Greenway Cross Country

At the recent State Cross Country Meet, soph Kelsey Turley closed fast to earn her first State Meet medal. The Lady Demons placed 15th out of 30 teams with Lillie Dyer and Bailey Jefferson leading the pack behind Kelsey.
The Boy’s team wanted a little higher but managed an “acceptable goal” Top Ten finish. Edgar Gomez and Dylan Marquez led the Boy’s team along with some excellent races from Nico Racite and Martin Mac.
Congratulations to both teams on finishing very fine seasons.
The Boys captured the Peaks Invitational (Ascent div), placed runner-up at Desert Twilight (out of 90 teams in the small school division), won the Boulder Creek Mid-Week Invite, placed third at Fountain Hills and finished a very closed second in Sectionals to powerhouse, ALA West Foothills.
The Lady Demons convincingly took back the District Jamboree trophy, qualified for State at Sectionals without their top runner, also won the Boulder Creek Mid-Week Invite, placed 9th at Fountain Hills and won seven medals at the big invite in San Diego.
Individual highlights included soph Kelsey Turley winning a State Meet medal, three runners each placing 6th in the prestigious ASICS/Sun Devil Meet (Kelsey Turley, Edgar Gomez, Dylan Marquez), Nehemiah Llamas winning the Boulder Creek Mid-Week Invite, Bailey Jefferson winning the Frosh District Championships, Edgar Gomez & Nehemiah Llamas earning first team All Section honors and Dylan Marquez, Lillie Dyer and Nico Racite taking second team honors. And both Kelsey and Edgar ran races fast enough to make Greenway's Top Ten All Time 5K Times.

Cross Country Advances to State
Last week at Sectionals, both our Boys and Girl’s teams "punched their ticket" to the State Meet this Saturday.
The boys ran their best race of the year and gave the #2 team in Div III state, ALA Foothills, a run but ended up a close second. The Demons placed five runners in the top 15 with Edgar Gomez (3rd), Nehemiah Lamas (7th), Dylan Marquez (8th), Nico Racite (14th), Martin Mac (15th), David Perez (58th) and Nick Dominguez (59th).
The Lady Demons were without #1 runner, Kelsey Turley, but rose to the occasion to also qualify with their 5th place finish. Lillie Dyer (13th) paced the “up and coming” girls followed by strong performances from Bailey Jefferson (24th), Valeria Garnica (29th), Korina Rivera (33th), Essence Maxey (34th), Aubry Campbell-Perez (39th) and Amelia Chander (66th)
The following received AIA medals and All Section Honors: 1st Team All Section (Edgar Gomez, Nehemiah Llamas), 2nd Team All Section (Lillie Dyer, Dylan Marquez, Nico Racite). The State Meet is at Cave Creek Golf Course. Div III Girls run at 8:55 am while the Div III boys race at 9:45.

Congratulations to our Lady Demon Cross Country Team for winning the Glendale District Jamboree last week. Led by Kelsey Turley, Lillie Dyer and Bailey Jefferson’s 3-4-5 finishing places, the girls won convincingly. Rounding out the girl’s top scorers included Valeria Garnica, Essence Maxey, Korina Rivera and Aubry Campbell-Perez.
The Boys ran into some adversity but placed five runners in the top 15 and managed a close 3rd. Edgar Gomez (3rd) paced the Demon front-five medalists of Nemo Llamas, Dylan Marquez, Martin Mac and Nico Racite.
In the Girl’s Open Division, Amelia Chandler finished runner-up followed by medalists Cimya Austin, Madison Perez and Ann Breshanaj.
The Boy’s Open Division runners were paced by medalists Nick Dominguez, Chris Ruiz, frosh Zane Baiardi, Eric Salazar and Sergio Lopez.

Proud Day! The first picture was taken in 2023 of Emanuel Simiyu, Alexavier Martinez and Tabian Baily at Mt Carmel Invitational in San Diego. Emanuel won the senior race that day as did Alexavier winning the junior race.

Last Friday, all three qualified for the National Community College Championships on Nov 8 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Emmanuel runs for Central Arizona and was their 3rd finisher, Alexavier is PVCC's #2 runner and Tabian was Glendale's top runner. Coach Walker (who was Greenway's Region XC Champ in 2011) ran on PVCC's National Championship team in 2012 while Coach Giddings led GCC's National Championship team in 1967.

