Centennial dominates cross country championships

By Jared Harmon

Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 | 2:36 p.m.

The day belonged to Centennial at the Sunset Regional cross country championship meet on Friday as both the boys' and girls' teams left with a region title at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City.

Centennial junior Nathan Williams led the boys by taking the individual title with a first place finish in 16 minutes and 35 seconds. Freshman teammate Nick Hartle followed in third place with a time of 17:00. Juniors Scott Albright (10th, 17:44) and Devon Dane (16th, 18:04) and freshman Billy Gravley (17th, 18:11) rounded out the Bulldogs' top five to earn 47 points, well ahead of second place Palo Verde (74 points) and third place Shadow Ridge (91 points).

"It was a fantastic race for us," Centennial boys coach Mike McGuire said. "The kids exceeded expectations and sucked it up when they needed to. We're confident that we'll do well at state but you never want to get over confident. We should be in the thick of things."

McGuire praised Williams' performance and said he expects the junior phenom, who finished 25 seconds ahead of second place finisher Zach Smith of Palo Verde, to be in the hunt for an individual state title on Nov. 8.

"Nathan is amazing. He's so solid and so consistent," McGuire said. "When that gun goes off he steps it up."

Williams said the course was difficult at times because of the beach-like sandy portions but he felt he handled himself well. With the state meet held in the same location, he thinks he can attack the course even harder the second time around.

"I'll have even tougher competition next week but being more familiar with the course will help," Williams said. "I had a pretty good idea that could have a big race today just from looking at everyone's times at the Division meet. I just came out strong and tried to do my best. It worked out."

Palo Verde seniors Smith and Daniel Wicks finished second and seventh with times of 17:00 and 17:28, respectively. Along with junior teammate Sebastian Karbowniczek who finished ninth in 17:39, the trio gave the Panthers a shot at the Regional title and another chance at a state title.

The Bulldogs, Panthers and Mustangs will be joined by individual qualifiers Jacob Naylor (fourth, Clark), Ricky Barcenas (sixth, Spring Valley), Adonis Gaines (11th, Arbor View), Matt Shelton (12th, Durango) and Greg Marschik (13th, Arbor View).

On the girls side, all five Centennial runners pushed their way into the top-20 to win out a tighter race for the regional title earning 47 points and beating out Shadow Ridge (65 points) and Arbor View (74 points).

The Bulldogs were led by senior Adrielle Wechsler finished third in 21:05 behind Sunset champ Elisa Vazquez of Clark (20:35) and Katie Carrell of Arbor View (20:48).

"I felt really good today," Wechsler said. "I felt like if I had a good race I could get into the top five but I wasn't expecting top three. I pushed myself as hard as I could. I just have to give it my all for every second next week and hope for more of the same."

Wechsler was followed by Bulldog teammates Lindsey Newsome (eighth, 21:41), Brittany Williams (ninth, 21:43), Ashley Davis (14th, 21:58) and Caitlin Kodweis (20th, 22:23) who helped propel Centennial into first place.

"We knew Shadow Ridge was going to be right there with us, step for step," Centennial girls coach Bill Miller said. "We knew it would be a war. All seven of our girls had to do great and they did. They ran as a team all year and we weren't looking for anything different today."

Palo Verde sophomore Kelsi Koch picked up fourth place with her 21:07 finish but the Panthers were unable to squeeze into the state meet after taking fourth place with 106 points. Koch will still move onto the meet as an individual qualifier along with Vazquez, Brielle Crovetti (tenth, Bishop Gorman), Maddie Levine (15th, Bishop Gorman) and Alexa Ayala (19th, Cheyenne).

Jared Harmon can be reached at 990-8922 or [email protected].