It was a day of sweeps at Saturday’s multi-region cross country meet held at Mesa Red Mountain Park.

Three schools earned both the boys and girls titles in the day’s four regional contests. Phoenix Desert Vista took home two titles in the Central Region, Gilbert Highland won the Fiesta Region crowns and Mesa Mountain View earned the East Valley championships.

The only split came in the Pima Region where Scottsdale Horizon won the boys meet and Tempe Marcos de Niza claimed the girls title.

As expected, the Central races were not decided until the fifth runners for each school — the final scoring participants — had crossed the finish line.

The four teams in the girls race were separated by 14 points with the Thunder edging Tempe Corona del Sol by three points (49-52). Phoenix Mountain Pointe finished third (54) and Chandler Basha was fourth (63).

Prior to all the runners finishing, Desert Vista trailed Corona by a point, but the Thunder’s fifth runner, Tamalyn Kalal, finished four places in front of Corona’s Tory Papp to give the Thunder the win.

“We had our girls take off their watches,” Thunder coach Doug Christofis said. “We wanted to concentrate on competing today. We don’t put too much emphasis on this meet, but we did a better job of competing.”

Mountain Pointe claimed the top two individuals places with Aubri Carman (17:51) and Natasa Vulic (18:30) finishing first and second, respectively.

The Thunder boys also trailed following the first three scoring runners but had enough in the end to hold off Mountain Pointe, 35-36.

Again the Pride had the top two individuals with Brady Alling winning in 15:56 and teammate Dan Wilson placing second in 16:00. Sean Barr paced Desert Vista with a third-place effort in 16:02.

“Hopefully we learn from this,” Desert Vista boys coach Chris Hanson said. “Maybe we got caught looking past this meet a little. You always want to learn from racing experience.”

Fiesta Region

Jason Anderton didn’t know what to expect following the girls race. The Highland girls coach was pleasantly surprised when he learned his team had snuck past Chandler Hamilton by two points (49-51) to win the region title.

“We said every runner was going to be important and it definitely was,” he said.

The Hawks won because three of its runners finished in the top eight, paced by Cassie DeSalvo’s runner-up performance.

Hamilton sophomore Taylor Cole won the meet in 19:08. “I was hoping for a top three, so this is a little surprising,” she said.

In the boys race, Highland’s Derek Breinholt turned in the day’s top performance, winning in 15:48. The Hawks finished with 34 points and Gilbert Mesquite was second with 41.

East Valley Region

Compared to the other region meets, Mountain View made it look easy in sweeping its races. The girls beat runner-up Mesa Red Mountain, 22-50, and the boys also beat the Lions, 28-45.

“You always want to protect your neighborhood,” Toros girls coach Kyle Sawyer said.

Cami Jackson led the Mountain View girls team with a winning time of 18:42.

“I was definitely going for the win. I was by myself for most of the race and I would rather have a pack with me,” Jackson said.

Mountain View teammates Hailey Hanna and Jennifer Larsen placed second and third, respectively.

In the boys meet, Red Mountain’s Tyler Ross claimed the individual title in 15:55.

“It wasn’t my best race, but to win region is always a goal and nice to get,” Ross said.

Pima Region

Samantha Meyerhoff paced the Marcos de Niza girls, winning the region title in 20:06. The Padres easily handled Phoenix Pinnacle for the team trophy as well (26-49).

“It is always a boost to win any meet,” Meyerhoff said. “I want to win every race or at least finish first for my team.”

Naomi Jimenez added a second-place finish for the Padres in 20:33.

Horizon teammates Jim Walmsley, last year’s 5A-II state runner-up, and Ben Jankunas coasted to first- and second-place finishes in the boys race.

Walmsley cruised to a time of 15:52 while Jankunas followed in 16:09. Horizon won the team title with 24 points, followed by Pinnacle (68).

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