The sound of footsteps can be heavy and deafening especially in a sport like cross country.

Whether they are right behind a runner, attached to a familiar family name or just traditionally always near, how fast a competitor can distance themselves or embrace the challenge the better times seemingly become.

The Division IV State Cross Country meet at Cave Creek Golf Course on Saturday and its challenging 3.1-mile course was a good example.

It starts with girls champion Jamine Hall of BASIS Flagstaff, followed by the boys team champion Glendale Prep along with boys individual champ Valley Lutheran’s Ben Bennally and even touches the girls team champion North Phoenix Prep.

The first one and probably the most difficult was Glendale Prep’s second straight boys title. A returning champion always has someone chasing them.

There’s the pressure of matching the success. There is the focus of every team that feels like it can unseat them, and then there are the very large and heavy steps of the Hopi cross country program, which won a national record 27 straight titles before it can to an end in 2016.

“It’s so satisfying, and I am proud of the job that they did,” Glendale Prep coach Eric Webdale said. “In our two head to heads (Hopi) beat us both times (this season). We looked good in the rankings, but they actually got us. I don’t know if we didn’t race as well (in the other meets) because this was their goal.”

Glendale Prep won it with 34 points, while Hopi came in at 47 followed by Round Valley (173), Pinon (181) and Arizona Lutheran (227) to round out the top five.

Glendale was led by Daniel Anderson and Luke Webdale as they finished third and fourth overall and Logan Hartman was eighth, and James Reamer came in 11th. Tanner Janssen managed to finish 16th as the fifth runner compared to Hopi’s fifth runner coming in at 19th.

Anderson and Webdale pushed each other Saturday to make sure they set the tone and didn’t let Hopi’s traditional fast first mile bother them.

“We tried to stay together as much as we could,” said Anderson, who finished with a time of 16 minutes, and 45.6 seconds. “We were definitely aware of (Hopi). In the beginning all five were ahead of us so we just kept our eye on them and stay with them.

“(Finishing behind them previously) definitely motivated us. We had to fight for it, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”    

Bennally made winning his second DIV individual title look easy. As he came down the stretch all by himself, he waved his arms to get the crowd to cheer louder, and it resulted in an extra kick for the winning time of 16:11.3, which was 27 seconds better than St. Michael Indian’s Evans Tracy.

“Going into this race I just wanted to leave it all out there,” said Bennally, who thanked his dad and coach who he has been running with since he was in the third grade. “(Pumping up the crowd) gave me that little extra boost.”

On the girls side, Hall has that name recognition attached to her. Many athletes have to deal with the past success of family members. Those who came before them can set an expectation on name alone.

The Halls of Flagstaffs have some racing lineage. Jasmine’s adopted parents – Jeff and Sara Hall – are accomplished marathon runners as Sara ranked in the top five time in American history and Ryan held the American record for the half marathon from 2007 to 2005 with a sub 2:05 marathon time.

For Jasmine? She did it for fun, and never really thought about winning a state title until sectionals this year. She never let the fact that the accomplishments around her, including a state title by her sister Hana and Mia before her, weigh on her.

Jasmine Hall won the Division IV girls state title after clearing her mind of negativity. (Jason P. Skoda, AzPreps365)

“I had to stop thinking about what if I don’t run fast or place high,” Jasmine said. “I decided it doesn’t matter what place I get, just go have fun.”

It led to the winning time of 19:45.4 almost a full 15 seconds ahead of Phoenix Country Day’s Emerson Butler. Not bad for a competitor who said the thought of winning the state title never crossed her mind until the qualifying sectionals.

“I didn’t really feel any of the pressure of winning or because of my family,” she said. “I’ve only been running for two years, and I did it just for fun. I try not to think about that. I can only do what I can do. I didn’t really think about winning a state title or anything last year. At sectionals, I started to think about it a little bit.”

 

The North Phoenix Prep girls squeaked past Veritas Prep just two spots as the Gladiators finished with 98 and Veritas had 100. Country Day (117) was third with BASIS Flagstaff (127) and Hopi (130) rounding out the top five.

Aslyn Lindsay led North Phoenix Prep by finishing 11th, while Leah Morozowich was 13th, Elena Johnson was 15th, Serenity Duran was 33rd and Serena Dupps was 38th. Veritas’ top three was a little more spread out as its third runner came in at 22nd.

“This was a two-year plan that turned into a four-year plan,” Gladiator coach Brad Curtis said. “The girls pushed through and ran their best race this year. We’ve had a core group and added a couple of freshmen. This is the best squad we’ve had, and it was our first time with this lineup today.”

Morozowich is a three-time national champion in cycling and has parents who are accomplished in the running world with mom a state champion in DI in Michigan and dad competed in the decathlon in college.

“The two sports translate well,” said Morozowich, who won a national title in October. “They work seamlessly together really well with the speed work. Mom helps with the running part and obviously may dad with the cycling.”

Morozowich is a home-schooled student who chose North Phoenix Prep to attend because she wanted to be part of a successful program.

“It’s good to be part of a team, especially one like this one,” she said. “When we get together, we push each other, and it makes us better.”