The Lowry High School cross country team closed out its regular season on Thursday, Oct. 12, at the Elko Invitational at Ruby View Golf Course in Elko.
After winning the Lowry Invitational on her home course, Becca Kuskie placed second in the 3.1-mile race. The junior had a time of 20 minutes, 3 seconds, which was just one second off her time in Winnemucca.
Spring Creek’s Rylie Lusk won the race with a time of 19:52. Spring Creek’s Kendra Lusk finished third with a time of 20:23 and Elko’s Raini Johnson (20:40) and Spring Creek’s Rosemary Little (20:48) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
“Becca ran a good race,” said LHS coach Kathy Norcutt. “Rylie ran a little different race than she did in Winnemucca. Rylie put on a move during the middle of the race. Becca likes to come on at the end. Rylie had just a big enough gap at the end to win. Becca knows she has to hang with her now.
Lowry’s Makayla Leveille finished 24th at 22:35 and freshman Kinsey Albisu set a personal-best time of 24:07 and she finished 34th.
Spring Creek won the team title with 20 points and Elko was second at 41. Mountain Home (Idaho) was third with 83 points and Wells (105) was fifth.
On the boys side, Lowry junior Will Kracaw was third overall in a time of 17:26. Spring Creek’s William Fallini-Haas won the race at 16:25 and Elko’s Alex Klekas was second at 17:02. Spring Creek’s Spencer Thomas was fourth at 17:29 and Mountain Home’s Jacob Criddle (17:35) was fifth.
“The times were off in the boys race,” Norcutt said. “We had Will finishing at 17:12. In the long run it doesn’t really matter. He ran a great race. He was able to beat Spencer, which was a little bit of an upset."
Freshman Robert Rangel placed sixth at 17:38, Hunter Albisu was 18th at 18:32.8 and Christian Olson placed 21st at 18:58. Caden Rorex set a personal best at 20:07 to finish 37th and Josh Leveille (20:46) and Christian McGuire (20:47) were 45th and 46th, respectively.
“It was a kind of surprise to see Robert there in sixth,” Norcutt said. “He has ran well all year. Other coaches were saying where has he been all year. We have been hiding him in the JV races. All coaches will hide runners during the year. Christian stepped up as well. He will be my seventp guy at the regional meet.”
Bryan Day (21:29) and Christopher Esparza (21:40) were 57th and 58th, Kylen Timco stopped the clock at 24:31 to finish 72nd and Christopher Fly-Knopf was 77th at 25:59. Braden Thomas rounded out the Lowry runners with a time of 30:28.
Spring Creek won the team title with 41 points and Elko was second at 50. Lowry (77) was third and Mountain Home (90) and West Wendover (128) rounded out the top five. Jackpot was sixth with 152 points.
The Northern 3A Regional Championships will be held Friday, Oct. 27, at Shadow Mountain Regional Sports Complex in Sparks. Reed High School is the host.
The 3A boys run at 10:30 a.m. and the girls race begins at 12:40 p.m.
The top three from the Northern 3A championships and top four teams from the Southern Region championship (state qualifying) meet advance to the 3A state championship meet.
The top five individuals on non-qualifying teams advance to the state championships at Shadow Mountain on Saturday, Nov. 4.
