SUNRISE REGION: Gators dominate girls field, sweep Sunrise titles

Green Valley's girls hoped Friday would be their day.

Even the Gators couldn't have expected anything quite this good.

Sunrise Region runners-up last year, the Gators dominated the field Friday, placing three runners in the top six and six in the top 14 to easily win the Sunrise Region meet at Veterans' Memorial Park in Boulder City.

Green Valley freshman Mia Smith won the 3.1-mile race in 20 minutes, 47 seconds, and Gator runners just kept on coming. By the time Green Valley's fifth runner had crossed the finish line, no other team had had more than two runners cross.

"It's their mindset," said first-year coach Bud Beam. "It's a very senior-heavy, driven team. They've got lots of experience. It's awesome. This is everything they have been training for all year.

"These girls work harder than any group I've ever been around. This is fulfilling for me, but for them, for so many of these girls, it's their last region race. It's just awesome."

Smith, the only freshman in the Gators' top seven, set the tone, separating from the pack in the last mile to win by 18 seconds over Foothill freshman Myna Buckley (21:05). Coronado's Danielle Greene was third in 21:19, one second ahead of Basic's Raquel Chavez (21:20).

"I was just trying to stay with the Basic girl before the last mile because I knew that I am always stronger in the last mile," Smith said. "I just started to go. I knew I could finish."

Starting a downhill portion of the course in the final half-mile, Smith had the race in hand.

"It was one of the goals I had at the beginning of the year," Smith said of winning the region meet. "I reached it, so that's pretty cool."

Sara Braverman was fifth and Amy Amezcua sixth for Green Valley, which also got top-15 efforts from Milena Palor (11th), Cassandra Palor (12th) and Taylor Dixon (14th). Green Valley had a team score of 35. Coronado was second with 71, followed by Foothill with 95.

The top three teams and top five individuals not on a top-three team advance to the state meet next week in Reno.

"We knew we had the heart to do this," Smith said. "It took a lot for us to get to this point. I'm proud of everyone on this team."

SUNRISE BOYS

Nearly everyone expected Green Valley's Austin Rogers to win the Sunrise Region boys race.

The senior didn't disappoint.

With a target on his back and plenty of pressure on him to perform well, Rogers had the best time of the day Friday and easily took the Sunrise title in 16:33.

His Green Valley teammates weren't far behind as the Gators put four runners in the top six and five in the top 12 to win their second straight team title.

"My teammates always ask me why I'm nervous because I'm expected (to win)," Rogers said. "But it gives you more pressure because if you do bad, people always ask 'what happened to him?' The pressure always comes, but I just try to run through it."

Rogers took the lead just before the one-mile mark, posting a mile-split time of 5:08. Coronado's Xavier Cummins, Las Vegas' Miguel Ramirez and Basic's Steven Birch all were close behind.

Rogers didn't let them stay close for long.

"After the mile, I just wanted to keep that pace because we were going pretty fast," Rogers said. "I knew if I kept that pace that a couple of the kids behind me would kind of die down."

Green Valley's Lenny Rubi made up ground on the field to finish second in 17:07. Birch was third in 17:29, and Cummins took fourth in 17:29.

The Gators' Milton Amezcua was fifth in 17:33, three seconds ahead of teammate Dartanyon Jones.

Green Valley finished with 26 points. Basic was second with 46, and Coronado took third with 105.

"We've been talking about this since day one of the summer," Rogers said. "We weren't expected to win. Basic returned everybody, and we lost three or four of the top seven from last year. We had good team chemistry."