Cibola sweeps region meet

Yuma High's Gabe Torregrosa finished ahead of Cibola's Ryan Norton in two of the three previous cross country races they competed in head-to-head.

Norton got the best of Torregrosa and evened the score Thursday with the 5A Gila Valley Region title up for grabs.

Norton crossed the finish line at 16 minutes, 20 seconds — four seconds ahead of his Yuma High rival — to win the individual title and help the Cibola boys win the team championship with 28 points to Yuma High's 48.

Kofa came in third with 70, Gila Ridge scored 91 and San Luis did not field a complete team.

"Gabe is tough. He did a lot of that work up front," Cibola coach Kris Norton said. "Ryan knew he had to be wise on that front end and be careful. I told him if he felt good that second half and he wanted to push it, then go ahead, we have to get ready for state.

"We would have been content with second, but wanted to hope for the best, and I told him to go for it if it was there."

Torregrosa started out in front and led for most of the race. Norton, who hasn't raced since battling illness last week, turned on the speed later in the race.

"It was mostly just staying on his butt and not giving him any slack," Ryan Norton said. "If he tried to surge and get away from me, I had to go with him."

The top five boys — Norton, Torregrosa, Kofa's Ricardo Valdez, Cibola's Alan Fernandez and Gila Ridge's Josh Segura — all ran under 17 minutes.

"I think (Torregrosa and Norton) are going to be up there at state. Both of them are running really good times," Yuma coach Tim Schwehr said.

"These are incredible times. For a Yuma region to be putting out five runners below 17, that's really good."

In the girls race, as expected Kofa's Stephanie Ledgerwood cruised to an easy victory in 19:13, which was 2:12 ahead of second-place finisher Alyssa Segura of Gila Ridge.

"She ran pretty good, 19:13 flat," Kofa coach Charlie Splawn said. "She didn't face any competition, but we're happy with what she did."

In the team portion of the race, the Cibola girls had a strong pack finish fourth through seventh — Michelle Soto, Lety Gonzalez, Michelle Madsen and Zuzy Gonzalez — to help the Raiders knock off two-time defending region champion Kofa.

Cibola edged the Kings with 36 points to Kofa's 42. Gila Ridge took third with 64, and Yuma finished fourth with 74 points. San Luis did not have a complete team.

"Kofa was definitely favored coming into this, and when you're led by one of the top runners in the state (Ledgerwood), that usually translates to a pretty strong squad, too, because they train with her," Kris Norton said. "I thought we had better depth in the No. 4 or No. 5 position, where that last scoring runner is, but this definitely gets into the upset range for us."

It's the first time this year a Yuma County school has beaten the Kofa girls when it had its full team in place.

"We didn't come to run today," Splawn said. "We had a few girls who did and we had some who didn't, and when that happens you can get beat on any given day. We'll reload, and next week at state we'll see what we can do to redeem ourselves."

In the boys race, all five of Cibola's top runners placed in the top 11.

Fernando Garcia paced the San Luis boys with a seventh-place finish. Kofa's Amaris Pauly took third in the girls race.

All five Gila Valley Region teams now turn their attention to the 5A Division II state meet on Nov. 8.