Carson High's girls cross-country team won its first regional championship last year, and with seven runners returning from that squad, the chance to duplicate that feat is very possible.
"We had a good state meet (third place), but a couple of injuries prevented us from being at our peak," coach Pete Sinnott said. "Most of the kids are back except for Amanda Gordon and Ashley Salcedo.
"We have a strong group of girls back, and they are doing a pretty good job right now. These girls are competitive. We've been training real well, but having to deal with the heat. It's been in the 90s, but they have been working and sweating."
Sinnott has four runners - sophomores Alex Drozdoff and Cindy Juchtzer, junior Mallory Wilson and senior April Shonnard - who have legitimate chances to make state as individuals if Carson's team doesn't advance.
Drozdoff was fourth (20:24). Shonnard was seventh (20:31), Wilson took 19th (21:26), Juchtzer was 46th.
Seniors Chelsea Gordon and Erika Sosa (52nd last year) also return along with junior Avery Hudak. Freshman Shelby Brown has an opportunity to be a point scorer for the Senators.
"You have to have eight or 10 good runners because you never know when somebody is going to have a bad day," Sinnott said. "Having a good fifth person (the last scorer for a team) is really big."
On the boys side, Sinnott returns two solid runners in Taylor Bradshaw and Nick Green. Backing that duo up are Chris Merriner, Craig Smith, Tony Xie, Dominic Kinder. Bryen Holloway, Michael Leiken, Tyler Chester, Simon White and Daniel Jauregui, a freshman.
"We'll have a better idea of where we are after the first meet (Douglas Class Races on Friday)," Sinnott said. "The boys have been training really hard and running decent times in practice. This group of kids are competitive."
Bradshaw is Carson's top quarter-miler and Green runs the mile for the CHS track team.
The Carson squads will be running in several big meets this season - the UNR Twilight Invitational, Stanford, Clovis and Bronco Invitational.
Carson's lone home dual meet is Sept. 20 at Washoe State Park. Sinnott said that all the dual meets this year have been moved from Wednesday to Tuesday.
