By Sean Ammerman (contact)

Thu, Nov 27, 2008 (midnight)

Centennial's cross country season ended locally in early November, but the Bulldogs runners are still finding races to compete in.

Their first was the Nike Cross Nationals Southwest Championships on Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., where high school runners from Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Wyoming raced to qualify for the national finals.

Centennial junior Nathan Williams led all Southern Nevada runners by finishing the championship division race in 16 minutes, 20 seconds, to take 49th out of 192 competitors. However, it was not enough to qualify for the finals.

"I get more excited for these kinds of races, but I have to be careful," Williams said. "You don't want to push yourself too much at the beginning. You want to finish the race strong."

Williams, who took third in state Nov. 8, was disappointed in his performance, having developed a nagging cramp in his stomach just before the start of the 3.1-mile race.

The hilly course, at odds with the typically flat Las Vegas courses, made matters worse.

"It was much more difficult for me," he said. "There's not a lot you can do when that happens other than stretch and drink a lot of water. It was one of those things where you just wanted to get to the end of the race."

The Centennial girls — competing as Centennial Hills Track Club — were the only Southern Nevada team to compete in the championship division, the most competitive class, finishing 24th out of 25 teams. Centennial's girls went into the race expecting a highly competitive field and hoped to gauge where they stand nationally.

Sophomore Brittany Williams, sister of Nathan Williams, was the top runner for Centennial, finishing 116th out of 187 runners in 20:45.

"I think I started out a little too fast, but considering the competition, I'm happy with how I did," she said. "The course was really tough, but I actually liked it."

The Centennial boys did not compete as a team.

Nathan Williams ran unattached along with Centennial freshman Nick Hartle, who took first place in the freshman-sophomore division, finishing in 16:33.

Hartle and the Williams siblings are now getting ready for the Footlocker West Regional in Walnut, Calif., on Dec. 6.

The three are training for the course, considered one of most challenging in the West, by doing upper-body weight lifting in the gym.

"I learned a lot from the (Southwest Championships)," Nathan Williams said. "I learned that we'll have to work a lot harder to be the best."

Sean Ammerman can be reached at 990-2661 or sean.ammerman@hbcpub.com.