When the original schedule came out at the beginning of the season, the NIAA Division I-A North Cross Country Regional Championships were set to take place at Shadow Mountain above Reed High School in Sparks.
Lowry High School jumped on the chance to compete in the Reed Invitational to get a look at the 3.1-mile course. However, the NIAA moved the regional back to Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno, but the Buckaroos still made the trip to Sparks last Friday.
"It was pretty much a hard meet and it was all large schools," said LHS coach Kathy Norcutt. "The course was different and the kids made three laps around the mountain. We had trained hard all week and we had no rest. Our times were off a bit as to be expected. It was good to see the different competition and it's good for the kids to see. Be inspire to be like them."
Hayden Jeppsen led the way for the Lowry varsity boys, finishing 42nd with a time of 19 minutes, 26 seconds. Fellow senior Ethan Andrews was 65th at 20:10 and Devin Morris finished 72nd in a time of 20:36. Matthew Jock (23:41) and Liam Gallups (24:42) rounded out the times for the Buckaroos.
McQueen won the team title with 41 points, Douglas was second at 74 and Galena was third at 84. Reed (92) and Reno (125) rounded out the top five. Lowry placed 12th with 227 points.
Haley Weber paced the Lady Bucks in the 3.1-mile varsity race, with a time of 27:34. Shannon Munk placed 71st at 28:49 and Alexandria Ziemer (29:29) and Camryn Maher (31:14) were 74th and 75th, respectively. Lowry did not have enough runners for a team score.
Douglas earned the team title with 46 points and McQueen was second at 70. Galena (100) placed third and Carson (120) and Truckee (139) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Sophomore Jonathan Madrid earned a top-10 finish in the junior varsity boys race, placing eighth in a time of 19:53. Christopher Kearns stopped the clock at 21:00 to finish 30th and Devin Dowd (21:30) and Chance McAllister (21:33) were 45th and 48th, respectively. Omar Aranjo placed 79th in a time of 22:57 and Hunter Albisu was 128th at at 25:51.
"Some of the kids were a little disappointed that they weren't faster," Norcutt said. "We have continually been faster every week, but the way we were training before the race led to that. We just need to keep positive. The one thing I noticed is that we need a little more power a the finish line."
Lowry will be on its home turf today, beginning at 3 p.m. at the Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course.
"It is good to be home and excited about that," Norcutt said. "It should be a fast and competitive race. It will be good to see a lot of the teams in our division."[[In-content Ad]]
