Cibola boys finish 3rd, girls 4th at sectionals

Kofa’s Jose Valtierra also qualifies for state

Competing in arguably the toughest section in the state, the Cibola crosscountry team delivered a strong showing Wednesday afternoon at the Division I Section III meet at Crossroads Park in Gilbert. The Raiders’ boys finished third out of 15 teams, while the Raiders’ girls finished fourth, just two points out of third.

“We are pleasantly surprised,” Cibola coach Kris Norton said. “It went very well.”

Cibola’s boys team was projected to finish sixth on paper, but outdid that by three spots thanks to all of its top five runners finishing in the top 37 (out of 100).

The Raiders’ top three boys runners — senior Julian Gutierrez (18th at 17:21.9), junior Jacob Avelar (21st at 17:33.9) and senior Jan Fortunato (25th at 17:45.3) — all finished in the top 25, while junior Jaden Dulesky (18:14.9) was 34th and freshman Bennett Meyer-Wills (18:24.2) was 37th.

“It was the first time that group has ran together,” Norton said. “I think Bennett felt that obligation to step up and delivered a great race for us today. We had three boys that would have qualified individually, which shows we ran pretty well today.”

The top half teams in each section, as well as the top 25 individuals regardless of team, qualify for state.

“We were ranked sixth coming in, so we wanted to make sure we qualified (by finishing top eight),” Norton said. “We thought we could move up a couple spots, but getting third was a surprise to us.”

Highland (23 points) and Desert Vista (74) finished ahead of Cibola (135), while Corona del Sol (143), Shadow Ridge (153) and Moun-