Border War II: a Nevada Perspective.

Arizona prevailed in terms of "Who won?", but our own Mel Lawrence stole the show. There were other Team Nevada heroes as well. 

It was a glorious day for a cross country race, although I overheard a cell phone conversation after the last race in which one of our northern Nevada boys complained of the heat and humidity. I guess everything is relative. The temperature at race time was close to 70 degrees and there wasn't a breath of wind. It didn't seem that humid to me.

For a while it looked like the race might not even be run, at least not run as a true race between the high school elite runners from Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada. The AIA, the Arizona high school ruling body, equivalent to our NIAA, had voted that week that, "no all-star games could be completed in Arizona sports until the school year was over". The ruling came out of a brouhaha over a proposed football game and it spilled over into the Border War. The Arizona Road Racers were forced to step in and sponsor the event. It would no longer be a high school event; it would be open to all, including college runners. The night before the race the coaches from the three states got together and arrived at a compromise. We would call ourselves club teams and eliminate any reference to schools, which is what Footlocker does and what Nike will be doing with the Nike Team Championships (NTC) in December. But the Open races would be run separately, as advertised, from the main event, the Elite races, the real Border War. Jeff Guy, the race director, was still nervous. His Principal and AD had forbidden him from being involved or even attending the race in any official capacity. Jeff, however, agreed to weather the possible repercussions and the race went on without him. The Arizona Road Racers hastily marked the course the morning of the race and introduced our kids to the chip system. Each athlete had a plastic chip attached to each shoe. When they crossed the finish they ran over a mat which recorded their time. I guess it worked all right. Our own John Dixon provided a "back-up" system, which did its usual superb job and the NTS results were published within minutes. It's the NTS results which ended up on dyestat.com and are the official results. So much for the chip system.

The course itself was run mostly on grass and dirt, within the confines of Kiwanis Park in Tempe. It was not a fast course by any stretch of the imagination, with several side hills and numerous switchbacks. Only one boy managed to break 16 minutes for the 5K and only five girls were under 19â€"four of them between 18:49 and 18:57. That's what makes Mel Lawrence's 17:42 all the more outstanding, The Arizona "gurus" were floored by her performance. The course record had been set back in the 90's by a local super star, Sara Gorton, who had gone on to become a college All American at the University of Colorado. The record had been something like 18:14; I didn't catch the actual number. Breaking a 5K course record on a popular course like this one by over 30 seconds is unheard of.

It wasn't just Mel who ran well in the Elite Girls race. Ashley Wimmer and Wendy Harris finished 2-4. For much of the race Nevada was running 1-2-3, with Mel over a minute ahead of the field even before the race was at the half way point. Her first mile was 5:30. Wendy and Ashley were in a fierce duel for second and third with Kristen Hemphill, the New Mexico State 4A champ. Ashley prevailed over Kristen by a second in 18:49 and Wendy finished fourth, three seconds back and four seconds clear of the Arizona State 5A champion, Kristen Phillips. Kelly Fernandez was the next girl to finish for Team Nevada (or Club Nevada if you prefer to be politically correct). Kelly was "only" 14th but she beat out two state champions, one each from Arizona and New Mexico, and ran a great race. Kelly's time of 19:18 was a minute faster than she ran at State over a similar 5K course. The fifth and sixth finishers for Nevada were Michelle Taylor and Jace Howanitz who were well back in the field but nevertheless ran terrific races. Michelle's time of 20:15 was the same time she ran at the Sunrise Regional, where she placed 5th, and nine seconds faster than she ran at state. After the race Michelle was despondent about finishing so far back in the field (39th), but she was being too hard on herself. Jace, who finished two seconds behind Michelle and placed 41st, had a PR by 23 seconds. The last four scorers for Nevada were Tiffany Tandy, Nicole Lajeunesse, Amanda Gilbert, and Brandy Yamka. Tiffany was only a second behind Jace and Nicole and Amanda ran 20:38 and 20:44. Brandy's time of 20:50 was 25 seconds faster than she ran at State.

This brings up a point. One poster on the NTS Message Board pointed out that after the girls race, some of the coaches stated, "the top 5 girls did great, it was the second 5 that cost the meet!"  I didn't hear the comment and hope I didn't carelessly say something like that myself. It was certainly not true nor fair. Don't tell Jace, Tiffany, Nicole, Mandy, or Brandy they cost us the meet! They ran great. What has to be realized is that this competition pitted the "best against the best", if I may be so trite. There were nine state champions in the girl's race! And while we ran 14 girls, both Arizona and New Mexico had a full complement of 25 runners. Whereas in most races a spread of ten or twenty seconds between top-10 finishers is not uncommon, here that kind of a time spread meant ten to twenty places. In fact, all the Nevada runners ran great!  Whether they were first or last, they reflected glory on themselves and the State of Nevada.

