With smoke in the northern Nevada air, the Lowry High School cross country team got back to normal racing for the first time in nearly two years.
The Buckaroos traveled to Minden on Friday for the Douglas Class Races. The event breaks up the runners into freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior races and is just 2.55 miles, a bit shorter than the normal 5K or 3.1-mile race.
“This is a great meet with competition from all of the 5A schools in Reno,” said LHS coach Kathy Norcutt. “I was so grateful that the kids got to compete yesterday and that they have a race under their belts. Now we can get to the business of training hard and working on bringing their times down.”
Lowry’s Jovi Kuskie was second in the girls senior race with a time of 16 minutes, 26 seconds. Galena’s Sofia Schmidhuber won the race at 15:59. Carson’s McKenna Budd (17:09) was third.
“Jovi battled with a Galena runner and came away with a second-place finish overall,” Norcutt said. “Jovi looked very tough despite having to run in the smoke that blew in before the senior races.”
Ryleigh Raabe was 24th in the junior class at 21:27, as Galena’s Mariah Davis (16:13) and Alyssa Bronader (16:16) were first and second, respectively.
“Ryleigh ran a tough race and was the fourth finisher among the 3A racers,” said the coach
The final girl to run for Lowry was freshman Natalee Formby, who placed 18th with a time of 22:41. Galena’s Elanor Raker won the race at 16:34.
“She ran a great first-ever cross country race and there were no 3A competitors ahead of her,” added the coach.
On the boys side, Tyler Morrison was 17th in the senior class race at 16:05. Norcutt noted that Morrison fell during the race but recovered to be the third best 3A runner,
Yerington’s Kutovem Stevens won with a time of 13:16 and Reno’s Kyle Ortega-Gammill (13:22) and Sean Andrews (13:43) were second and third, respectively.
Ivan Lara placed 13th in the junior class race at 15:47, while Spanish Springs’ Cade Beadell won with a time of 13:53. Douglas’ Jackson Davis was just three seconds behind at 13:56. Lara finished ahead of all the other 3A runners in the race.
Sophomore Austin Formby was 15th in his race with a time of 16:48, as Damonte Ranch’s Jackson Elliott won with a time of 13:25.
Norcutt added that Formby shined in his race and that only one 3A runner was ahead of him.
Lowry is scheduled to travel to Reno on Wednesday, Sept. 1, for the Nevada Twilight Cross Country Classic on Sierra Sage Golf Course.
After having Labor Day weekend off, Lowry will head to Lake Tahoe on Friday, Sept., 10 for the North Tahoe Invitational
