Photos by Shannon Litz/Nevada Appeal
RENO - Sierra Lutheran's Nathanael Williams proved again why he is one of the most dominant cross country runners in Northern Nevada.
Williams ran a sizzling 16:40 over the 3.1-mile course to win the 2A individual title and lead his team to a second-place finish Friday at Rancho San Rafael Park.
Williams' time was just two seconds slower than 4A winner Jordan Cardenas and 24 seconds faster than Connor Henderson of South Tahoe, who won the 3A race.
"I felt a little tight," said Williams, who hung around the finish line to congratulate his teammates as they came through the finish chute. "I loosened up about halfway through.
"It's the first time I've run this course (the way it's laid out). I like it. Now, I know what time I can get. I think I can get out faster in that first mile. I didn't feel that good today. I was kind of hoping we were going to win."
Sierra Lutheran's Luke Barulich was ninth in 18:21 and Donovan Harrison was 12th in 18:59. John McRae was 14th in 19:09, Wyatt Hicks finished fifth in 20:16 and Jonny Harms was 29th with a non-scoring 20:32.
Carson boys move on
After missing out on the state meet by one point last year, Carson finished a strong second to Galena on Friday to advance.
Galena was first with 51 points, placing three runners in the top 10. Carson was next with 76 with four runners in the top 20. Bishop Manogue also advanced with 93 points. Douglas was sixth with 133 points. The Tigers were paced by Brandon Pankey, who took ninth in 17:51 to advance to next week.
"I thought we would have a good chance at second," Carson coach Pete Sinnott said. "To do that, everybody had to run well."
As they have all season, Taylor Bradshaw and Michael Shonnard led the Carson boys. Bradshaw was fourth in 17:36 and Shonnard was eighth in 17:50.
"They changed the course a lot," Bradshaw said. "It was interesting to see. We'll see how the guys from Vegas do on the hills."
Bradshaw's performance brought a smile to the face of Sinnott.
"Taylor has been working his way up all season," Sinnott said. "Most of our kids are running as well as they have all season. They competed well.
"I told Michael to stay with the Galena runners. Nick Green had a great race, too."
The key performance by Carson may have been turned in by Dominic Kinder, who is usually the fifth or sixth Carson finisher. He was the fourth Carson finisher, finishing 19th overall at 18:22.
"Dominic moving up to fourth was key," Sinnott said. "Him moving up solidified (and improved) the position. Chris (Merriner) fell once and got tripped once out there."
The falls moved Merriner all the way down to 30th. Freshman Daniel Jauregui was 35th in 19:15 and Anthony Cacioppo was 48th in 20:02.
Dayton duo qualifies
Two Dayton runners - Joe Law and Aaron Elissa - both qualified for next week's state meet.
Law was 11th in 18:28, while Elissa was 12th in the same time. Law caught his teammate right at the finish line.
Dayton finished fifth out of nine teams. South Tahoe won with 49 points, while Elko was second with 74 and Truckee was third with 76. Fernley was fourth with 81.
"I was very pleased with their performance," coach Shawn Anderson said. "It was a long shot going in to finish in the top three. I am glad we beat out Churchill County and Lowry because that was one of our goals. I thought we would finish fourth.
"But I had no idea Truckee was this strong since we never see them. They had three freshman finish in the top eight ... ridiculous."
Skyler Rose was 25th in 19:08, while Jamie Woods was 45th in 20:35 and Nick Langstaff was 46th in 20:37. Phillip Hevener was 56th in 22:19.
