Diamondbacks’ Locey breaks through to win Lake Mead Invitational

That all changed Saturday morning in her eighth and final race.

The senior broke through, winning the Boulder City Invitational. She finished the 3.1-mile race in 20 minutes, 41.2 seconds.

Madison Fletcher of Arbor View was second in 20:53.7. Green Valley’s Amy Amezcua placed third in 20:59.6, followed by Shadow Ridge’s Julia Pack (21:03.9) and Arbor View’s Nicole Snow (21:13.2).

“It’s like the best thing ever,” Locey said. “We have homecoming today, so it’s going to be a lot better, for sure.”

Last year’s Lake Mead Invitational saw four girls break the 20-minute mark, including eventual state champion Sydney Badger.

“She ran behind some really, really good runners the past few years,” Diamondbacks coach Jim Dinkel said of Locey. “There are some really good runners this year as well, but she felt that she could compete with these girls. Today, she ran very well. I was very proud.”

Locey battled through injuries last season after hitting a major growth spurt, but still managed to qualify for the state meet in Reno.

“She has been getting progressively better all season long,” Dinkel said. “She had a fairly difficult junior year with some injuries and what not, but she’s been healthy, she’s been confident and she’s really enjoying what she’s doing this year. That’s what’s most important to me, is that she’s enjoys running again.

“She leads by example. The girls look up to her; the boys compete with her. She’s so self-driven. I don’t ever have to motivate her. She motivates herself, which is an endearing quality for any athlete.”

On Saturday, Locey began finding separation around the one-mile mark, and was at or near the front the rest of the way.

“I was just trying to get there before the girl behind me, honestly,” said Locey.

About 400 meters from the finish line, Locey knew she had to crank it up in order to win.

“You can hear the voices behind you,” she said. “It’s great. It was definitely tough, and I kept catching myself slowing down, but I told myself to speed it up because that was one of my problems here before.

“At first I really wanted to have a personal record. And once the race started, I really wanted to get first.”

Arbor View placed three runners in the top 10 to win the girls team competition with 44 points. Coronado was second with 64, followed by Shadow Ridge (73), Green Valley (104) and Cimarron-Memorial (138).

“The girls ran really well today,” Aggies coach Tyrel Cooper said. “We have a lot of girls at Arbor View that love to run cross country and they all run hard. Our third and fourth runners were taking their SATs today, so I was really on our five-six-seven runners to push it and help close the gap. I’m very happy with them.”

Green Valley junior Austin Rogers won the boys race in 16:45.7. Bishop Gorman’s Jacob Holland (17:05.1) was second, followed by Shadow Ridge’s Johnathon Blaine (17:15.1), Gorman’s Robert Daseler (17:24.5) and Basic’s Steven Birch (17:27.6).

“I did meet my expectations,” Rogers said. “I’ve been training hard all week, all season really. It’s finally good to get my confidence up with the win. I’ve been working my butt off. This is my favorite course because I tend to do well.”

Coronado edged out Basic’s boys with a team score of 74. The Wolves were second with 80, ahead of Shadow Ridge (90), Green Valley (96) and Gorman (128).

Faith Lutheran won the Division I-A boys title with 37 points, followed by Clark (39) and Tech (84).

Chase Wood topped the boys race in 16:50.1 for the Crusaders. Tech’s Garrett Meyer placed second in 17:02.5, and Pahrump Valley’s Bryce Odegard was third in 17:32.7.

Clark won the Division I-A girls title with 58 points, just ahead of Boulder City (60).

Del Sol’s Ingrid Zarate took first in 21:19.4. Boulder City’s Jessica Embro was second in 21:28.2, and Faith Lutheran’s Kendall Larson was third in 21:33.2.