Long, Freeman win Kirkwood races

Brett Long and Mike Freeman led area runners in the Kirkwood 10K/5K runs on Saturday at Kirkwood Mountain Resort.

Long of Carson City, 27, a former standout runner at Hug High, won the 10K race, in a time of 44 minutes, 47 seconds over the double loop route through Kirkwood Meadows - at an altitude of better than 8,000 feet.

Desota of Stateline was runner-up in the 10K, finishing the trail adventure run at 8,000 feet in 49 minutes, 12 seconds.

Freeman, of Gardnerville and a former Douglas High cross country runner and swimmer, was the overall winner of the 5K and the only runner to break 20 minutes with a 19:49 clocking.

Gardnerville's Travis Anderson was second in 20:05 and Derrik Jenkins, who runs for Douglas High, took third in 20:59.

Ellen Lucas of Gardnerville was eighth overall and first among the women in 22:33. Douglas High freshman Taylor Biaggi was the second woman in 24:29.

Desota, Robin of Stateline was second overall in the 10K with a 49:12 clocking. JoAnne Banducci of Reno was third overall and the first woman in 49:38, followed by Deb Devine of Crystal Bay in 51:31.

In the kids one-mile fun run, 11-year-old Paul Stefanski of Palo Alto finished first in 7:53, two seconds ahead of South Lake Tahoe's Cassidy Cichowicz.

Note: Long ran for a team that finished among the top 10 in the open division at the Fred Meyer Hood to Coast Relay on Aug. 26-27. The race covers 198 miles from Mt. Hood to Seaside, Ore., and attracted 1,063 teams. ... Lucas was part of a Tahoe Trail Babes team that won the women's masters championship for the sixth straight year in a time of 24 hours, 29 minutes and 16 seconds. The Trail Babes finished as the fifth women's team overall and 109th overall. ... Annie Gastelum, a member of Douglas High's 1998 state championship girls cross country team, ran for a team that finished fifth in the mixed open division.