SUNRISE REGION: Greene leads Falcon boys to title; Coronado takes girls crown

Foothill senior Carl Greene hadn’t beaten Del Sol’s Colin Smith in a cross country race all season.

Greene certainly picked a good time to end the streak.

Running in the Sunrise Region meet at Boulder City’s Veterans Memorial Park on Friday, Greene and Smith broke away from the field and the Foothill runner surged in the final mile to finish five seconds ahead of Smith.

Greene completed the 3.1-mile race in 16 minutes, 32 seconds and led Foothill to the boys team title.

“I gave it all I had,” Greene said. “I got him at the bottom of the hill. I didn’t expect the pace to be as slow as it was. Toward the end I wanted it to be an all-out race.”

Foothill had a team score of 53. Coronado was second with 64 and Tech third at 106. The top three teams and the top five individuals not on a qualifying team advance to next week’s state meet.

“They ran pretty well,” Foothill coach Tim Simonis said of his team. “They did a good job today, that’s for sure. It was nice to win one.”

 

Smith wasn’t at full strength for the showdown, but offered no excuses.

“I’ve had trouble (with a pulled groin),” he said. “I’ve been recovering, and of the last 10 days I’ve taken six of them off. Every time I run it flares back up. I didn’t feel it running today, but I’m not as sharp as I could be.”

Silverado’s Dante Carter was third in 16:57.

Qualifying for state as individuals, along with Smith and Carter, were Del Sol’s Casey Walter (17:13) and Nick Priego (17:24) and Silverado’s Dennis Coughlin (17:30).

Coronado, Green Valley and Foothill turned the regional race into their own triangular meet.

The three squads combined to take 16 of the top 21 places, and all three easily advanced to the state meet.

Coronado, which had three of the top five finishers, won with 34 points. Green Valley (46) was second and Foothill (61) third.

Kristal Hosaka, who is normally the Cougars’ No. 2 runner, took an early but narrow lead over a pack of Green Valley’s Alyssa Rapovy and Lindy Eskin, and Coronado’s Erin Smith.

Rapovy eventually gained an 8-second lead over Smith at the 2-mile point and turned it on from there, winning easily in 19:51 to Smith’s time of 20:24. Eskin finished third (20:43) and Hosaka hung on for fourth (20:57).

“That was a really cool race,” said Rapovy. “I started pushing all the way at the bottom of the hill, all the way to the end.”

Coronado coach Mark Tondryk was pleased to come away with the team win. He had said before the race that the key was for his fifth and sixth runners to beat Green Valley’s fifth runner.

The Cougars’ three freshmen, Emma Czerwinski, Sara Dort, and Logan Lucas, all finished in the top 13 and their sixth runner, sophomore Katie Monaco, was 20th. Green Valley’s fifth runner finished 21st.

“Emma Czerwinski (fifth overall) really came through for us,” added Tondryk.

The five individuals qualifying for state were Tech’s Taylor Coss (21:06), Basic’s Jessica Raymond (21:21), Desert Pines’ Marisa Denton (21:40), Eldorado’s Gaby Vazquez (21:45), and Las Vegas’ Shelby Nelson (21:50).

 

x-Foothill 53, x-Coronado 64, x-Tech 106, Del Sol 108, Basic 128, Green Valley 136, Silverado 157, Valley 213, Eldorado 259, Las Vegas 275, Liberty 323, Rancho 372, Sunrise Mountain 387

1, Carl Greene, Foot, 16:32; 2, x-Colin Smith, DS, 16:37; 3, x-Dante Carter, Sil, 16:57; 4, Kyler Campbell, Foot, 17:06; 5, x-Casey Walter, DS, 17:13; 6, Martin Ponce, Tec, 17:17; 7, Ryan Gehring, Cor, 17:19; 8, Zach Zimdars, Tec, 17:20; 9, Alan Ekanger, Cor, 17:21; 10, x-Nick Priego, DS, 17:24;
11, Arie Dennis, Foot, 17:27; 12, Brian Marshall, Foot, 17:29; 13, x-Dennis Coughlin, Sil, 17:30; 14, Mark Hickey, Cor, 17:33; 15, Alex Carrasco, Cor, 17:33; 16, Sebastian Hernandez, Tec, 17:33; 17, Kaleb Stumbaugh, Bas, 17:38; 18, Doug Harris, GV, 17:41; 19, Cameron Neal, Cor, 17:41; 20, Alec McMillan, Val, 17:42

x-Coronado 34, x-Green Valley 46, x-Foothill 61, Basic 119, Tech 146, Las Vegas 197, Silverado 234, Valley 261, Del Sol 274, Desert Pines 274, Liberty 282, Chaparral 339, Eldorado 341

1, Alyssa Rapovy, GV, 19:51; 2, Erin Smith, Cor, 20:24; 3, Lindy Eskin, GV, 20:43; 4, Kristal Hosaka, Cor, 20:57; 5, Emma Czerwinski, Cor, 21:02; 6, x-Taylor Coss, Tec, 21:06; 7, Ryanne Bailey, Foot, 21:08; 8, Steffani Stokes, Foot, 21:13; 9, Stacie Hall, GV, 21:15; 10, Logan Lucas, Cor, 21:20;
11, x-Jessica Raymond, Bas, 21:21; 12, Kayla Anderson, GV, 21:22; 13, Sara Dort, Cor, 21:23; 14, Sage Long, Foot, 21:35; 15, Alyse Vanek, Foot, 21:36; 16, x-Marisa Denton, DP, 21:40; 17, Cheyanne Jones, Foot, 21:43; 18, x-Gaby Vazquez, Eld, 21:45; 19, Katie Monaco, Cor, 21:48; 20, x-Shelby Nelson, LV, 21:50

x-state qualifier