It has almost been a month since the Lowry High School cross country team started practice.
Now that it is mid-September, the Buckaroos finally saw their first competition of the year this past Friday, at the Kiwanis North Tahoe Invitational in Tahoe City, Calif. A long course with a number of climbs in the mountains greeted the runners.
“The kids had quite the first meet,” said LHS coach Kathy Norcutt. “Overall, I thought the kids ran a pretty good race. The times are down from last year.”
With 312 points, the Buckaroo varsity boys finished 13th out 17 teams, including a number of California teams. North Tahoe won the meet with 96 points and South Tahoe was second at 104. Elko (108), Spring Creek (120) and Atwater, Calif. (152) rounded out the top five.
Jonathan Madrid posted the best finish for the Buckaroo varsity boys, placing 49th with a time of 24 minutes, 15.28 seconds. Omar Aranjo was 62nd at 24:54.96. Devin Dowd placed 83rd with a time of 25.44.84, and Christopher Kearns was 87th at 25:49.34.
Chanse McAllister (94th, 25:57.46), Joe Gildone (100th, 26:13.38) and Liam Gallups (118th, 27:14.44) rounded out the finishers for the Buckaroos.
“I was happy with the times of the bo ys,” Norcutt said. “Jonathan and Omar are ahead of Hayden (Jeppsen) from last year, and Hayden made it to State. The boys are also running in a pack, which is nice to see.”
The Lowry girls placed 12th with 306 points. Truckee, the defending state champion, won with 42 points, while Elko was third at 69. Atwater (89), Lincoln, Calif., (140) and Bret Harte, Calif., (162), were third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Charice Brown paced the Lady Bucks, with a time of 30:03.69. Brienna Everhart, a senior in her first cross country race, was 99th in a time of 34:22.47. Odessa Pearrow stopped the clock at 36:35.91, Alexandra Ziemer finished at 37:25.25 and Camryn Maher had a time of 41:43.25.
“Charice had a pretty nice race,” Norcutt said. “It was Brienna’s first race and I was really happy with her.”
In the girls freshmen-sophomore race, Lowry’s Rebecca Kuskie placed third in the 2.8-mile race at 23:12.69. Fellow freshmen Amelia Weber stopped the clock at 35:31.72. Lowry did not have enough runners for a team score. Spring Creek claimed the team title with 30 points.
“Rebecca ran a picture-perfect race,” said the coach. “She had a beautiful start and moved up. I ran her in the JV race, because it was her first high school meet. I wanted to see how she compared to other kids her age. The only two girls ahead of her were from North Tahoe. You will see good things from her.”
A trio of freshmen boys had a good showing for the Buckaroos in the 2.8-mile freshmen race. Will Kracaw was fifth with a time of 21:07.59. Gavin Ziemer was 29th at 24:01.18 and Jacob Means placed 51st at 26:13.15. Spring Creek won the team title with 35 points.
“Will had a great race,” Norcutt said. “Gavin also had a good race and that was a nice time for him. Jacob has worked super hard, and his times have been coming down.”
Braden Thomas was the lone Buckaroo boy runner in the 2.8-mile sophomore race. He was 63rd in a time of 38:23.53.
Lowry travels to Dayton today and will run on a much different course.
“This will be more of a speed race,” Norcutt said. “It will be flatter, but there will be a couple of hills.”
