Sophomore from Reno has national following

Nick Christensen

Monday, Nov. 1, 2004 | 9:11 a.m.

It would be natural to think that with the state high school cross country championships set for Boulder City on Saturday, the Southern teams would have an advantage.

After all, the 2A, 3A, and 4A South teams all ran their regional finals at Veteran's Memorial Park on Friday, as they did last year. The course is fairly familiar, certainly moreso than Reno's Rancho San Rafael Park, the standard northern site.

But this isn't an average year. Reno High School sophomore Marie Lawrence has all the southern girls teams worried, and for good reason. At a national tournament in California last year, Lawrence placed second and has been an unstoppable force since.

"She's setting course records all over the place," Silverado coach Brian Whitaker said. "It's going to be fun to watch her run next Saturday."

At Rancho San Rafael, a 3.1-mile course at 5,000 feet, Lawrence ran an 18:26 to lead the North. By comparison, the best finisher from the two southern 4A regions was Palo Verde's Ashley Wimmer, who finished Boulder City's 3.1-mile course in 18:55.

"She's one of the most dominant cross country runners in the nation," Palo Verde coach Robert Davis said. "Ashley's goal is to stay with her as long as she can. She's one of the top two runners in the country, so to make an effort against her is monumental. She wants to see where she stacks up with that talent."

Wimmer led the Panthers to a relative blowout of the rest of the Sunset girls, edging second-place Centennial by 38 points. Three of the top five finishers were from Palo Verde.

"The main thing we really focused on, really for the last month of the season, was it's not about our competition, it's about us running well and running to the limit of our ability," Davis said. "You can be proud of whatever happens -- it happens. That's been our mantra for the last few weeks. We weren't worried about winning, we were worried about going out with our best."

With Palo Verde and Centennial qualifying for state as a team, Clark's Leah Ballard, Shadow Ridge's Michelle Stephenson, Bishop Gorman's Kaila Goff and Jace Howanitz and Cheyenne's Jessica Lazelle were the top five finishers not from those schools, also qualifying for state as individuals. Green Valley and Foothill girls' teams qualified from the Sunrise region, as did Silverado's Kelly Fernandez, who won the Sunrise race at 19:29. Also qualifying were Basic's Amber Purdie and Michelle Taylor, Las Vegas' Sierra Johnson and Valley's Moriah Tobin.

Reno and South Tahoe (Calif.) qualified for the state tournament from the Northern region.

Boys favorite Silverado did not disappoint, finishing first with a 37, far better than second-place Basic's 64. The Skyhawks' Nick Schenk had the best time of the southern boys with a 16:32, and three other Silverado runners finished in the Sunrise top ten.

"Everybody had us tabbed as a favorite. We couldn't deny that, and we had a really good year," Whitaker said. "Nick, he ran great. He's a real capable runner and he's been working hard all season. With Kelly winning the girls race it's kind of nice to see the Skyhawks up front."

Coronado's Adam Marriott and Matt Dalyrmple qualified for state from the Sunrise region as individuals, as did Vo-Tech's Mike Hartwell, Green Valley's Beau McDougall and Las Vegas' Robert Deguchi. Bonanza narrowly edged Palo Verde to claim the Sunset crown, with the Bengals' Braden Simmons leading the way with a 17:20. Durango's Matt Jensen and Andrew Lewis, Cheyenne's Cody Leduff, and Shadow Ridge's Jeremy Sudbury and Adrian Martinez also qualified for state from the Sunset region.

Reno and South Tahoe's boys made it a clean sweep up north, with the Huskies' Joseph Parker running a 16:35 to take the individual title.