The Millennium boys captured the Division II state championship ran Saturday at the Cave Creek Golf Course with 109 points over Flagstaff (121) and Casteel (128). The Tigers rose from 24th place in 2021 and 11th last year to win the first trophy in program history.

Millennium senior Alex Saldamando came in seventh place with a time of 16:58.2 and senior Quarton McLeese came in 15th (17:08.8) to give the Tigers a chance mathematically but seniors Benjamin Udall (28th place) and Carson Seeker (34th place) paced the team against the field with senior Ruben Saavedra taking 44th place locking down the victory ahead of Flagstaff by scoring ten less points than the fifth runner for the Eagles.

Flagstaff sophomore Alex Bland won the individual medal with a time of 16:30.9 over Nick Hiser of Buena (16:40.0) and Jack Bradley of Williams Field (16:40.6) in the first state championship race of his career. As a team, Flagstaff has six state championships, including five in a row from 2015 to 2019, but Bland is the first individual champion for the Eagles.

On the girl’s side, Desert Mountain scored 100 points to beat Flagstaff (117) and Ironwood Ridge (142) to win the first team championship in program history after taking second place to Flagstaff last year.

Desert Mountain seniors Kaia LaHann (20:20.9) and Haley Wilkinson (20:21.9) took sixth and seventh to give the Wolves a realistic shot at the championship. Freshman Sylvia Harding and sophomore Lyla Yango took 26th and 27th respectively and then senior Ella Larsen closed the door by coming in 39th.

Individually, Millennium senior Landen LeBlond won the medal with a time of 18:46.2. Campo Verde senior Clara Jones took second (19:42.6) and Flagstaff junior Olivia Baker took third (19:55.9). LeBlond is headed to Oregon to compete for the Ducks next year and she leaves Arizona as one of the fastest runners in state history. She was the first state champion for Millennium.