By GABRIELLE SHIOZAWA
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Boys Cross Country team hit a major milestone when they competed on Saturday in the NIAA Southern 3A Regional Championship. The boys narrowly beat out a tough Boulder City team to gain a 4th place spot and qualify, as a team, for the State Finals.
The 5K semi-final race was held at Craig Ranch Park in North Las Vegas and featured the top runners from 12 schools in the 3A division. In the boys’ race, Pahrump Valley’s Bryce Odegard took first on the 5k course with a time of 16:09.7.
The Pirate boys made a huge effort in the race with six out of the seven team members shedding at least a minute off of the previous personal records.
Nathaniel Thompson was the first from Moapa Valley to cross the finish line, taking seventh place with a time of 17:16.4. That time beat Thompson’s personal best, achieved two weeks earlier in the Division Finals, by nearly 2 minutes.
Samuel Jolley and Jerrick Stastny finished just .2 seconds apart. Jolley took 19th place at 18:18.2 beating his personal best by 1:39. Stastny placed 20th at 18:18.4.
In 32nd place with a time of 18:56.0 was Garrett German. German blew away his previous personal record (PR) by an improvement of 2:30 on his time.
Zachary Anderson placed 37th at 19:10.8 improving his personal best by more than a minute. Anderson, who had held tight behind two Boulder City runners throughout the race, made a final push in the last 300 yards. By the finish line, he had overtaken both opponents to give the Pirates the five points needed to secure the fourth place state qualifying spot.
Nathan Waite and Zane Lamping finished off the race for the Pirates with respective times of 19:30.5 and 20:32.1, both set new personal records.
The top four teams in the 3A division qualified for State. SECTA, Pahrump Valley, and Cheyenne took the first three spots in the boys’ event. In fourth place, beating out their Boulder City competitors by a mere five points, was Moapa Valley.
“At the two-mile mark, Boulder City had seven [runners] that had passed the mark before we had our fifth,” said Coach Gary Watkins. “It was just down to the last mile and our guys out-performed Boulder City like nobody’s business. I’m absolutely elated!”
This year marks the sixth consecutive year that the boys’ team will have made it to State.
On the girls’ side, Boulder City’s Sierra Selinger took first in the girls’ race with a time of 19:50.6.
For the Pirates, Emma Thompson finished 36th, crossing the finish line at 23:55.2, beating her PR by about half a minute. In 46th place with a time of 25:02.5 was Miranda Robison, also a personal best improvement of 25 seconds. Kennadie Burt ran the course in 27:25, more than a minute ahead of her previous PR. Gabrielle Shiozawa finished at 27:53, an improvement on her PR of just under two minutes. Anna Stratton finished at 28:16.3. And Katelyn Goddard came in with a time of 29:58.9, an improvement of more than 2 minutes on her PR.
The top four spots in the girls’ competition were taken by SECTA, Boulder City, Desert Pines, and Cheyenne. The MVHS Girls team scored in 8th place in the tournament.
“I felt really good about it,” said Emma Thompson after the race. “It was my best race of the season. I’m really proud of all my teammates and how they did, too.”
“Today was great,” reflected Girls Coach Heather Humes. “I had girls that really excelled and pushed hard and met some goals today, so we’re really excited about that. We’ve got a bright future as a team.”
The boys will compete in the State competition on Saturday, November 5 at Craig Ranch Park.
