The Page High School boys’ cross country team is setting the stage once again for a season of dominance.
Fresh on the hunt for their fourth 3A State Championship title in a row, the Sand Devils secured a first-place finish at the Larry Burgess Invitational in Las Vegas last weekend. Page competed against numerous higher division Nevada schools, but still came out victorious due to impressive performances from its top three runners.
Bowen Martin, a Page High junior from a long family lineage of talented Page runners, took second place in the 5k race of 148 total athletes. With a time of 15:14, he was 17 seconds behind Cedar City’s Jensen Lambert.
Senior Dorian Daw took 6th place at 15:46, and junior Morgan Fowler snagged a 15th place finish on a time of 16:11.
Running a flatter, speedier and lower elevation course than the Sand Devils are accustomed to in the regular season, head coach MacArthur Lane said his team was able to take full advantage of the favorable conditions in Las Vegas. Cool weather in an often sweltering Nevada gave some much needed reprieve, too, he added.
Senior and Page’s fourth man Jacob Secody ran for a personal record at the meet with a time of 16:32. Junior Kaipo Uejo rounded out the five-man squad, crossing the finish line in 17 minutes and 21 seconds.
Despite the first-place finish, Lane said he believes the boys could have posted even better times if it wasn’t for a case of unfortunate scheduling. According to the coach, the start of the race coincided with another race for smaller schools, resulting in upwards of 40 teams all beginning at the same starting line.
Consequently, the opening leg of the run was crowded, and lost the Sand Devils precious seconds — making Secody’s new personal record all the more promising for future team performances.

Lane sounded confident when asked how the rest of the season looked for the boys’ team. The times ran in Las Vegas are already showing clear dominance over division rivals Ganado, Saguaro, Chinle and Tuba.
“Looking at [our competition’s] scores, we’re already outpacing them by a pretty big margin,” he said. “We have such a dedicated and talented front three runners and I think things are looking really good. We can’t get complacent and need to  keep pushing.”
Lane gave one caveat, however, noting that the boys will need to shore up the fourth and fifth man positions a bit in the coming months if they want to all but assure another state title. He said he’s confident Uejo and Secody will continue to improve throughout the season.  
Meanwhile, the Lady Sand Devils are showing signs of improvement in what is shaping up to be a rebuilding phase for the team this year.
Placing 9th at the Larry Burgess Invitational, the girls posted markedly improved times compared to a middle-of-the-road performance at the Peak Invitational in Flagstaff earlier this month. Their scores in Las Vegas were as follows:
(Senior) Victoria Tenpenny – 19:53
(Junior) Kodi Tate – 20:24
(Junior) Sofia Bryan – 20:34
(Junior) Mikala Benally – 21:31
(Junior) Nariah Begay – 21:57
“We’re getting there,” Lane said. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
After securing two state titles alongside the boys in 2014 and 2015, the girls missed the threepeat last year after taking fifth place in the Arizona Division III State Championships.
Losing Mariah Yazzie, the Lady Sand Devils’ number one runner last season to graduation in May, Lane said the current top three runners will need to continue to improve with each race if they want to take their spot back at the podium this year. An appetite for victory, he added, will be tantamount.
Perhaps most promising for the girls’ squad is a handful of young up-and-comers fresh from Page Middle School. Young bloods Nadya Begay and Nahaniya Fowler surprised both Lane and teammates when they placed first and third respectively in a shorter course for non-varsity runners during the Peaks Invitational.
Lane said he sees great promise in the two frosh and hopes to run them at varsity level later in the year.