The Highland girls cross country team was already prepared to win another state title, but when the Hawks’ boys program pulled off an upset in the Division I team race it all but assured the girls team were going to make it a clean sweep.

“We were watching on our phones and when we saw they won we all came running over,” Highland’s senior Audra Huempfner said. “It was such good vibes because we didn’t know if that was going to happen.”

Few did think Highland had enough to surge past the presumptive champion Mountain Ridge, but the Hawks did to win their fifth title in program history and first since 2023, while the girls won their fifth straight and fifth overall.

The individual boys champ was Hamilton’s Zarian Rodriguez with a time of 15 minutes and 28.0 seconds to repeat as Division I champion at Cave Creek Golf Course on Saturday, besting Red Mountain’s Crew Comish by 27 seconds.

Basha's Taylor Drewry flashes three fingers in acknowledgement of her third state title. (Jason P. Skoda, AZPreps365)

On the girls side of things, Basha’s Taylor Drewry became third female runner to win three DI state titles since 2000 when she crossed the line with a time of 18:05.8, which was 26 seconds better than Huempfner.

“I was little reflective coming down the stretch,” Drewry said. “This was the last time on this course and there are so many teammates and people I’ve shared this with over the years.”

She admits she was essentially forced to run her freshman year by her parents, but Drewry came to love it over the years.

“I’ve learned so much,” Drewry said. “Freshman year was my first year running anywhere. I was just learning everything. Ups and downs everywhere. You can do anything you put your mind to. There might be some hardships but there will always be victories.”

The victories keep coming for the Hawks as they become just the third big school program to win at least five straight state titles, joining Xavier girls (2007-12) and Desert Vista boys (2014-18), in Arizona history.

“These kids push each other every day,” Highland girls coach Tara Hall said. “When the boys team won, we were like ‘Our turn.’ This was impressive for the girls because the season is so long. They held each other accountable on the daily at the 5 a.m. time.

“It’s just what we do. It’s the standard we set.”

Huempfner led the way Saturday to finish second in 18:31.5 with Natalia Morris next at fifth place in 18:54.6, Ella Bonnette was ninth at 19:02.6, while Camryn Delancy was 12th at 19:17.3 and Katelyn Anderson was 14th at 19:20.8.

The Hawks were easy winners with a score of 40 as Desert Vista was a distant second at 131 points. Xavier Prep was third at 146, Hamilton was fourth with 219 and Red Mountain fifth at 220.

The boys race was much closer as Highland totaled 91, Mountain Ridge had 117 with Basha (151), Desert Vista (185) and Mountain View (187) rounding out the top five.

The Hawks have been building toward this performance although it didn’t show up at the sectionals qualifier.

“We looked really good in practice for a while,” Highland coach Rick Carr said. “Really sharp, really tight. At the sectional, it didn’t quite click that day, so we made some little adjustments. We got them right. They knew they had to pass some bodies.

“The boys put the pieces together today. It was a good deal.”

The Hawks had three in the top 21 with junior Ethan Nielsen ninth with a time of 16:23.4, Brandon Delancy was 10th at 16:25.7 and Phineas Zlotoff was 21st after he was 25th at the 2-mile mark.

Sam Davis came in 26th and Brayden McLaughlin was 35th and Tristan Hibbs was 37th.

It was the first time Nielsen finished as the Hawks’ top man. He’s ran well at times, but there was something different on this afternoon.

“I felt like my team really needed me today,” he said. “I felt like I had to go all in and just do my best. After the concrete hill, I was like, ‘I am feeling good, and I am just going to do what I can to hold my position.’ ”