Other runners might be content with two top five finishes at the Division III cross-country state tournament.
Not at Mingus Union High School, where head coach Jim Bostwick returns six starters from a boys team that finished fifth at State.
“The boys goal is, let’s just say, a higher place than that,” he said, “so [I] will train them accordingly. With five seniors in the top seven, they know how much work it will take.”
Senior Jordan Bramblett, a second-team all-state selection in 2013, ran more than 600 miles on his own over the summer, followed closely by junior Joseph Sandoval’s 500 miles logged.
Brendon Alexander, Joseph Cook, Keenan DeVore and Traygon Ullery are the other returning seniors for the Marauders boys, supported by sophomore Keegan Cain, who made varsity as a freshman — so Bostwick is “looking for big things from him this year.”
Fifth-year girls coach Lisa Mitchell, meanwhile, only has seven total athletes on her team that was last year’s runner-up.
“But this is normal,” Bostwick said, as Mitchell has managed a top 10 finish with fewer than 10 girls out every year for the past five years. “Their work is cut out for them. Unlike the boys team, it will be almost an entirely different lineup.
“They have been runner-up the past two years. So you can imagine what their only goal is.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Sept. 3, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
