Fourteen Division 2A-4A High School teams came to the Winnemucca Municipal Golf Course last Friday to run 5,000 meters in the Buckaroos only home meet of the season.
“We had a great day, this is my favorite meet of the season," said LHS coach Kathy Norcutt. "These races are all training for regionals and state.”
Becca Kuskie, with a time of 19 minutes, 29 seconds, finished third in the girls varsity race, slightly off the pace set by Spring Creek’s Rylie Lusk (18:30) and Kendra Lusk (18:54).
“Becca had a good race, she ran a personal record time,” Norcutt said. “Finishing third was especially good because she was the only Lowry runner in that race; she had no teammates to help her.”
In the boys varsity race, Lowry’s Will Kracaw (16:44) finished fifth behind the winner Alex Klekas (15:55) from Elko.
Christian Olson (17:43:03) ran eighth, just ahead of Madsen Evans (17:43:38) from Dayton by .35 seconds. Dylan Nee (19:58) finished 37th for the Buckaroos.
“Christian Olson had a race and a half to finish eighth," Norcutt said. "He has been trying to break eighteen minutes and he did, I am proud of him.”
The girls JV race found Jovi Kuskie (20:42) winning another race for the Lady Bucks, dominating her nearest competitor Savanna Regli (21:37) from Churchill County (Fallon).
Kinsey Albisu (23:25) ran seventh, and Alethea Houston (23:45) finished tenth.
“I have gotten some good times this season and I am going to run my first varsity race next week, so I am excited for that," said Jovi Kuskie. "I am going to try to do my best at state. Hopefully, we will have a girls ‘team’ next year and we will be able to go as a team.”
"Jovi is so determined, you can see it in her face," added the coach. "She is always going to give it all she has; she is going to go for it every race.”
The Lowry JV boys represented well, with Jeremy Walker (19:08) finishing fifth, only 15 seconds behind the winner Zach Smith (18:53) from West Wendover, despite taking a wrong turn on the course when he had a large lead.
“Jeremy went off course, but that is part of racing,” Norcutt said. “You have to know the course. A lot of kids might have given up. I was really proud that even though he made a mistake, he did not give up. He was way ahead when he made that wrong turn and that dropped him to 10th place. He battled back to finish fifth; that says a lot about his character.”
Cal Peters (19:48) finished tenth and Christopher McGuire (19:54) took 12th. Tyler J. Morrison (21:14) grabbed 20th, and Jesse Hawkins (21:43) was 26th to round out the Buckaroo runners in the JV race.
“Next week in Elko we will run a two-race format, a boys race and a girls race," Norcutt said. "My young kids that have been running JV will all have to run with the big dogs. That is good, because they are going to have to run with them at regionals also. I think they are prepared, they have run at ‘Bob Firman’ and some other big meets this season.”
Lowry will run in Elko on Thursday before heading to Spring Creek on Oct. 18 for the Northeast Nevada JV Championship.
The Northern 3A Regional Championships will be held Oct. 26 at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno.
The top three teams from the North and the South will then meet in the state Championship, as well as the top seven individuals from non-state qualifying teams.
The State Championships will be held Nov. 3 at Boulder City’s Veterans Memorial Park.
