The Dodge City boys cross country team came to the Buffalo Dunes Golf Course Thursday on fire. The Demons had five first place medals under their belts and for the second year in a row they solidified the Western Athletic Conference crown by a landslide. Dodge City earned 33 points, followed by Liberal with 61 and then Garden City fell into third with 67.
Demon runner Elder Colindres earned 10th overall at the meet. He said the WAC win is important and now they are looking for another back-to-back win at regionals.
The Demons were lead by distance phenom Oscar Carmona with a time of 16:56 and he took first overall. The toughest obstacles on the course for Oscar were the rolling hills.
“I was like 50 seconds off my best time," he said. "These hills kind of tired me out."
The next closest teammate was also his brother, Luis Carmona, in fourth with a time of 17:24. Luis said he has lost a little in his running abilities after having back surgery, but his older brother is motivating him.
“In practice my brother is always telling me to stay right next to him and he always wants me to do my best," Luis said. "We’ve been running since we were little, like seven or eight years old.”
In the girls race Garden City won with only 19 points. Their top three runners swept the top three place medals. Alexandra Miller with 16:01, Kayla Doll in second with 16:11 and Chelsea Jackson swooped into third with a time of 16:19.
“I feel like because we practice on these hills it gives us an advantage," Miller said. "But we know that just because this is home it did not make it easy.”
The Garden City team aims to take a solid win at regionals as well. However, doing well at the WAC meet meant a lot to both the boys and girls.
“Our coaches have talked with us about this but a group like this doesn’t come around very often. Not just our girls team but our boys team as well. With them being all seniors we’re really packed together and close and that really helps us motivate each other.”
