After traveling throughout the state and even into Idaho since August, the Lowry High School cross country team had a rare opportunity to stay home last week, hosting the Lowry Invitational, this past Friday afternoon at Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course.
The day began as elementary, middle school and junior high school students had a chance to show their speed on a 1-mile course. Fernley, Elko and Spring Creek brought some younger runners as well.
On the high school level, a handful of schools from the Northern 3A made the trip as well as a number of smaller schools.
Spring Creek won three of the four team titles in both the JV and varsity races, The Spartan boys and girls won the varsity races for the fourth consecutive season.
The Spartan boys won with 41 points, while Elko was second at 66. Wells was third at 121 and Fernley (123) and Dayton (130) rounded out the top five. Lowry was sixth at 149 and Churchill County (230) was seventh.
The Spring Creek girls won with 32 points, Elko was second at 49 and Sierra Lutheran (70) and Churchill County (153) were, third and fourth, respectively.
“I thought the kids ran pretty well,” said LHS head coach Kathy Norcutt. “All of the kids set personal bests on the day. You can’t ask for much more than that. It’s always fun to run on your home course.
Will Kracaw led the Buckaroo boys with a, eighth-place finish in a time of 17 minutes, 28 seconds. Chanse McAllister broke 19 minutes for the first time this year and was 28th at 18:58.
Four Lowry runners were in the 19-minute bracket, starting with Christopher Kearns in 36th at 19:21. Gavin Ziemer stopped the clock at 19:37 to place 37th and Jacob Means (19:43) and Joe Gildone (19:45.57) were 40th and 42nd, respectively.
Bryan Day was 52nd with a time of 21:40 and Braden Thomas was 63rd at 27:36.
“Those were good times for the boys,” Norcutt said. “I am really happy for Chanse, he had a great race.”
The Lady Bucks were paced by sophomore Becca Kuskie who finished seventh with a time of 20:32. Savannah Rorex was 27th, with a time of 25:16.
At the junior varsity level, freshman Makayla Leveille was third in a time of 22:57. Adaya Goldblatt was 22nd at 26:51.
“Those were strong races for both of the girls,” said the coach.
Elko won the team title with 33 points, Fernley was second at 44 and Spring Creek (59) was third. Lowry did not have enough runners for a team score.
The Spring Creek JV boys came way with a victory on Friday, scoring 23 points. Elko was second at 73 and Lowry (87) was third.
The Lowry JV boys had seven runners compete, with Mark Henderson leading the way with a ninth-place finish in a time of 20:25. Caden Rorex was 10th at 20:25.37, Josh Leveille placed 16th with a time of 21:29 and Brandon Carroll (22:34) was 23rd.
Christopher Esparaza (23:43), Cody Hawkins (28:39) and Jordan Lords (29:22) rounded out the Lowry runners.
Lowry travels to Elko on Thursday for the Elko Invitational at 3 p.m. for the last regular season meet of the season.
The Northeast JV championships will take place, Thursday, Oct. 20, in Spring Creek.
The Northern 3A Regional Championship is set for Friday, Oct. 28, at Shadow Mountain Park in Sparks near Reed High School. The 3A boys run at 10:30 a.m., with the girls starting at 12:35 p.m.
The top three teams qualify for the state championships, and the top six runners on non-qualifying teams advance to state as well.
The state championships will be at Craig Ranch Park in North Las Vegas on Saturday, Nov. 5.
