Carson High School Cross Country hosts 2019 Sierra League Meet at Washoe Lake State Park

Thursday provided the Carson High School cross country team with a good look at the rest of the Sierra League and a little change of pace Thursday afternoon in Washoe Valley.

In a meet that included, sagebrush, single track, sand, wild horses, some pavement and a sprint thru the lake, Carson finished third in the girls team race and fourth in the boys race during a league meet it hosted at Washoe Lake State Recreation Area on an afternoon that saw cooler temperatures and some rainfall.

“It was a nice effort,” Carson coach Pete Sinnott said. “The course gave the kids a solid workout, Washoe Lake has some nice trails with a lot of sand and some water, and I think the kids had fun with it.”

Thunder showers did force a brief delay after the JV races were completed, Sinnott added. It is not our most important race but it is our home course a great team event.

“It was raining, but one of the Douglas kids had a storm tracker and he saw that the weather was going to clear up if we waited about 10 minutes.”

Zachary Sever ran 19:48.89 over the 5-kilometer course (3.1 miles) to finish the varsity boys race in a virtual dead heat with Galena's Bryce Welton and Matthew Gordon 19:48.07. Welton, who is undefeated on the season, was officially awarded first-place (19:48.07) and Matthew Gordon, the defending region and 4A state champion, was awarded second-place in 19:48.69. Sever improved his personal best time on the course by eight seconds.

“Those guys know each other, so they ran together and turned it into more of a workout,” Sinnott said.
In the Varsity girls race Hannah Kaiser placed seventh (25:25). The base of the team which is all freshman and sophomores that have a lot of potential for growth in the next 5 weeks led the Senators take third-place as a team . They were guided by Claire Cartier 14th (27:51). Claire's time was 2 minutes, 35 seconds faster than last year. Kaitlin Schulze placed 15th (28:01), followed by three freshman teammates, Samantha Schofield in 21st (28:38), Sydney Romeo in 23rd (28:54) and Ava Brehm 25th (29:39). They scored 63 points.

Damonte Ranch scored 28 points to take the girls team win ahead of Douglas (51). Carley Legenbauer of Damonte Ranch was the individual winner in 22:51.

Also for Carson's boys, Walker MacKenzie placed 18th (21:21), Jakob Heller 28th (22:41), Asher Koch 31st (22:49) which is a tremendous improvement of 4 minutes and 27 seconds from last yer. Ethan Baulerle ran 33rd (23:14) to complete the team scoring. Andrew Ingram with very sore feet ran 23:35, an improvement of 46 seconds on the course, and Gabe Crossman ran 23:46, an improvement of 49 seconds.

Galena edged Douglas for the team win, 37-41, and Carson finished fourth with 97 points.
Carson's JV girls finished second as a team with 58 points, edging past Damonte Ranch with 66. Hailey Ponczoch placed fourth (28:28, an improvement of nearly 3 minutes). She was followed in scoring by Gilnger Cullom18th, Gianna Johnson 19th, Isabel Cartier, 20th and Erin Cartier 21st.

Douglas won the JV boys race by a 41-43 margin, followed by Carson with 64 points. Freshman Dominic Valdez provided a highlight for the Senators with his third-place 23:16 effort. This was the 6th fastest overall time for a Carson boy. Kyle Holloway placed fifth (23:32, an improvement of 1 minute, 9 seconds from last year). Michael Magee of Douglas won the race in 22:46.

Next up for the Senators is the 57th

annual Nevada Union Invitational in Grass Valley, Calif Sept 14th.