Logan Stanley is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Red Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

GILBERT — While some of the state’s top distance runners headed west to California and made headlines at some of the nation’s most prestigious meets last weekend, Red Mountain junior Matthew Hamilton was at home watching them race while his team was on a scheduled break.

This week, Hamilton got to make a statement of his own at The Western Equinox XC Festival at Freestone Park in Gilbert, winning the big school varsity boys race on Saturday. Hamilton covered the 5,000-meter course in a time of 15 minutes, 53.5 seconds, outsprinting Highland junior Crewe Resendez for the victory. 

On the girls side, Red Mountain junior Selah Akers ran a season-best of 20:30.8 to finish in 23rd place. Akers paced the Mountain Lions to a fifth-place finish as a team.

For Hamilton, the win comes after he finished in second two weeks ago at the Fountain Hills Invitational. While Hamilton has won a race this season already at the Chandler Invitational, that race was divided by grades. This is Hamilton’s first victory against opponents outside of his class.

“Definitely a big confidence booster going into the later season,” Hamilton said. “I’m happy. My mindset changes a little bit. I know I can hang up there with the top dogs, and we’ll see where we go in the future.”

Last weekend was the Woodbridge Classic, as well as the Mt. Carmel/ASICS XC Invitational, in California, both which are prestigious meets. There, a total of four Arizona competitors came away with first-place medals — an impressive display for out-of-state athletes. 

Even with that in mind, Hamilton wasn’t trying to go out and prove himself to others. With the Mountain Lions in a period of their training block that has left Hamilton with not as much speed in his legs as usual, he was pleased to leave with the win. 

But while his top athlete won the race, boys coach Steven Selby felt there was something left on the course from Hamilton.

“It’s actually funny,” Selby said. “When he crossed the line, he was cheering with his folks. I walked up to him with a smile on my face and said, ‘You know what buddy, this is going to sound strange, but I think that was your worst race of the year.’ He didn’t have some of the big players to help push him today, like [Hamilton senior Andrew] Gibby and [senior] Martin Breinholt from Campo Verde.

“The Highland guys are tough. If you’re gonna run with a lead pack, and Highland has the pack that they do, it can be dangerous. Granted, he won. But I think he probably could have had a better finish. I’m really kind of disappointed with right around the two-and-a-half mile-mark, I was telling him to go and he didn’t go. A win’s a win, it’s nice. But I think in the long run, if Matthew is going to be the thing we think he’s going to be, he needs to learn to race out front, race by himself.”

As a team, Red Mountain finished in fourth place with 131 points on the boys side. The rest of the top five were senior Garrett Palmer (16:08.9, seventh place), junior Roman Smith (17:00.2, 25th place), senior William Bergman (17:11.9, 34th place) and senior Charles Spencer (18:16.2, 74th place).

Next week, Hamilton will get the chance to show his coach he can lead a front pack at the biggest cross-country meet of the year in Arizona — the Desert Twilight XC Festival. Hamilton is entered in the Boys Championship race, the second-highest tier of athletes at the meet. Athletes from 200 schools all over the nation are flying in to compete. Last year Hamilton’s former teammate, Elijah Davis, won the race. 

For the Red Mountain girls team, coach Brent Krieg had high praise. All season long, Krieg has made his runners focus on elements of courses – the grass, the turns, the elevation changes. The course at Freestone Park had each one of those, with dense grass, hairpin turns and rolling hills.

“That was a great day for us,” Krieg said. “Tons of lifetime and season PRs [personal records]. On a course like this, thick grass – it was a little wet for that varsity group. Given the conditions and the course, that’s great. And the hills – I love this course. It’s not state, but it’s got a lot of elements like state. Back there at about the 2 and quarter [mile mark], there’s that big dip. So we can talk about those elements, and be like, ‘Now you’ve run that. So, now when we get to state, that’s what it’s like.”

Despite the hilly nature of the course, Akers was nearly able to run an overall lifetime best in the 5,000-meters. Akers was only 24 seconds off her top time of 20:06.30, which was run at the Arizona Interscholastic Association Rose Mofford Sectional meet in November 2021.

It is the second time this season that Akers has run the fastest time on her team at a meet after she led Red Mountain in the season opener at the Chandler Invitational.

“It was a season best, so I feel really good about it, “Akers said. “I definitely started more conservative, just keep on moving forward as the race went on. It felt like a really good race. It was nice weather, it was good.”

As a team, the Mountain Lions finished in fifth place with 142 points. Rounding out the top five for Red Mountain was junior Blythe Brown (20:44.1, 26th place), senior Danna Martinez Porras (21:08.0, 32nd place), senior Alyssa Pooley (21:10.4, 34th place) and sophomore Ava Christensen (21:43.0, 45th place). 

Next week, Red Mountain travels to Mesa to compete in The Desert Twilight XC Festival at Coyote Run Golf Course on Friday. Races start at 4 p.m.