Socorro’s Cross Country team battled steep hills again at the Nick Martin Memorial Invite hosted by East Mountain High School.

According to coach Beth Cadol, it’s a two-loop course with a very long, steep hill that runners must battle twice before they finish.

Deemed not a course for set­ting records, it was another test of the Socorro runners’ hill work.

Varsity Cross Country

  1. Robinson Ford, 21:08.
  2. Luther Richardson, 23:30.
  3. Keller Ford, 25:47.
  4. Daniel Bowles, 26:17.
  5. Rylan Timmons, 28:03
  6. Andrew Moellenbrock, 33:58.

Cadol had praise for her mid­dle school runners, too.

“The middle school team com­peted in the Open/Community race held before the varsity races began,” she said. “For the first time this season, the middle schoolers had to run a full 5k on the same hard, hilly course as the high school runners. They did very well for their first hard 5k of their com­petitive careers. Socorro had the first two female finishers overall.”

Girls (out of 26 middle school girls)

  1. Katerine Escalona 26:58
  2. Abby Cadol 26:59
  3. Kathleen Johnson 33:14
  4. Niki Planck 36:56
  5. Estella Candelaria 36:58

Boys (out of 48 middle school boys)

  1. Timur Aitbayev 30:30
  2. Liam Demorest 31:46
  3. Riley Sewell 33:14
Russell Huffman, El Defensor Chieftain Asst. Editor