Congratulations to our Boys and Girl’s Cross Country teams for BOTH winning the Boulder Creek Mid-Week Invitational against over 20 teams from the valley. While there are some very fast courses in the state that yield quick times, the Demons hadn't encountered that until Wednesday. Racing on a challenging yet very fast 5K course, many of the runners raced to personal best times.

Senior Nehemiah Llamas captured first place against 200 runners with Dylan Marquez placing runner-up. Nico Racite, Martin Mac and Edgar Gomez rounded out the 9th, 10th, and 11th places to ice the meet against Washington.

Our Lady Demons proved "they are a force to reckon with" as they won by 30 points with Kelsey Turley placing 3rd and Lillie Dyer and Bailey Jefferson rounding out the top ten. Fast closing Korina Rivera, Valeria Garnica, Aubry Campbell-Perez and Essence Maxey made the difference.

On Wednesday we run in the District Jamboree which will be held at Glendale Heroes Regional Park,

Before San Diego, our Cross Country team competed in the Desert Twilight Meet under the lights on a golf course. It was the largest meet “ever” held in Arizona with over 6000 runners from 300 schools representing 10 states.

Our boys varsity placed an "award winning" 2nd place in the small school varsity division against 90 teams on the starting line.
Led by medal winners Edgar Gomez and Dylan Marquez and some quick 17 minute times from Nemo Llamas and Nico Racite, the boys finished just behind Tucson powerhouse Salpointe.

The Lady Demons all had personal bests to run their best race of the year to place 15th against over 50 teams. Medalist Kelsey Turley and Lillie Dyer again led the girls with Bailey Jefferson, Korina Rivera, and Aubrey Campbell-Perez rounding out the top five scoring.

Both senior Edgar Gomez (16:28) and soph Kelsey Turley’s (20:08) times broke into Greenway’s top ten all time 5K best times since 2000.

Congratulations to our Varsity Cross Country teams for a very successful weekend in San Diego.

Competing in the very competitive 45th Annual Sun Devil/Mt. Carmel Invitational in “age group races –(sr, jr, so, fr)” , the Girls earned seven medals (Dyer (25), Garnica (39), Rivera (17), Campbell-Perez (26), Turley (6), Maxey (34), Jefferson (12) and the Boys raced to five (Gomez (6), Llamas (19), Marquez (6), Mac (15), Racite (11).

“Six” was the magic number as we had three Demons place an outstanding 6th in their respective races--Soph Kelsey Turley, Senior Edgar Gomez and Junior Dylan Marquez. While some of our new runners experienced the infamous Mt Carmel “hill” for the first time, many of the veterans improved their times from last year.

Highlights of the trip included our traditional Friday night pizza dinner, roller coaster rides and a walk around Belmont Park. After the meet, the athletes spent time at the ocean including a major volleyball game, shopping and dinner at Fashion Valley Mall, a delicious shake at Shake Shack and some challenging games of concentration at the hotel.

On Saturday, the Demons returned to the scenic Fountain Hills Invitational against teams from all over the state. Many runners significantly improved their times from last year and all four of our squads performed very well. The Varsity Boys again continued their high placing with an excellent 3rd place finish. We had four medalists (Edgar Gomez (8th), Nemo Llamas (13th), Dylan Marquez (14th), and Martin Mac (30th). Soph Nico Racite broke into the 19’s with a very fine 18:47 clocking while Senior David Perez broke into the 20:00 min barrier with a 20:27.

Once again medalists Kelsey Turley (15th) and Lillie Dyer (22nd) paced our Lady Demons to another quality top ten finish. Rounding out the top five scoring positions were Valeria Garnica (72nd), Korina Rivera (78th) and Aubry Campbell-Perez (79th). Of all the runners on the team, Valeria Garnica had the biggest drop from last year with 4 min 3 second improvement.

Our JV Boys finished very well in third place led by medal winner, Christopher Ruiz (14th), freshman Zane Baiardi (18th) and Sergio Lopez (19th).

In the Girl’s JV Division, Frosh Bailey Jefferson ran an incredible race to earn the 4th place medal and lead the younger girls to a 6th place finish with Essence Maxey (34th) and Cimyah Austin (48th) the next two Demons.

