Page boys sweep Division III state crowns: Senior Symond Martin dominates field

PHOENIX

It was bound to happen.

After a pair of individual state runner-up finishes, Page senior Symond Martin is going away as a state champion.

The Sand Devil harrier netted his first state cross country crown on Saturday morning after beating out 235 other runners for the Arizona Interscholastic Association Division III title.

Martin cruised to an easy win by covering the 5K state course in 15:27.7 at Cave Creek Golf Course in north Phoenix.

“Every year, I always got outkicked the last half-mile, so this year it felt good to dominate everybody,” said Martin, who is set to run in Saturday’s national meet during the NXR Southwest Regional Championships, which will held at Toka Sticks Golf Club in Gilbert, Arizona.

“For this meet, I just kind of held back a little bit so that I can give everything I got for (this) week,” Martin said. “I’m feeling really confident and I’m gonna see if I can get a spot on the national team.”

At the Division III state meet, Martin helped his team to another first-place finish in the team standings with the Sand Devils garnering a low score of 43 points. Rio Rico came in a distant second at 110 points followed by ALA-West Foothills at 174.

The state title was Page’s fourth straight and 21st overall, which ties them with archrival Tuba City for the second best overall in Arizona behind Hopi, which has 27 state crowns.

“It feels great to be team state champs all four years,” Martin said. “With my team, we’re all dedicated, and we all wanted to win. We trained like wanted it and we raced like we wanted.”

When asked if he had a chance to figure out which crown he savors the most, Martin says it’s the team title.

“The individual title is great, but I feel like the team title is just a little better because it’s all of us, it’s not one person,” Martin said.

To show their commitment to each other, Martin said the entire team decided to buzz-cut their hair for the state meet as Page finished with a pack time of 1:23 between its first to fifth runner. The scoring members include a third-place finish from junior Nyall Prather (15:48.9), a 10th-place effort from freshman Max Martin (16:13.0), a 19th-place showing from senior Maximus Reid and 22nd finish from senior Desmond Goldtooth (16:50.7). The non-scoring individuals for Page include Jaiden Jordan (27th, 16:48.0) and Justin Rivers (34th, 17:06.4).

“They all stepped up, and they ran well,” said Page coach Tim Martin, who was hoping to get all seven runners in the top 21.

“Like I’ve said, the competition these days is on another level,” he said. “Again, to get seven guys in that top 21 is difficult and that’s why it hardly happens but everybody stepped up.”

The elder Martin said his son ran at a “tempo pace” in preparation for the NXR race this week while Prather ran an exceptional race.

“Symond had a controlled win and Nyall’s crushed it,” Tim Martin said. “My other son, Max, ran down two guys at the end to get 10th place as a freshman. He’s probably going to get the fastest freshman time by a lot.

“Maximus struggled a little bit, but he held strong, and he got all-state,” the Page coach added. “Desmond stepped up, and he was one position from being all-state. The rest of the team were in the 20s and 30s and if you compare this to other years this is one the best we’ve ever finished.”

Prather said he felt “really good” with his performance.

“Last season, I got 20th place here, so it was a big improvement,” Prather said. “I came in ranked No. 3, but I had an ankle injury this past week so I couldn’t train as hard as I wanted to.”

The Page harrier admitted to some early nerves, but he calmed down as that led to a good pace in the first mile.

“I came out five minutes flat and I just felt OK,” Prather said. “By the second mile, I settled in and when we got to two-and-half miles in I really pushed it, and I caught a few people coming in.”

Of the latest state crowns, Prather has been involved with three of them. He expressed the importance of continuing their streak of state championship wins.

“It means a lot,” Prather said. “We want to continue our streak of dominance and we’re trying to inspire the younger generation to keep it going, so that they could do the same.”

 

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