As the Arizona sun began to peek above the trees at the Shalimar Golf Club, the Desert Vista Girls junior varsity (JV) cross country team crossed the line to cross off its second race of the 2019 season. 

The Doug Conley Invite featured three races for each of the boys and girls teams of the various 41 schools in attendance in Tempe early Saturday morning. The races all measured at 5,000 meters, dividing in heats of non-varsity, invitational and elite.

The Desert Vista Thunder came into the race with extensive knowledge of the course. All of their girls ran in the non-varsity heat of the race. Assistant coach Bob Davis said, “We have done this race every year since it has been here, so I am familiar with this course. Some of these girls haven’t run it. It’s generally fast... so we set their expectations... ‘Don’t get too excited about your time, because it's a three-mile time,’ and we all made that adjustment mentally.”

Prior to the start gun firing off, the race official precautioned the runners to start slow in the initial 100 meters, all in preparation of potential struggle to get a firm grip on the grass. The runners began on a fairway piece of the golf course that was victim to small puddles of water that produced an overall dewy surface. But luckily, no racers had notable falls on the slippery course. The overall terrain fluctuated between fairways, greens, sidewalk and dirt trails. There were a few slight inclines but a handful of sharp turns funneling the runners throughout the run. 

The temperature stayed consistent, only barely breaking 70 degrees as the sun continued to rise throughout the race — a much more manageable temperature in comparison to the recent summer heat the racers endured prior so far this season.

The first finisher, Kayla Case from Highland, crossed the line at 20:30 at a 6:35 pace. Highland dominated the race taking the first through fourth place, those runners all finishing within 24 seconds of one another. But overall, the course ran slower than in previous years by almost a minute slower than average.

For Desert Vista, the overall goal was to push runners individually and gather new experience for their team of mostly beginners. “We are pretty sure they nailed all of their individual goals, so we are happy with what they did today,” Davis said.

The Thunder’s first finisher, Jessica Hilts, ran a 24:42 at a 7:57 per mile pace. Hilts, a freshman, said that her mindset at the beginning of the race was positive, despite it being her first time running this course. “I was just excited to race," she said.

Another freshman, Teagan Reginald was more on the opposite spectrum of emotion — nervous, but focused on scoring a personal record. “I was really nervous because I really wanted to PR,” she said, later noting that she beat her prior record with a 25:55, at an 8:21 per mile pace.

Davis reflected on the race and the future of the season with joy by saying, “With this group here, it’s fun because some of them just started running four weeks ago. They’ve never run in their lives and as long as we coach them cautiously and properly, you can see some really big improvements as the season progresses. We see some really big leaps and they get really excited. They get confidence from something like today to say, ‘Wow, that didn’t feel so bad, I’m gonna try to push it a little harder for the next one.’ ” 

Reginald and Hilts agreed that their goal in the upcoming week is “treating each practice as a race, staying consistent” as they prepare for the Desert Twilight Festival next Friday in Casa Grande.