Liberty’s Galan runs to regional win

Heather Cory

Liberty’s Al Galan crosses the finish line, winning the Sunrise region boys Cross Country Championships at Veteran’s Memorial Park on Friday.

By Jared Harmon (contact)

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 | midnight

While the Liberty boys cross country team will not be competing at the Nevada State Championship meet, junior Al Galan made sure the Patriots will still be represented.

Galan out-ran 88 of the area's top boys Oct. 31 at the Sunrise Regional Championship meet in Boulder City at Veterans Memorial Park's 3.1-mile course to take the title in 17 minutes, 12 seconds. The win gives him a berth in Saturday's state meet — the first time a Liberty runner has reached state since the school opened in 2003..

"All throughout the race I just kept telling myself that I could take this," Galan said. "I could see the shadows of anyone who was behind me and I saw (Valley's second-place finisher Solomon Belay's) shadow on the ground. He caught up and ran with me for awhile, but toward the end I just pulled away."

Liberty coach Harold Vaughn said Galan started to make improvements last spring during the track season.

"Last year, you could really see him grow as a runner," Vaughn said. "He's been very focused on winning this race and he accomplished that. He tends to race to his competition and he'll have some tough competition next week. I guarantee he'll work just as hard to win that race, too."

In team competition, the day belonged to the Green Valley High boys, who won the region by packing all five runners in the top 14 and all within 23 seconds of each other.

The pack of Gators, all juniors, earned 53 points to edge a strong Foothill team (74 points) and third place Southeast Career and Technical Academy (77). All three teams will now move on to the Nevada State Championship meet, but the momentum should be behind the Gators.

"The boys were very competitive today and even tighter than we expected them to be," Green Valley coach Blaine Thompson said. "We had our three, four and five runners running where other teams had their two and three kids. Anytime that happens you're in a good spot."

The Gators' finishers were Jason Ferraro (seventh, 17:36), Julius Kim (ninth, 17:41), Matt Campa-Moreno (10th, 17:48), DJ Montello (11th, 17:58) and Cagen Combs (14th, 17:59).

Joining Galan as individual qualifiers were Belay, Aaron Adkins (sixth, Las Vegas High), Colin Smith (12th, Del Sol) and Austin Parker (15th, Coronado).

In the girls race, a tight pack again proved to be the key as Coronado put all five runners in the top 15 to beat a Foothill team that took the first and fourth place individually.

The Cougars put three runners in the top five, earning 37 points to win the region and earn a trip to state with second place Foothill (59 points) and third place Green Valley High (97 points).

Coronado senior captain Michaelanne Laurent finished second in 19:56 and teammates Lauren Lucas (third, 20:57) and Kristal Hosaka (fifth, 21:27) followed close. Sophomore Ally Ruggles and freshman Samantha Harrison finished 14th and 15th, respectively.

Foothill senior Leah Leedy won the individual title, her third straight regional championship in 19:15.

Individual qualifiers for the girls include Heather Hollinger (sixth, Canyon Springs), Joslyn Evans (seventh, Liberty), Ana Mata (eighth, Southeast Tech), Wendy Villa (ninth, Valley) and Claudia Gonzalez (10th, Eldorado).

Jared Harmon can be reached at 990-8922 or jared.harmon@hbcpub.com.