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2003 Carson Invitational Penny's Take on the Meet Carson Invitational October 10, 2003 Edmonds Sports Complex 3.1 Miles – 4800 feet elevation (thick, heavy grass, dirt, sand and fairly flat)
Junior Varsity Boys
Teams: 1st Reno 36; 2nd Douglas 56; 3rd Lowry 62; 4th Carson 66; 5th McQueen 153
Junior Varsity Girls
Teams: Reno had the only team
Varsity Boys
Teams: 1st Reno 30; 2nd Galena 52; 3rd South Tahoe 104; 4th McQueen 115; 5th Lowry 131; 6th Douglas 148; 7th Elko 202; 8th Carson 203; 9th Sparks 262; 10th Spanish Springs 278; 11th North Valleys 286; 12th Hug 293; No Teams Reed, Fallon, Wooster, Damonte, Virginia City
Varsity Girls
Teams: 1st Reno 23; 2nd Lowry 65; 3rd Galena 82; 4th South Tahoe 101; 5th Carson 129; 6th McQueen 160; 7th Elko 165; 8th Spanish Springs 214; 9th Douglas 215; 10th Sparks 291; No Teams Reed, North Valleys, Fallon
*Britney Almaguer was approximately 15 seconds behind Marie Lawrence at the two mile mark, but towards the end of the race she took a wrong turn that cost her many seconds. Kelsey Engstrom started to follow Britney off the course, but stopped, looked around to see where the other runners were and then got back on course.
I tried to decipher the names on the tags as best I could when typing out the results. I apologize to anyone whose name I could not read correctly.
I took out non-team runners when calculating team scores.
Penny Sparks
Carson Invitational, October 10, 2003
The Carson Invitational had to be moved due to construction from its old tough Western Nevada Community College hill course, at 5200 feet, out to Edmonds Sports Complex, ”flat and only” 4800 feet. The lack of hills, sand, and rocks was welcome to many but not to all. The endurance-strength runners would probably have fared better on a course that slows the fast-track distance runners down. But overall the excitement of the day did not disappoint, especially in the boys varsity race. Jonathan Cardenas and Stephen Pottey ran neck and neck for approximately a mile and half with Kevin Sandall close behind. At that point Jonathan made a strong surge and pulled away from Stephen. At the two-mile mark he gaped eight seconds on Stephen and looked very strong, while Stephen appeared to be struggling a bit. The race seemed to be over, with Jonathan the dominant victor over his two formidable foes - Stephen Pottey and Kevin Sandall. But coming into the final quarter of the race Stephen and Kevin were once again closing on Jonathan. With 150 yards to go Jonathan looked like his legs started to wobble and give out on him while Stephen was powering his way to the finish line. But Jonathan hung on to win by four seconds. At the finish Jonathan was gasping and struggling to walk and Stephen looked almost as spent as Jonathan. These two young men lack nothing in toughness, competitiveness, and determination…very impressive. Meanwhile Kevin Sandall stayed a constant distance behind both Jonathan and Stephen and seemed the least spent of the three at the end. Kevin may be still figuring out this whole cross country racing thing…time will tell. But for a first-year runner to be only eleven seconds behind the two best cross country high school runners in northern Nevada is awesome.
Team wise Reno once again dominated, but not by as much as they did in the first part of the season. The Galena boys seem to be moving closer to the Reno boys, but I think it will be very tough to close the gap enough to defeat Reno this season. It does not look at this time that South Tahoe will be able to move ahead of Galena for the second spot to go to state. They ran without their third and fourth runners, but they had twice as many points as Galena did and their first runner was behind Galena's top three.
The girls race wasn't nearly as exciting as expected, although having the Lowry Buckaroo's in the race livened things up. Collier Lawrence did what she always does ”take the lead and push the pace” but this time nobody was able to close on her, including her little sister Mel. Collier pulled on everyone throughout the race until the very end…the gap kept growing. Collier once again proved she is the queen of the course as she easily dominated everyone.
After Collier and Mel finished way ahead of everyone, then the race got exciting. Nearing the finish it was great to see Michelle Glenn once again returning back to form. She was Reno's third runner coming into the finish with a several yard lead over her sister Daryan. A few yards back from Daryan, Katie Engstrom started her kick with a hundred yards to go. She pulled up on Daryan's side and the race was on. They then pulled up on Michelle's side with a few yards left and all three came across the finish line together. Who truly came across first was impossible to tell without a camera, but when racing gets that exciting who cares? The spectators then got to witness another dead-heat finish between Megan Meyers of Carson, Jess Palacio of Spanish Springs, and Patty Capistrant of Carson. This threesome was almost an exact duplicate of the earlier trio.
The only disappointing factor in the meet, even though the results would not have changed, was Britany Almaguer of Elko and Kelsey Engstrom of Lowry taking a wrong turn. It would have been nice to see how close Britany is to Collier and Mel, but I guess we will have to wait until Regionals to find out since Reno is once again traveling to California this weekend. Then next weekend they will be taking on the best in the West at Mt. SAC. I wish I could be there to see them once again thump California's best. Good luck Reno at Mt. SAC…make Nevada shine once again.
Team wise, no one in the state of Nevada is going to challenge the Reno girls. As I said in an earlier article, I have never seen a team in Nevada as dominate as this team is this year. The only team even close to Reno is Lowry, the three time 3A state champions. With Lowry competing in 3A that leaves the third and forth place teams…Galena and South Tahoe battling for the second spot at Regionals. The Galena and South Tahoe girls look to be working up a good fight going into Regionals, but at this time I am going to have to go with Galena over South Tahoe as they beat them by almost 20 points in this meet. The Carson girl's team ran the best they have thus far this season, but they are too far behind the top three teams to challenge for the second spot at State.
In the Junior Varsity races it was Reno all the way. Matthew Freeman of Reno led wire-to-wire as he led his team to an easy win along with teammate Peter Orlander. Kaitlyn Shackelton of Reno also lead all the way but did so more dominantly than her male counterpart. Once again Reno appears to be a great position for the future.
I am happy to say all of the races had many great and close finishes. It is always nice to see the athletes competing with such intensity and determination.
Congratulations to all you awesome competitors. It was a pleasure and honor to be a part of your great sport.
Copyright 2003 NevadaTrackStats.com Not to be reprinted without permission of webmaster@nvtrackstats.com
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