Chandler Arizona College Prep sophomore Eryca Fawkes was the first runner to cross the finish line at the Desert Twilight Cross-Country Festival’s Small School Varsity Girls race Thursday night at The Links in San Tan Valley.

There were no competitors or teammates in sight after Fawkes’ finish until a couple minutes later when most of ACP’s top seven runners won the team race, crossing the finish within three minutes of each other.

However, Fawkes technically didn’t individually win that race as she ran for 19 minutes, 49.5 seconds. 

The actual winner was Gilbert Christian’s Ryley Nelson, who Fawkes never actually  trailed on the course.

Nelson began trekking long after Fawkes, but Nelson led the race’s second wave of runners in the competition’s “wave starting” format — another nod to life amid a pandemic.

Nelson finished the race at 19:38.9, undercutting Fawkes’ time by 11 seconds.

“It’s definitely more motivating when there’s a person in front of me because I know that they’re in front of me and then I can pass them right up there. But with the waves starting, I’m not sure of their times so I have to race against myself basically,” Fawkes said.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association modified its format to wave starting for its cross-country event this season. It’s designed to assure some degree of social distancing, reducing the risk of participants contracting and spreading COVID-19.

“Most large invitationals have gathered what we call ‘wave starting,'” AIA cross-country tournament organizer David Shapiro said. “But it’s just like cross-country skiing — you can’t have all the cross-country skiiers, so you start them every couple of minutes or 30 seconds.”

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These races are won based on time only, not just crossing the finish line first,  which can differ from a runner’s training, in which leading a pack in full view can impact their response.

The modification was approved by the AIA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee in July as the association assessed whether a fall sports is lower, moderate or high risk for potentially contracting the coronavirus.

Runners are typically divided into four groups, or waves, with delayed start times among the second through fourth groups.

The times of the finishes are skewed according to a wave runner’s time from start to finish.

“It was something that we gave to SMAC as one of the modifications,” Shapiro said. “Back in June, I was talking to Clyde Resendiz, who does a lot of the time for meets, and we were talking about spreading out so we don’t have all the runners at the starting line. There’s two critical spots in a cross-country race: the start and the finish…The finish because you’ve got a lot of people falling down and they’re tired. The start because everyone’s jammed in.”

MORE: Arizona Republic’s Super 10 high school boys cross-country team rankings

Resendiz said that Links is developing something called time trial. The time trial is more or less cross-country (running) following cross-country skiing. You can plug in a start time, Runner A, B, C and D, then you flag in the next start time for the next six, seven or 50 (runners). When the last girl or boy comes across, it will then sort at one through last place.”

Instead of having 162 runners in the Desert Twilight’s Small School Varsity Race traditionally begin all together at the starting line, they were divided into four waves of about 40. There were four starting pistol blasts, not one. The second through fourth waves began their time trials two minutes after the previous wave was sent off.

“What you find out for an athlete, it’s a little bit different type of racing because with Eryca, she’s in first place and probably thinks, ‘I’m winning this thing, I’m gonna win,’ not knowing that somewhere maybe 30 people behind her, there’s someone who’s really going to have a faster time,” Shapiro said. “So, you can’t just rest on your laurels of ‘I’m in first place.’ You have to go all out because you’re racing the clock. In a normal race, everyone’s starting at the same time. It can be a disadvantage to some people.”

ACP head coach Amy Patrick knows that wave starting is abnormal for her runners. But her top seven’s tight average time spread of three minutes should help them against other teams trying to catch their wave.

“It’s tough with the different waves and not knowing exactly where you’re finishing, especially being in the top wave. As the season goes on, they’re starting to get closer and closer together and closer to the top.”

Have tips for us? Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 480-486-4721. Follow his Twitter @iam_DanaScott.

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