Putting down the hammer: Page boys wins 19th state cross country crown

PHOENIX – Of all the teams that he has brought to the state high school cross country meet, this one tops the cake.

The Page Sand Devils were not the prohibitive favorites to win this year’s Arizona Division III boys state crown, but they did anyway.

Behind a bevy of underclassmen, the Sand Devils put across five runners in the top 50 to win the boys 19th state cross country crown and the school’s 30th overall with the girls team winning 11.

“In my experience, this is probably the toughest and closest team that I’ve coached,” Sand Devils coach Tim Martin said. “I’ve come here with teams that are really good, but this team had to really put it out there to win and they did.”

Page finished with a team score of 126 points, ahead of American Leadership Academy-West Foothills (153) and American Leadership Academy-Queen Creek (158).

The Martin-coached team were ranked third behind those two ALA squads coming into the state meet but they had runners make significant gains after the first two miles on Saturday at the Cave Creek Golf Course in Phoenix.

“We had to run our absolute best race,” Page sophomore Symond Martin said. “All of our guys did really great in that last half-mile. They passed so many guys and we just pushed out in front, and we beat the two teams ahead of us.”

The younger Martin, son of Page head coach Tim Martin, led the Sand Devils as he came up just short for the individual crown, losing the state title to Seton Catholic’s Zach Albanese by 2.1 seconds.

Albanese covered the 5K race in 16:14.9 while Martin clocked in at 16:17.

“I came off the final rolling hill and I heard someone telling me that I could catch him,” Symond said. “I gave it everything I had, and I was so close to catching him.

“I almost had him, but I should have pushed a little sooner,” he added.

Tim said his son was really focused on winning a state title. For much of the race, he said Symond challenged Albanese, but the Seton Catholic runner got away from him in the back half.

“He was closing in on him, but he just couldn’t quite get him,” Tim said.

With his top finish, Symond landed on the all-state team, and he was joined by teammate Maximus Reid as the Page sophomore placed 15th overall with a time of 16:58.9.

“Maximus ran a great race,” the Page coach said. “He’s really come on in the last three weeks and we’re really proud of them. We said that he had to be close to 10 and he finished 15th.

“That was enough, so he did a great job,” Tim added.

The area also got a pair of runners that made the all-state team with Window Rock sophomore Bearren Kee finishing eighth overall and Chinle junior Emerson Begay garnering 19th place.

The Page coach was also pleased with the finish from his 3-4-5 runners with freshman Nyall Prather placing 26th, senior Elijah Reed garnered 41st and freshman Jaiden Jordan took 50th.

The Sand Devils also got an 80th place effort from freshman Alek Scott and a 224th effort from senior Bryce Williams.

“We’re super young,” Tim said. “Our only senior scorer was our fourth guy, so we’re going to be twice as strong next year. We got a couple of horses coming in from the middle school too.”

Page’s latest crown puts them two titles shy of tying 3A North rival Tuba City (21) second on the all-time list in Arizona. With 27 state titles, Hopi High School heads that department.

“Our kids have that mindset that if they’re on the team they’re going to win a state championship,” Tim said. “I think that is why these other teams can’t get over the hump because they’ve never done it.

“For us, we know we can do it and I think that makes a difference,” he added. “Whenever we come down here, we’re going to put it out there to win.”

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