Here’s what we saw at the Southern Regional Championships…..Basic’s boys qualify for State for the 20^th straight year…..runners really competing, fighting for every place…..runners not allowing the windy conditions to affect their performance…..finding out that you can’t score the race until the last person finishes…..Ties in cross country DO happen….Centennial boys can still win without running 3 varsity runners….Green Valley’s streak of girls championships continues…barely…..Pat Swick wins his 3^rd Regional Championship…..Clark’s girls ran great…..Kelly Fernandez is one tough runner…..Faith Lutheran wins again and for the last time in 2A…..Boulder City HS knows how put on a great XC meet….Bill Garis, CCSD Director of Athletics is a cross country fan….and much, much more.  Here’s the details:

 

1A-2A Races

Boys – Faith Lutheran rolled with a 17 point total, placing their 7 in the top 9.  They go 1-2-3 with Brian Nestor, Trent Holthaus and Brian Joerger.   Nestor and Holthaus were also 1-2 in 2002.  Nestor’s 17:44 was a big improvement over his 18:21 in ‘02.  With only 24 finishers the team scores were quite low for everyone else.  Laughlin was 2^nd with 53 and were led by the 4^th place finish by Steve Hesch.  Trinity placed 3^rd and The Meadows placed 4^th.  Faith will move up to the 3A ranks in 2004

 

Girls – Faith Lutheran repeated with score of 21 points and were led by the 2-4 finish of Cassandra Murzl and Abby Uhrinak.  Faith placed 5 in the top 11.  The race winner was Diana Sitar from The Meadows as she avenged her 2002 loss to Cassandra. Diana ran 21:35 for a 22 second victory.   Claire Donely from The Meadows placed 3^rd.  Laughlin had the only other complete team and placed 2^nd with 35 points.  They were led by the 5^th place finish of Chynna Yates.

 

3A Races

Boys – Boulder City was a repeat winner and placed 5 in the top 10 for a score of 26 and an easy victory over Virgin Valley (45).  Cory Elder (17:37) and Chase Jones (18:01) went 1-2 for the Eagles.  Virgin Valley was led by the 3^rd place finish of Chris Moberley (18:42).  Pahrump Valley was a close 3^rd with 52 points and were led by the 5 place finish of Brian Wilson (19:15).

 

Girls – Boulder City and Courtney Saylors repeat as 3A champs.  BC scores 21 points for a 17 point win over Pahrump Valley.  Saylors’ time of 20:49 was better than her 21:02 in ’02.  Kaylee Mc Cullough placed 2^nd for the Eagles (21:25). Nikki Harris from Pahrump Valley placed 3^rd (22:07) and Moapa Valley’s Tenille Anderson was 4^th (22:16).  BC placed 6 in the top 10 with just 18 finishers.

 

4A Races

Sunrise

Boys – Basic came into the meet with a lot on the line and they didn’t disappoint.  The Wolves, behind the 2^nd place finish of Josh Sillitoe, not only won by 12 points but qualified for State for the 20^th straight year!!  Hats off to Coach Burgess and his team.  During a brief interview at the awards ceremony Coach credited his runners saying the “I didn’t run any of those races, the kids did”.  Well, those in the know, know better.  Larry Burgess, the dean of Nevada coaches, has a great program and he gets his kids ready for the important meets.  Congratulations Larry!!

Individually, Chaparral’s Patrick Swick made it 3 years in a row with his 16:43 victory, the fastest time of the day.  Guess Pat’s leg feels better now!  Basic placed their scoring 5 in the top 17 for the win over 2^nd place Silverado.  The Skyhawks were led by NTS’s pick as the most improved runner of the year, Nick Schenk.  Nick placed 5^th overall and teamed with fellow Skyhawk Raphael Rodriguez (6^th) for a much deserved team State birth.  Third went to Green Valley’s Beau Mc Dougall (17:25) and 4^th was Casey Campbell (17:31) from Basic.  The 3^rd place team was a bit of a surprise with Coronado beating Chaparral by a mere 3 points.  Coronado was led by Garron Combs (5^th -17:32).  With Basic and Silverado qualifying for state as a team the individual qualifiers were: Pat Swick, Beau Mc Dougall, Garron Combs, Jason Owen (Foothill 10^th 18:04) and Mike Hartwell (VoTech 11^th 18:06).

