Arizona Champion Goes Wire-to-Wire To Win Girls Regional Title; McMullin Edges Echohawk; Cheyenne Mountain Boys, American Fork Girls Claim Team Titles

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Lauren Ping made good on her desire to win the Nike Cross Southwest regional in her home state, which returned after a year's absence Saturday at Shalimar County Club in Tempe, Ariz. 

Ping put herself out front early and was in command throughout the girls championship race, covering a 5-kilometer course that she had never seen before in 17 minutes, 15.3 seconds. 

The junior from Ahwatukee (Desert Vista AZ) was coming back to racing just a week after winning the Arizona Division 1 cross country title for the third year in a row. 

RACE VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

"The end goal was to come out here and win," Ping said. "It's something I've never done before."

Ping was sixth in the NXR Southwest race as a freshman and also third in the NXR Heartland race (eighth grade) and fourth in the same race as a seventh grader.

The reigning regional champion from 2019, Riley Stewart of Englewood, Colo. (Cherry Creek) did not enter this year's NXR Southwest. 

American Fork XC of Utah, the Class 6A team champion, scored 98 points to secure the team championship. 

"Today was hard for a lot of us, but it's really great to know that we did it," American Fork's Hazel Baird said. "It's aweseome to know we are all fighting for the same thing."

The boys race turned into a rematch of the Utah Class 5A final as unattached runners Jefferson McMullin of Lehi and Tayson Echohawk of Orem battled to the finish, trading the lead several times over the final 600 meters before McMullin pulled it out by less than a second. McMullin ran 14:47.3 and Echohawk was right behind him in 14:47.6.

New Mexico champion Rendon Kuykendall was third in 15:01.0.

The second-best boys team in the U.S., Cheyenne Mountain XC of Colorado, beat Farm-Town of Utah, 53-81 for the championship. 

Erik Le Roux was fifth overall and Knox Exton was eighth to lead the Colorado 4A champions to the regional victory. The team's five scorers split 32 seconds on Le Roux's finish in 15:04.0.

Farm-Town, representing Utah 6A champion Farmington, was led by Isaac Halverson's ninth place overall finish (15:12.4). 

American Fork XC was third with 178 points.