For the first two months of the season, the Lowry High School cross country team has traversed the roads of Nevada and even Idaho. The Buckaroos got their chance to perform in front of their crowd as they hosted the 19th annual Lowry Invitational last Friday at Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course.
A handful of schools from the Division I-A North made the trip as well as a number of smaller schools. Spring Creek swept the team titles in both varsity races for the second consecutive season. The Spartan boys won with 32 points, while Elko was a distant second at 70. North Tahoe was third at 97 and Fernley (114) and Dayton (154) rounded out the top five. West Wendover was sixth t 262 and Lowry did not have enough runners to record a team score.
The Spring Creek girls won with 29 points, North Tahoe was second at 57 and Elko (84) and Fernley (94) were, third and fourth, respectively. Churchill County was fifth at 130 and the Lady Bucks also didn't have enough runners for a team total.
"I thought the kids ran pretty well," said LHS head coach Kathy Norcutt. "It's nice to be at home and not have to travel. "We have been doing a lot of hard training the last couple of weeks - no stop. The times might be a little higher than normal. We just want to peak at the right time and keep working to get where we want to be."
Hayden Jeppsen led the Buckaroo boys with a 23rd-place finish in a time of 19 minutes, 12 seconds. Ethan Andrews also broke the 20-minute mark and was 30th at 19:51. Mathew Jock placed 48th in a time of 21:44 and Liam Gallups (24:10) was 60th.
The Lady Bucks had four runners as well and were paced by Haley Weber, who finished 37th with a time of 26:29. Fellow senior Shannon Munk was 44th, with a time of 28:08. Juniors Alexandria Ziemer (28:17) and Camryn Maher (28:56) were 45th and 46th, respectively.
"Both the boys and girls are running together and pushing each other and I like to see that," Norcutt said. "They are learning to go after and catch the next person in front of them."
The Lowry JV boys came way with a victory on Friday, scoring 43 points. Spring Creek was second at 71 and Elko (93) was third. West Wendover (104) and North Tahoe (164) were the only other schools to have a team score.
The Lowry JV boys had eight runners compete, with sophomore Kobe Fitzpatrick leading the way with a second-place finish in a time of 19:30. Jonathan Madrid made it two Lowry runners in the top five, placing fifth at 19:57.
Devin Dowd placed 10th at 20:26, Christopher Kearns finished 12th at 21:02 and Chance McAllister was 16th in a time of 21:06. Omar Aranjo was 16th in a time of 21:38, Hunter Albisu was 40th with a time of 25:30 and Braden Thomas placed 52nd at 32:43.
Sierra Lutheran won the JV girls team title, as Lowry had no runners in that race.
Lowry travels to Elko on Thursday for the Elko Invitational at 3 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
