After playing catchup for the better part of this season, Christy Works and the Carson High girls cross country team found themselves in the role of front-runners on Friday afternoon.
Works and teammate Annie Brinson finished first and second to lead a close-knit pack of Senators that swept to the girls team championship during the Carson Invitational at Western Nevada Community College. The Senators outdistanced Galena by a 19-56 score to capture their first invitational championship of the season.
Coach Dennis Brinson described the triumph as a team effort.
"We tell the kids to try and feed off the person who's having a good day," Brinson said. "The more we can bunch up, the better off we're going to be. It's always easier when to be close to a teammate in a race; you look over and you know, if they can do it, you can do it, too."
The philosophy worked well for the Senators on their home course - a 3.1-mile layout lined with hills and sand, and made even more challenging on Friday by wind that kicked up dust from terrain that was scorched by the Waterfall Fire this summer - because they swept four of the top five places and eight of the top 10.
Galena's Alyssa Abbott led most of the way before Works and Brinson surged to the front the final 300 meters to take charge of the race. Works, a freshman, finished in a time of 23 minutes, 42 seconds and Brinson took second in 23:45. Abbott was third in 24:07, followed by Carson's Patty Capistrant in fourth (24:14) and Gloria Sosa in fifth (24:59). Hannah Works was eighth in 25:28 to round out the scoring for Carson and to give the team five runners within a span of one minute and 46 seconds.
"This is our course, we run it in practice, but this is the first time I've ever raced it. I think it's a good course - it was a lot of fun," Works said, laughing.
Coach Brinson was obviously pleased to come out on the winning end, even in the absence of Northern 4A front-runners Reno and South Tahoe, teams that are running at the high-powered Clovis Invitational today in Fresno.
"The shame of it is, we're a solid third in the North, but only two teams are going to qualify for state," he said, referring to the upcoming Northern 4A Regional and state meets. "But like I told the kids, my goal is to keep them healthy and for them to run stronger as we go along. If we do that, I think a few of them are going to qualify for state."
On the boys side, Galena junior Daniel Geib ran away from the field to win the boys race in 18:41 as Galena edged Carson 43-44 for the team title. The result came as no surprise because Geib is regarded as one of the top two in the North - along with Reno's Joe Parker - and a state championship contender.
"It was a really tough course," Geib said. "This isn't a course where you're going to run a fast time, but it is a great training course with the sand and hills, and today you had wind resistance. I felt good on the hills today and that was the best part for me - this will help me get ready for the regional and state races."
Galena teammate Raul Tibaduiza placed second in 20:00, four seconds ahead of Hug's Adrian Garcia, while Carson's Ryan Turner took fourth in 20:23.
Turner has shown gradual improvement throughout the season, and this marked the first time he finished as Carson's top runner.
"Coach Brinson is awesome. His support and training methods are really good and we're all benefiting because of it," the senior said. "We're sticking together. We train together and we like competing together. We're always trying to do our best because we don't want to let anyone down."
Carson's boys were packed in even closer than the girls - one minute, 19 seconds separated the top five.
Sophomore Chad Shroy finished seventh (20:52), Caleb Carter ninth (21:20), Doug Holderman 13th (21:36) and Shelby Moulden 15th (21:42) to round out the team scoring.
Also for Galena, Michael Van Antwerp finished sixth (20:43) after taking a wrong turn on the course and Joe Abbott took 14th (21:41) by one second.
Douglas finished third in the team standings with 80 points, led by Mike Freeman's ninth-place finish (21:17) and Kevin Carlson in 10th (21:22).
FERNLEY INVITATIONAL
Dayton's Jose Barajas ran to a gold medal and helped the Dust Devils finish third as a team in the varsity boys race at the Fernley Invitational. Barajas, a senior, ran the 3.1-mile course in 18:51 to outdistance Fernley junior Tony Yori, who ran 19:13.
North Tahoe captured the team title with 49 points, while Lowry edged Dayton 102-104 for second-place.
Billy Mountjoy was Dayton's second runner, as he finished 11th in 20:04.
In the girls race, North Tahoe placed five runners among the top 10 to win the team championship with 29 points. Spring Creek was second with 68 points, followed by Whittell with 76. Fernley fielded its first complete girls team of the season and finished fourth with 85 points.
Incline's Addie Devine, the defending 2A state champion, won the race in 22:14. Virginia City's Erin Breihaupt was third (23:27), Dayton's Stephanie Scholl was fifth (24:37) and Fallon Lowrey of Fernley was sixth (24:45).
Contact Dave Price at dprice@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-1220.