 

Girls – What a team race!!  The results came right down to the last finisher.  Here’s what I mean.  After Green Valley and Foothill had their 7 girls across the line, we scored the race and saw that Foothill beat Green Valley by 1 point.  Foothill had finally done it.  They beat Green Valley ending their streak of Regional Championships.  Foothill had their first Regional Championship in any sport.  Foothill was excited (including myself as a former Foothill coach) and GV was disappointed.  But wait, the race wasn’t over.  We failed to remember that Chaparral, with 2 runners in before Foothill’s 5^th and 1 runner in before GV’s fifth, did not have a complete team, so their runners, Jannelle Sanchez (11^th) and Capri Knox (17^th) did not have their places figured in the team score.  Also, Eldorado did not have a complete team, so Jodi Chee’s 22^nd place would not count as well.  After all of that the score came out 42 Foothill, 42 Green Valley.  Going to the 6^th runner tie-breaker, Green Valley’s Samantha Aziviru 14^th beat Foothill’s Jennifer Vincelette’s 25^th.  Green Valley wins.  Incomplete teams in the 4A do not have the luxury of the Ghost Runner rule as they do in the 1A-2A.  If there was, Foothill would have won.  Third place in the team scoring was Basic who had 3 girls qualify for State with Caprice Hughes (5^th-20:52), Cortney Durand (12^th 21:34 ) and Amber Purdie (13^th- 21:38).

The individual race winner was a bit of a surprise as Silverado’s Kelly Fernandez defeated pre race favorite, Foothill’s Megan Karl, 20:11 to 20:44.  Our observers on the course had Megan and Kelly out in front and basically even at the 1 mile mark.  It was then that Kelly made her move and increased her lead for the 33 second victory.  In a post race interview Kelly said that her only race plan was to run hard.  That she did. 

Individual State qualifiers were Fernandez, Hughes, Durand, Purdie and Chaparral’s Jannelle Sanchez.

 

Sunset

Boys – Here’s how strong Centennial is.  They won easily scoring 38 points to runner-up Durango’s 75. They place their 5 scorers in the top 17.  They have the individual winner in Andy Carney (17:05) and the runner-up in Preston Mathews (17:11).  They have League JV winner Matt Baca place 9^th overall.  Now here’s the kicker. They ran without 2002 champ Blake Schlotzhauer and also without the Davis twins, Stephon and Devon.  We will not discuss why these boys did not run, but hats off to the Bulldogs and coach Sam Richardson for having a deep well to draw from.  Durango ran as a tight pack, 15 seconds between 1 and 5, and qualified for State for Coach Jim Holben.  Durango’s first runner placed 11^th with Matt Jensen’s 18:10.  Third place went to Palo Verde, 9 points behind Durango.  Individual State qualifiers were Joe Kennedy (3^rd 17:17) and Cody LeDuff (4^th-17:26) from Cheyenne, Justin Proctor (5^th-17:34) from Palo Verde, Bonanza’s Trevor Peterson (6^th-17:38) and Shadow Ridge’s Kevin Pierce (7^th 17:40).

 

Girls – Like close races, here’s another one.   Centennial and defending champ Palo Verde tied with 56 points.  Tie breaker.  Go to the 6^th girl.  Centennial’s Melissa O’Connor, 20^th.   Palo Verde’s Christina Culver, 26^th.  Centennial wins!  Sometimes you can go an entire season without seeing a tie, even in weekday meets.  We have 2 in one day at the Regional Championships!  Centennial was led by the 3^rd place finish of Meghan Mathews (20:24).  Palo Verde’s leader Melissa Voss was 4^th (20:36).  Centennial had their 7 in the top 22.  Palo Verde had their 7 in the top 34.  Team times were virtually identical:  1:47:49.0 for Centennial and 1:47:49.7 for Palo Verde.  The girls 4A races showed us, once again, something that every coach preaches, “every place is important”. Clark, with invididual race winner Amanda Gramly (19:55-Top time of the day), had both Centennial and Palo Verde sweating after 4 Chargers came in in the top 15.  Unfortunately, Clark’s 5^th placed 28 and they settled for 3^rd.  Props to Clark for running their best race of the year when it counted the most.  Individual State qualifiers include Clark’s Gramly, Bishop Gorman’s Christa Avena (2^nd-20:10), Tasha Larson from Durango (5^th-20:39), Cimarron-Memorial’s Shoshanna Yadegar (7^th-21:19) and Shewaye Werede from Durango (8^th 21:22). 

 

Final Thoughts:  Once again, the coaches, athletes, parents and staff at Boulder City did a great job in producing an excellent Regional Championship Meet. Veteran’s Memorial Park is a top notch site for a cross country meet…..It was great to see CCSD Director of Athletics Bill Garis at the meet and how interested he was in the event.  I think that high school athletics are in good hands and that Mr. Garis will make some very positive moves.  We’d like to wish all of the runners and teams that qualified for State the best of luck up North.  Pack a lunch for the bus.  Not much to choose from in Tonopah.  See you at State.