Significant time drops from last year for each division
Var: Racite (2 min 49 sec), Llamas (1 min 15 sec), Garnica (4 min 3 sec), Rivera (1 min 54 sec)
JV: Nguyen (2 min 29 sec), Eylicio (2 min 22 sec), Nordstrom (2 min 21 sec), M Perez (1 min 40 sec)

Well done Cross Country.

Last Friday morning our Varsity and JV Cross Country teams competed in the Western Equinox Invite in Gilbert against teams from all over the state.

Congratulations to Edgar Gomez (8th), Nehemiah Llamas (12th) and Dylan Marquez (17th) for their medal winning performances in leading our Boy’s Varsity to an outstanding 3rd place out of 40 teams in their Division. Rounding out the top six included Martin Mac (33th) and Nico Racite (70th) and Ezra Stemmons (71st)
Medalist Kelsey Turley (18th) ran a personal best followed closely by Lillie Dyer (22nd) Valeria Garnica (83rd) and Korina Rivera (104th) to lead the Varsity Girls to 9th place in their division out of 25 teams.

Biley Jefferson (39th) and Essence Maxey (64th) paced the young JV girls to an 11th place finish while Chris Ruiz (61st) and Sergio Lopez (72nd) were the top Demon boys in the Open Division.
After a quick bite to eat, the runners made it back for their afternoon classes.

Our traditional trip to the Peaks Invitational in cool Flagstaff was another success. Runners enjoyed the cooler weather, scenic course and some after meet activities on NAU’s practice field.

Congratulations to our Boys’ Varsity for winning the Ascent Division against 21 teams. While medalists Nehemiah Llamas, Edgar Gomez and Dylan Marquez paced the 1st place Demons, Nico Racite and Ezra Stemmons iced the Boy's win. Medalist Kelsey Turley (7th) and senior Lillie Dyer led the Lady Demons to a 9th place finish.

Frosh Zane Baiardi ran a medal winning 7th place to lead the Novice Boys to a 6th place finish. Frosh Bailey Jefferson was our top girl finisher in the Novice Division.

While Senior Chris Ruiz and Nick Dominguez paced the Open Boy’s to a 20th place finish, the boys would have placed considerably higher. One of our top runners, Junior Eryx Salazar, stopped earlier in the race to help a competitor who went down and needed assistance. While Eryx eventually finished, his place was much higher than normal but he did the right thing putting compassion over placement.

Congratulations to all the Demons who finished the demanding, hilly course at 7000 ft with personal bests or big improvements.

Still Making Greenway Proud! In a recent article in the Arizona Republic and AZCentral.com, Jeff Cannada (1984 grad) was honored to be in the top 20 high school boys track and field athletes in state history. Arizona Republic, Sunday, July 13, 2025 and https://www.azcentral.com/sports/high-schools/
The sport of track and field has a rich and long history in Arizona.
From Dallas Long wowing Phoenix crowds with his throwing exploits in the late 1950s and teenage sprinter Dwayne Evans medaling in the 1976 Olympics just after graduating high school, to Tolleson pole vaulter Nick Hysong capturing gold in Sydney in 2000 and a young hurdler from Gilbert smashing a national high school record just last year, the legacy of the sport runs deep in the state as it continues to build.

The Arizona Republic has compiled a list of the top 20 high school boys track and field athletes in state history. This list was based on a number of factors: (1) high school success, (2) NCAA/college success and (3) professional/Olympic success.
Top 20 all-time Arizona boys high school track and field athletes
17. Jeff Cannada, Phoenix Greenway, distance, 1984
A legendary distance runner in the 1980s, he was the first boy from Arizona to crack the 9:00 barrier in the 3,200 and was the nation’s top miler. Cannada ran 4:06.44 in the 1,600 and 8:50.24 for the 3,200 while in high school, both state records at the time. Cannada became a three-time All-American at Arizona and the University of Texas and ended his career with bests of 13:44.34 in the 5,000 and 28:35.20 in the 10,000.

Yesterday we had four Demon runners and Coach Mrozinski continue the long-time tradition of running in the ARR 4th of July Four miler. Congratulations to Martin Mac for his 4th place finish in the 14-17 age group AND an incredible 14 minute improvement from last year. The other three boys (Nico Racite, Sergio Lopez, and Eryx Salazar were running this for the first time and did well on the longer distance. Of course, they enjoyed the post-race hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and watermelon.