52nd, respectively.
While it wasn’t a home meet for Mingus, the Marauders were running on familiar terrain, which helped give them an edge.
“We’ve done lots of races on trails like that before,” Babcock said. “We run on Mingus Mountain a lot and were used to the terrain. That kind of gave us an advantage over the other teams.”
“We do a lot of hill repeats,” Moncibaez said. “We’ve got some girls and boys that like to attack the hill, I think mostly just to get the hill over with. But they still attack it. I’m pretty pleased with that meet.”
The Marauders have three scheduled races remaining in the regular season. Mingus will next race on Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Bradshaw Mountain XC Invite. They’ll also participate in the Holbrook Invitational on Friday, Oct. 23, and will close the season out on Wednesday, Oct. 28, with the Mingus – Camp Verde Dual Meet at Dead Horse State Park in Cottonwood.
After that will be the sectional championships and then, assuming they qualify, the state championships.
“As individuals I think we’re pretty close,” Reynolds said. “As a team, we’re definitely looking good to making it.”
“I think the team is going really well on the season so far,” Bliss added. “For me it was hard to start after quarantine. But I think we’ve pulled it together and we’re going to do well this season.”
