Cross Country: Sierra Lutheran boys take 2nd at North Tahoe Invite

The Sierra Lutheran High School cross country team competed at the 33rd annual North Tahoe Lakers-Kiwanis Invitational meet Friday with the boys' squad taking second place.

Junior Wade Meddles continued his extraordinary race pace again as he won the 3.3-mile challenging mountain course.

Coach Dave Marson credited the team's depth with the finish.

"I thought we had a chance at placing and I knew it was going to be close, but I had no idea this close," he said.

The final points standings had Bishop Manogue winning by one point at the meet, which drew 32 schools and 184 runners in the boys' race alone.

Senior Michael Kubel and juniors Andrew Deterding, Levi Grabow and Preston Lyons combined with Meddles for the win.

Bob DePaoli and Ryan Jackson also ran in the varsity race and did exceptionally well in the large field.

The North Tahoe meet breaks down the high school races by classes for the freshman and sophomores. Nathanael Williams ran a very impressive race, coming in first on the 2.7-mile course in a time of 17:31 for the freshman boys. He was followed by Jason Deterding in fifth at 18:51, John McRae in eighth at 19:03 and Anthony Brewer in 14th at 20:24 out of the 60 runners.

The next race combined both freshman and sophomore girls. The girl's team of Becky Grabow and Tori Jackson continued to show great improvement.

Grabow came in 23rd at 24:46 and Jackson came in 41st out of a field of 89 runners.

The sophomore boys also had respectable finishes with Nathan Conover (21st in 19:43), Nick DePaoli (22nd in 19:48) and Ben Martin (63rd in 25:36) all contirbuting.

Sierra Lutheran will compete in the Reed High Invitational in Sparks Friday.