Green Valley boys dominate Sunrise Regional cross country meet

Heather Cory

Centennial’s Nathan Williams pushes ahead during the Sunset boys’ Cross Country Championships at Veteran’s Memorial Park on Friday.

By Jared Harmon (contact)

Friday, Oct. 31, 2008 | 5:03 p.m.

In cross country, it's not who your fastest runner is but rather who is your slowest.

Green Valley High's boys' cross country team relied on that strategy Friday in the Sunrise Regional meet at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City. Each of the Gators' five runners finished in the top 14 and within 23 seconds of each other.

The runners, all juniors, earned 53 points to edge a strong Foothill team (74) and third place Southeast Career Technical Academy (77). All three teams advance to the Nov. 8 state meet the same course.

"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 were led by Jason Ferraro who took seventh in the 3.1-mile race in 17 minutes, 36 seconds. He was followed by teammates Julius Kim (ninth, 17:41), Matt Campa-Moreno (10th, 17:48), DJ Montello (11th, 17:58) and Cagen Combs (14th, 17:59).

"Going into the meet, on paper, I had us scoring pretty well," Thompson said. "You never know how the kids will respond though. "

Foothill received top 10 finishes from senior Chris Perrine (fourth, 17:31), sophomore Carl Greene (fifth, 17:33) and junior Brian Arvizu (eighth, 17:38). Tech was led by seniors Jose Escamilla (third, 17:29) and Chris Rising (11th, 17:51).

While his team did not make the state meet, Liberty junior Al Galan will be representing the Patriots as an individual qualifier after taking the regional title with a first place finish in 17:12.

"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 he saw Galan on the path that would lead to the regional title in last year's 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."

Galan will join fellow individual qualifiers 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 capture the region.

The Cougars put three runners in the top five to earn 37 points to earn their trip to the state meet along with second place Foothill (59 points) and third place Green Valley High (97 points).

"We're definitely excited about how well the girls ran," Coronado coach Mark Tondryk said. "We know (Sunset Region champion) Centennial and whoever the North sends will be tough but hopefully we can maintain and not peak to early. We need all seven of our girls to bust it out. We can't rely on just one or two."

After senior captain Michaelanne Laurent finished second in 19:56 to lead the Cougars, she was quickly joined at the finish line by teammates Lauren Lucas (third, 20:57) and Kristal Hosaka (fifth, 21:27). Sophomore Ally Ruggles and freshman Samantha Harrison finished 14th and 15th, respectively, to put the Cougars over the top.

"We've been running well all year so I knew we could do this if we had a good day," Tondryk said. "The only real surprise is (Ruggles). She's been our eight or nine girl all year but we had some injuries so we put her in and she did fantastic."

Foothill senior Leah Leedy took the individual title, her third straight regional championship, after crossing the line in 19:15. Her freshman teammate Sage Long's fourth place finish (21:13) helped push the Falcons into second place.

"It doesn't matter how long I've been racing or whether it's a big or small meet, I still get nervous before every race," Leedy said. "My coaches just told me to relax and have fun and I had a good race. I still think I can get a little faster before next week. I didn't have a good race last year so hopefully I can get a good one in as a senior."

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

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