MHS cross country runners still at front of pack

Qualls finds himself in familiar first-place position

By Don Qualls

On Sept. 28, Mammoth High School cross country team competed in the Bishop High Desert League dual meet, held in Bishop, Calif. High schools present were Bishop, Rosamond and Mammoth high schools; however, Mammoth runners could not be officially scored since they compete in a different league. Temperatures were blistering, near 100 degrees, a similar scenario to the Griffith Park Invitational that Rosamond and Mammoth had competed in three days earlier. Every runner, from freshmen to seniors, competed in one large race, and the girls ran with the boys, in part to avoid prolonged exposure to the extreme temperature. Approximately 50 runners competed in the race, which was a little more than three miles in length.

Mammoth brought eight members to compete: Hailey Hugelman, Philip Oxford, Jack Roten, Toby Qualls, Laurel Fiddler, Joel Romo, Alejandra Lemus and Roxanna Garcia.

Qualls, a sophomore who came in first at the Invitational the previous weekend, won the over all race, and finished with a winning time of 18:16, bringing him across the finish line 59 seconds ahead of the second place runner from Rosamond.

Fiddler, a sophomore and daughter of Olympic medalist Nancy Fiddler, proved she had the legs to go with her bulletproof lungs, and took second in the women’s race. Fiddler uses cross country running to cross train for her skiing, and this was her first real race this year. A Rosamond runner came in first in the women’s division, with a great time of 22:16, and Fiddler finished at 25:47 in second place.

The last top finisher in this race was Mammoth freshman Hugelman. Forced to run with the older girls, she held her own and finished as the third fastest girl, turning in a time of 26:33.