Pottey leads locals in West Regionals

Pottey paces Nevada runners at Foot Locker meet

Dave Price

Galena High School senior Stephen Pottey was fastest among Nevada boys during the Foot Locker West Regional Cross Country Championships in Walnut, Calif., on Saturday.

The meet attracted top prep runners from 12 western states as well as Guam. The top eight finishers qualified to run this Saturday at the Foot Locker National Championships this Saturday at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Pottey finished 17th in the seeded boys race as he ran a time of 16 minutes, 15 seconds over the challenging 5-kilometer course at Mt. San Antonio College. Pottey, who won the Northern 4A Regionals and placed second at the 4A state meet for Galena last month, was the highest Nevada finisher in the race as he finished three seconds ahead of Patrick Swick from Chaparral High in Las Vegas.

Shadrack Kiptoo from Albuquerque, N.M., won the boys race with a 15:32 effort.

In the seeded girls race, Reno High's Collier Lawrence and Marie Lawrence finished third and fourth with respective times of 18:18 and 18:19. They were close behind the winning pace set by Zoe Nelson from Kalispell, Mont., who ran 18:07 to defend her regional title.

South Tahoe freshman Kelsey McClurg finished 70th in the race in 19:59.

Carson High had two representatives in the regional meet: Annie Brinson finished 31st in her sophomore girls race with a time of 22:24 and Meagan Myer was 38th in her freshman girls race with a 25:17 effort.

Mike Freeman of Gardnerville finished 53rd in his junior boys race with a time of 19:40 and Duke Sanders of Minden was 75th in his sophomore boys race with a time of 21:25. Both ran for Douglas High this past cross country season.

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Several local area runners participated in the 21st annual California International Marathon Sunday in Sacramento.

William Hudnal, 36, of Gardnerville ran a time of 3 hours, 19 minutes and 33 seconds over the 26.2-mile course from Folsom to the California state capitol. Hudnal finished 328th overall out of 2,941 finishers and was 64th in his age division.

Other locals dipped under four hours in the race: Ray Henderson, 33, of Washoe Valley ran 3:38:34; Tom Welton, 45, of Carson City ran 3:44:30; Rodney Lampson, 45, of Minden ran 3:52:28; and David Williams, 38, of Minden ran 3:59:49.

Carson City's Leon Mendibles also ran 4:05:43, Tanya Martian ran 4:07:50 and Shawna Chau ran 4:08:36.