It doesn’t get much more cross country than the Jemez Valley Invitational, and the mountainous course proved a challenge for Socorro runners who claimed a first-place team finish for the middle school girls on Sept. 3.

“One of my runners said, ‘I didn’t sign up to go rock climbing,’ and that accurately sums it up,” Socorro cross country coach Beth Cadol said. “The hills are so steep that nearly everyone has to put their hands down to steady their ascent.”

The cross-country season is still young, and it’s hard for a coach to know exactly where her team is at this point. Still Cadol knows the season is a marathon and not a sprint.

“While it’s hard to compare times from course to course because the difficulty of the terrain varies so greatly, we had several personal-best times on this course when compared with last year. One runner beat his time by 10 minutes. That’s a huge improvement when we’re usually fighting for seconds,” Cadol said.

Jemez Valley Invitational results

Girls Varsity:

  • Sky Sessions 30:25 (top Socorro runner in 34th place)
  • Jackie Perez 31:28
  • Anastasia Zagrai 31:32
  • Lyzz Moellenbrock 35:37
  • Anna Zagrai 47:19
  • Abby Watkins 61:40

Boys Varsity: 

  • Robinson Ford 22:22 (top Socorro runner in 15th place)
  • Luther Richardson 24:19
  • Keller Ford 26:54
  • Daniel Bowles 28:10
  • Rylan Timmons 30:49
  • Andrew Moellenbrock 38:04
  • Vicente Sanchez 45:26

Middle School girls (1.75 miles)

  • Abby Cadol 12:04
  • Katerine Escalona 12:13
  • Avery Timmons 14:11
  • Kathleen Johnson 14:55
  • Estella Candelaria 17:14

Middle School boys:

  • Timur Aitbayev 15:32 (first Socorro runner in 29th place)
  • Riley Sewell 15:37
  • Liam Demorest 16:54
Russell Huffman, El Defensor Chieftain Asst. Editor