WINNEMUCCA - For the second consecutive week, the Lowry High School cross country teams spent the day in the mountains. This time the Buckaroos were in Tahoe City, Calif., for the North Tahoe Kiwanis Invitational on Friday, Sept. 13. Schools from around northern Nevada and California were on hand for the meet.
"Some of our times may have been a little slower than they should be," said LHS head coach Kathy Norcutt. "We have been working on speed quite a bit and they were tired. We are pretty much done with mountain racing and doing hills. It is time for us to work on speed. The one thing I saw that we need to work on is our starts. Our starts have not been great. The kids sit back a bit and have a lot of ground to make up."
Alondra Duenas paced the Lowry varsity girls, finishing 47th in a time of 30 minutes, 40.31 seconds, on the 3.3-mile course. Teammate Jorden Raynor, running in her first varsity race of the season, was 53rd at 30:51.28. Jancy Ulch finished 68th at 32:47.47, and Haley Weber (22:40.94) and Shannon Munk (34:01.50) were 74th and 75th, respectively.
Truckee won the team title with 26 points, Incline was second with 85 and Atwater, Calif. (93) was third. South Tahoe finished fourth with 96 points and Fernley rounded out the five with 110 points. Ponderosa, Calif., was sixth at 121, Notre Dame (Calif.) placed seventh with 139 points and Wooster (208) and Lowry (224) were eighth and ninth, respectively.
Richie Bleck led the way for the varsity boys, as he finished 68th with a time of 25:13.31. Nate Nelson was 16 spots behind in 84th at 25:39.90 and Ethan Andrews was 88th in a time of 26:04.00. Devin Morris placed 91st in a time of 26:12.69 and Luis Brown finished 104th at 26:59.18. Harley Baker, one of the top Buckaroo runners, did not race as he is trying to recover from shin splints, according to Norcutt.
North Tahoe won the team title for a second straight year with 47 points. Spring Creek (84) was second and Truckee (94) was third. Ponderosa, Calif., finished fourth with 107 points and South Tahoe rounded out the five with 128 points. Dayton (201), Colfax, Calif., (227), Churchill County (234), Incline (237) and Atwater, Calif., (243) comprised sixth through 10th. Lowry finished 14th with 346 points.
Lowry's freshmen boys shined once again, with Kobe Fitzpatrick finishing eight in the 2.8-mile boys freshmen race at 21:16.90. Chris Kearns placed 24th at 23:33.31, Devin Dowd was 33rd in a time of 24:33.62 and Chance McAllister was 50th at 27:25.25.
"I am very happy with the way the younger boys are running," added the coach. "It is encouraging to see the progress they are making at the beginning of the year. Kobe and Chris have had two good races in a row."
Mikey Prejean and Liam Gallups were the lone Buckaroo runners in the boys sophomore race. Prejean was 52nd in a time of 28:12.53 and Gallups was 53rd at 28:31.50 on the 2.8-mile course.
North Tahoe won the team title with 25 points and Ponderosa was second at 43. Bret Harte (53) and Wooster (111) were third and fourth, respectively.
Charice Brown recorded the best finish for the Lady Bucks in the freshmen/sophomore race at 24th with a time of 25:53.09. Alexander Ziemer finished 106th at 33:32.88 and Rebekah Goldblatt placed 117th at 38:39.94.
Spring Creek and North Tahoe topped the team standings with 24 and 73 points, respectively.
Lowry makes its annual trip to the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise, Idaho, on Saturday.
The meet is one of the top races in the West.
"It's a great opportunity for our kids to experience and see good racing," Norcutt said. "I am going to take my young runners and let them experience the weekend. In the past this trip has been a big team builder for us."[[In-content Ad]]
