TUCSON – The Douglas High School cross country teams closed out their regular season last week with a triangular meet in Sierra Vista.

In the boys meet Douglas came in third with 77 points finishing behind first place Flowing Wells who had 20 points and second place Buena who had 49 points.

Luis Martinez led Douglas finishing sixth overall with a time of 16:26; Alfonso Mejia followed in 11th place with a time of 17:33; Robert Coronado was 18th with an 18:39; Michael Castro 20th with a 19:16; Ricky Larez was 22nd with a 20:08 and Thomas Fredrickson 31st with a 23:23.

Douglas’ cross country coach David Bond said Martinez ran his usual good race but it was Mejia who really showed some improvement knocking off close to three minutes on the same course the Bulldogs ran on seven weeks ago.

Coach Bond said Castro had his best race of the season improving his time by three minutes as well.

“These six runners plus Kenny Cardenas will compete at regionals,” the coach said.

In the girls meet Buena came in first with a perfect score of 15 meaning the Lady Colts took the top five spots.

Buena would actually place 10 runners ahead of the first Flowing Wells or Douglas runners.

Kim Cormier led Douglas with a 12th place and a time of 22 minutes; Jacqueline Hernandez finished 14th with a time of 22:05; Kristi Cormier 16th, 22:15; Natalie Ramirez, 18th, 22:50 and Kayla Fields, 21st, 23:04.

Coach Bond said Hernandez also had her best race of the season finishing close to three minutes faster than she did on the same course seven weeks ago.

Coach Bond said his girls team is trying to recover from the loss of Melia and Leilani Skinner who up and transferred out of DHS to a school in Tucson.

“These five girls and possibly one more will compete at regionals,” Bond said.

Regionals takes place this Saturday in Marana with the girls running at 10:40 and the boys at 11:25.

On Oct. 17 the Bulldogs ran in the Old Pueblo Invitational which features freshmen vs. freshmen, sophomores vs. sophomores, etc.

In the boys freshmen race Larez finished 16th with a time of 20:34.

In the freshmen girls race Fields came in 11th place with a time of 22:54.

In the boys sophomore race Mejia was fourth with a time of 17:34 and Fredrickson 33rd with a time of 24:06.

In the girls race Kim Cormier placed 11th and Ilka Trevizo was 26th as Cormier ran a time of 22:40 and Trevizo a 36:41.

In the boys junior race Cardenas was 13th, 17:49; Keyon Young, 39th, 32:42.

Jazmin Selig was Douglas’ lone runner in the junior race turning in a time of 24:58.

In the boys senior race Martinez, Coronado and Castro placed fifth, 10th and 18th turning in times of 17:25; 18:34 and 21:58.

Kristi Cormier and Hernandez finished eighth and 10th in the girls senior race turning in times of 22:02 and 22:33.

“Although there were 20 schools there only eight had a runner in each race,” Coach Bond said. “This is a good format for an invitational and most of our runners put in their best performances this year.”