OK, that said, let's move on to the Elite Boys race. We coaches knew from the beginning we were outgunned in this race. We had only 22 boys in the race and only 9 of them were among the top 25 who were originally "invited" based on their finish at the state meet. From the start it was a flood of red and white from Arizona and New Mexico at the top of the field. But up front with the leaders throughout the race were Nevada's Joe Parker and Dan Geib. The favorite in the race was Kenny Cormier from Arizona, who hadn't lost a race all year including the 4A State Championships. Kenny wasn't about to lose this one either. His winning margin was nothing like Mel's, but he still managed to win going away, by 16 seconds over fellow Arizona runner Alex Mason. Our own Joe and Dan finished third and fourth, both running great times in 16:03 and 16:05 and beating six state champions from Arizona and New Mexico in doing so. They also ran well faster than they had in going 1-2 at State two weeks before. The gap between them and the next Nevada finishers was pretty big but the comment made previously about the level of competition applies here as well. Nick Schenk may have placed just 34th in the field of 72 but his time of 16:53 bettered his 6th place finish at the state meet. In fact all ten of the boys who scored for Nevada at the Border War ran a faster time here than they did at the state meet. I didn't check all the numbers but I suspect it was true for almost all of Team Nevada. And let me repeat myself by stating again: this was not an easy course. It was no "twice around the campus" like you get at, say, Woodbridge, Dana Hills, or Basic. For the record, the other scoring runners for Team Nevada in the Elite Boys race were Robert Elvick, Josh Sillitoe, Jose Barajas, Ricky Johnson, Karl Nielson, Matt Dalrymple, and Adam Merriott. They all run the 5K in under 18 minutes, most of them were in the low 17's.

And speaking of Jose Barajas, he and Nathan Kato are two of those heroes I spoke of earlier. These two guys drove all the way from Dayton (just outside Carson City. I had to look it up) to Phoenix, because they couldn't afford to fly, to be a part of the team. Nathan came up to me after the boys race and humbly asked he could get his and Jose's medal rather than wait around for the awards ceremony. I was happy to comply. They had at least a 730 mile drive ahead of them and wanted to get started. Now that's dedication! And they weren't the only ones who drove long distances to make the trip. Wendy Harris and her dad drove from Lund to get to the meet. Map quest tells me that's around 550 miles and an 11 hour drive. Coach Bruce Susong flew in from Reno for the meet with Mel Lawrence, Nicole Lajeunesse, Joe Parker, Robert Elvick, and Dan Geib. (How's that for a quintet of talent?) They flew back right after the meet and then were headed for San Francisco the next day for a USATF meet in Golden Gate Park. I say that's going an extra mile or two for Team Nevada.

And how about a big huzzah! for Coach Scobell. She ordered the team uniforms, arranged the bus transportation, booked the hotel, collected the money, hopefully enough to pay for the above, and was the official chaperone for Team Nevada. Believe me, there wouldn't have been a Team Nevada but for Jessica's efforts. Kudos also go to Coach Dixon and his crew of workers including the Jensen's (Doyle, Patty, and Deleyna) who flew in the day of the race at their own expense. It truly was a team effort. Also, it was great to see so many Nevada supporters present. I met at least two grandmothers of kids who ran for Nevada and a number of parents and coaches who drove in or flew in for the event.

I don't know if we can pull it off next year. We Nevada coaches fought to have the race in Nevada next year. Our first choice was to let Coach Susong host the event in Reno. Bruce has hosted a number of big races in the past and it seems only fair for our northern kids to be able to have a "home meet". However, we were outgunned. The New Mexico coaches were adamant that it's "their turn" and they have the support of the Arizona folks. After all, Albuquerque is a lot closer to Phoenix than Reno. Maybe we need to look north and try to entice Utah and/or Idaho into a Border War. We'll just have to see what happens in the year ahead. But for now the cross country season isn't over yet for some. We all wish the best of luck to those Nevada runners who will be running at Footlocker and the USATF Regionals and Nationals.

They say that no matter how good you are, there is always someone better. Most of our athletes found that out at this year's Border War. I suppose it's true, but in the case of Mel Lawrence, I'm not so sure. I'll end on that note.

(Phil Lawton)

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