It wasn't a gigantic field, but that didn't matter as most of the teams entered Saturday in the annual King of the Mountain Invitational  were interested in getting their individual bearings set for 2018.

The standouts in the main races of the day were familiar faces from last year -- Highland's Leo Daschbach and Caroline McLeskey.

Daschbach, a junior, is the defending Division I individual champion. He covered the 5K course (about 25 meters shy of that distance) in 16 minutes, 7 seconds. That was 34 seconds faster than runner-up Hunter Krasa of Mountain Ridge.

"I wasn't looking for a time today, just to place as high as possible," Daschbach, who also served as a greeter to other finishers of his race and presenter of medals to the varsity girls among his tasks for the day, said. "I started out running with the pack. About the 1.5 mark I was running close to the leader. I wanted to make my move by the 2-mile mark and that's what I did."

Daschbach was somewhat of a surprise winner last year as a sophomore. There will be no surprising this year.

"I might be a little more nervous this year because of that" he said. At the same time I want to repeat. I was satisfied with how I ran today."

McCleskey, also a junior, was the D-I runner-up for girls last November. Her winning time Saturday was 18:33.

"I was running for place," McLeskey said. "We had a good time trial the other day, so I felt good about the race. I accomplished what I wanted to and had fun."

Highland, who was without head coach Mike Montgomery, took the top spot teamwise in most of the team races - freshman girls, open boys, open girls and varsity boys. They won the grand prize -- a crown and sceptor - for taking the combined title.

Highland coaches (seated in front with scepter and crown) take a bow with their team in victory celebration. (Azpreps365.com photo).

Montgomery flew back to Michigan to visit his mother. Highland athletic director Rod Huston said Montgomery told his teams " he loved them, but this was a priority at this time and he needed to be away."Assistant Robin Hagen was acting head coach for the Hawks.

"Just teaching and leading with a life lesson," Huston said. "The team totally understood."

Other race winners for the day: Freshman boys -- Desert Vista's Nolan Billetor (18:09); Freshman girls -- Red Mountain's Ariel Fendenheim ((20:50); Non-varsity boys -- Highland's Kade Saunders (17:34); Non-varsity girls - Red Mountain's Emma Elsner (21:11). 

24TH CHANDLER INVITATIONAL

Chandler's girls and Perrry's boys took team honors Saturday at the 24th Chandler Inviational at Tumbleweed Park. Scoring for the team title takes the top place finisher in each of the senior, junior, sophomore and freshman race and adds those scores.

Chandler senior Morgan Foster posted the best time for girls, covering the 5K course in 18 minutes, 28 seconds. Chandler's team total was 19 with Foster (1st), junior Brooke Eversden (4th), sophomore Sarah Plant (11th) and freshman Leonela Lizzaraga (3rd) comprising the Wolves' points. Faith Lutheran was second in team competition with 28 followed by Perry (40), Corona del Sol (51) and Desert Mountain (53). The other girls race winners were Glendale Prep junior Ani Durrell (19:36), Perry sophomore Kylie Miller (20:04) and Perry freshman Taylor Lovell (19:43).

The best time for the boys went to Sunrise Mountain junior Braedon Palmer by a hair. Palmer's time was 16:10.4. Campo Verde's Rylan Stubbs, the senior race winner, finished 16:10.6. Stubbs won the D-II title last year while Palmer finished sixth in that meet.

Perry did not take the top spot in any of the four class races, but managed to nab the team title with 34 points. The Pumas nipped runner-up Desert Mountain (35) and third-place Basha (41). Corona del Sol was fourth with 51 points. Perry's four scoring runners were senior Marcus Behling (9th), junior Jacob Stabler (8th), sophomore Austin Hutchings (9th) and freshman Sean Flynn (8th.

The other boys' race winners were Saguaro sophomore Ethan Rodriguez-Story (17:02) and Cactus' freshman Alex Murphy (18:28).