Safford, Thatcher rise to challenge during cross country regionals

By Brian Wright
Sports Editor
Published on Sunday, November 1, 2009 1:49 PM MST

The performances of Safford and Thatcher at regional cross country meets Wednesday left coaches of both teams excited.

Safford’s boys team took first place at the 3A South meet, and the girls finished second.

Six of the boys placed in the top 15 overall, and five of the girls placed in the top 20.

Tommy Schnell of Safford finished second overall at the 3A South region meet Wednesday in Safford. The Safford boys team won first place. Photo by Preston Lindsey

“This is a vast improvement from last year, and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Safford head coach Ryan Miller said.

Safford’s Tommy Schnell had the second best overall time at the race at 17:53.32. Cruz Rodriguez of Tucson Empire was first (16:59.46).

Other Safford boys in the top 15 included Ian Blake, who was right behind Schnell in third (18:00.34); Tim Montoya in fifth; Trevor Casper-son in ninth, Matt Hart in 10th and Nathan Montierth in 13th.

Breanne Kempton was the top runner for the Safford girls and took third overall (21:10.06).

Also in the top 20 were Sonni Finch (seventh); Sabrina Sanchez (ninth); Brooklyn Lindsey (16th) and Ainslee McBride (17th).

Thatcher’s boys and girls teams also qualified for state.

Top runners for the Thatcher girls included Brittney Matthews (fourth), Lauren Clifford (15th) and Shalyn Maltos (18th).

Brock Reynolds was the top individual runner for the Thatcher boys in 11th place overall.

“Both teams ran outstanding,” Thatcher head coach Chris Cook said. “(It was) by far the best collective race as a team for both the boys and girls.”

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Comments

2 comment(s)

nate dizzy wrote on Nov 4, 2009 12:49 PM:

" good job safford keep it up. and good job miller "

UrAuntie wrote on Nov 2, 2009 3:07 PM:

" Way to go Tommy Joe!!! Your hard work is paying off, so very proud of you...Good luck at State this weekend. "

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