Prairie Dog XC Invitational: Dust, Grit, and One Honest Hill

SAGEBRUSH FLATS COURSE— Caliche High hosted eight schools Saturday for the annual Prairie Dog Classic, a 5K that begins polite and finishes with opinions. Meet director Coach Marmot—sunglasses, stopwatch, heart full of mulch—promised “a fair course,” which here means everybody suffers the same hill.

Top finisher for the boys, sophomore Finn Fox, closed with a kick that made the Coyote faithful forget their cinnamon rolls. Mesquite Prep’s Elena Egret took the girls’ race after a mid-pack surge your columnist would call illegal if it weren’t so beautiful.

Volunteers from the FFA watered the chute with mist bottles and encouragement; the medical tent treated one cramp, three goose bumps, and an overheated smartphone. T-shirts sold out before the JV boys started—commerce, like cross-country, rewards the early brave.