The Fountain Hills High School cross country team hit the road for the first time this past weekend and raced in Flagstaff to start the season on Saturday, Sept. 3. The Falcons will host a meet this Saturday, Sept. 10, during the Fountain Hills Invitational.

There will be road closures from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the invitational. North- and southbound Saguaro will be closed, as well as Paul Nordin to Palisades, Avenue of the Fountains at Saguaro, and Parkview at Saguaro. The Fountain Hills boys will start their race at 7:45 a.m., and the girls will start their race at 8:15 a.m.

The Fountain Hills Invitational is an annual competition and has grown significantly in the last three years. There were 54 teams competing in 2019, 85 teams last year, and there will be 100 teams competing this year.

“We’ve had race committee meetings every Friday for a while, making sure we’re all on task,” cross country head coach Kevin Clancy said. “Mary [McDonald] has done it for so long at this point, she has a lot of the connections and the to-do lists from previous times. That combined with my experience with working big-time meets has been a really good combination.”

The Fountain Hills invitational has grown, and so has the Falcon team this year. Clancy brought over some long distance track runners, like senior Franklin Fiola, and there are a few talented freshmen on the team this year. The Falcons sent two individuals to state last year, but Clancy’s goal is to have both the boys and girls teams qualify for state this year.

“We had a tough workout, and there were four of us kind of staying together in one group at the front,” senior Tyler Irvine-Violette said. “Colby [Wright], a freshman, he put in a lot of work over the summer. We have Franklin Fiola, who’s new to cross country but he ran track last year. He’s looking really good and of course Zion Atwood is always standing out as the next guy up. He’s ready for this season for sure.”

Violette and junior Erin Hooley represented Fountain Hills as individuals at state last year. The girls also got a boost with two new runners in sophomore Racine Homyak and freshman Ally Guerrette this year, and they have been a dynamic duo, according to Clancy. The two girls run a similar pace together, and in one week after running a 5k for the first time, both girls cut their time down by four minutes.

“We should have scoring teams right off the bat,” Clancy said. “Last year the girls team was one spot and only six points off from state. I think that was one of the first times they ran as a team, and the hope is this year we can run as a team throughout the year, and we can gauge where we are as far as trying to qualify for that state championship.”

The Falcons’ one chance to qualify for state will be on Thursday, Nov. 3, at the section championships. Clancy has been training his runners all summer, but he wants them to be in their best fitness by the end of the season. Clancy did say, however, that Atwood was in great shape already and seemed very excited to start the season.

The Falcons had a tough opener, starting at 7,000 feet elevation in Flagstaff this past weekend. Atwood was the first to finish the 5,000m ascent race and came in 62nd place with a time of 21:30.9. Closest to Atwood was Violette, who came in 70th with a 21:46.8 finish.

Wright was next with a 23:33.7 finish. Behind him was junior Dylan Romans (24:00.7), Fiola (24:47.8), junior Nathan Eastman (25:23.1) and junior William Breen (26:43.0). Freshmen boys Matthew Gonzalez (19:13.2) and Tyler Eastman (19:13.3) finished side by side in the 2.2 mile novice competition.

The Falcons have three returning girls on the team including Hooley and fellow juniors Skey Alker and Eliana Bartman. All three are EVIT students this year, and Bartman and Alker missed some earlier practices due to academic schedules. Alker didn’t miss a beat, though, and was second behind Hooley on the Falcons’ team.

Hooley finished the 5000m women’s ascent race in 21st place (24:02.0) and Alker came in 36th (24:48.0). Homyak was next (29:04.3), followed by Guerrette (32:02.1) and Bartman (34.53.0).

This weekend’s home invitational is the only home meet for the cross country Falcons. They will continue to train and improve as the season goes on.

“In a month’s time, I see them finding their way into fitness, and getting close to their previous personal bests,” Clancy said. “I see that from the team, and we talked earlier on in the year about wanting to make the state championships. I’m hoping at that point, we gauge our progress towards qualification as a team on both sides. Both teams were one spot off last year, so that’s really what we’re working towards.”