Bulldog runners down Cienega in home opener

The Douglas Bulldog and Lady Bulldog cross country teams finally had their home opener Sept. 5 hosting Cienega in a dual meet.

The Bulldogs beat the Bobcats 24-35 while the Lady Bulldogs, running with just three girls, lost 15-50.

In the boy’s race which featured 26 runners, Cienega’s Nathan Tumbe was the overall winner finishing with a time of 18-minutes, 45 seconds on the 3.1 mile course.

Douglas’ Ricky Larez was second with a 19:05.

Cienega had a runner take third then Douglas proceeded to take the next four spots and six of the next seven overall places.

Jesus Loreto followed Larez finishing fourth overall with a time of 19:07. Gus Melendez followed in fifth place with a time of 19:39; Ricky Melendez was sixth finishing with a time of 20-minutes flat, Alonso Sodari was seventh with a 21:08; Josh Lujan ninth with a 21:17 and John Owen was 10th finishing with a time of 21:38.

Other Douglas runners who ran last week were: Raul Montano, 15th, 23:40; Manuel Acedo, 17th, 23:42; Rafael Carrillo, 23rd, 28:00 and Guadalupe Herrera, 24th, 28:51.

In the girl’s race, Cienega’s Shelly Davidson was the overall winner finishing with a time of 22:20.

Karla Loreto led Douglas with a fourth place finish and a time of 23:53 overtaking teammate Emeri Melendez who was fifth with a 23:53.5.

Laura Blair followed in 11th place with a 27:08.

Just 14 girls ran in this race.

Douglas’ cross country coach Nicole Gomez Mariscal said after the race last year Cienega ran all over Douglas and it feels good to win.

“I’m happy these kids were able to pull it off,” she said. “We have working with our top 10 boys; teaching them to run as a pack to try and close that time gap between them. They did that today and it paid off.”

The coach said all her runners are doing a really good job of bringing down their times and she has some freshmen that are doing a really good job of stepping up.

In the girls race the coach said she’s not really sure how long it will be before her team is back to full strength.

One of the two girls that is currently out may be back next week. The other, the coach said, may have had a more serious injury that first realized.

“My three girls are working hard, we can’t score as a team,” she said. “I’ve told them their goal is to run for time and keep bringing it down.”

The DHS teams are back in action today running against Palo Verde, Desert View and San Miguel in a four-way meet in Tucson.