Last Friday, the Buckaroo cross country squad represented Lowry High School well at the 3A Regional meet at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno.
"This the worst race of the season for me because so much is riding on it," said LHS coach Kathy Norcutt of the race. "None of our races during the season really matter, you just have to get through this one to get to state.”
In the girls 5,000 meter race, Lowry only had four girls competing, making them eligible for state only as individuals. Five runners are required to log a team score.
South Tahoe’s Carissa Buchholz won the race with a time of 19:20, while the Lusk sisters from Spring Creek took second (Rylie 20:10) and third (Kendra 20:17).
Lowry’s Becca Kuskie (20:42) qualified to run in the state finals by finishing fourth, as did her sister, freshman Jovi Kuskie (21:08) with a sixth place finish.
Alethea Houston (23:55) missed qualifying by less than a minute with her 27th-place finish and Kinsey Albisu (25:45) grabbed the 34th spot.
Spring Creek took the team title with 25 points and will join Tahoe-Truckee (51) and Elko (97) to compete at state as a team.
The top seven runners from Reno that are not part of a qualifying team will also make the trip to Vegas. Fernley’s Janae Derley (21:30) and Piper Crook (21:53) made the cut, as did Eliana Carney (21:55) from South Tahoe, and Savannah Regli (23:07) from Churchill County (Fallon).
“It was such an exciting race. Becca and Jovi have been battling back and forth with the Lusk sisters all season," Norcutt said. "Those girls are really talented runners.”
The boy’s 5,000 meter race found Montana Montgomery from Tahoe-Truckee in the top spot with his 17:03 finish.
Elko’s Alex Klekas (17:20) got second, and Lowry’s Will Kracaw (17:32) was third.
Elko took the boys team title with 52 points, while Spring Creek (59) and Tahoe-Truckee (69) also qualified for the state meet.
Lowry (108) finished fourth, beating South Tahoe (127), and Dayton (153).
In addition to Kracaw, Luis Banuelos-Lopez (18:17) from Sparks, North Valleys’ Adam White (18:23), Lowry's Christian Olson (18:29), Tyler Logan (18:31) from Dayton, and South Tahoe’s Christopher Hoefer (18:36) and Leyton Sweeney (18:42) also qualified as individuals.
“Will has been working on having a fast finish in practice,” added Norcutt. “The race finished going uphill and Will turned on the gas and sprinted to his third place finish. His season-long rival, George Skivington from Spring Creek, did not have anything left and could not keep up with him.”
Lowry sophomore Jeremy Walker (19:43) finished 27th, Christopher McGuire (20:27) grabbed 36th, and Cal Peters (20:58) was 38th. Dylan Nee (21:45) was 44th, and Jesse Hawkins (22:44) finished 48th.
“It was a great day and now we head off to state next week," Norcutt said. "I’m excited; we will see how it goes. What a phenomenal bunch of kids I had this year. They are already talking about next year. They want to train this winter.”
The NIAA Cross Country State Championships will be held at Veteran’s Park in Boulder City on Saturday. The girl’s race starts at 11:10 a.m. The boys will run at 1:15 p.m.
