NIAA cross country

Girls hit their 'peak,' win second title in three years

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RENO — The Carson High girls took a page from their 2007 playbook on Saturday at the NIAA Cross Country Championships. And once again, the

Carson girls state cross country champs

Photo byJeanne G. Stelzers

Just like they did two years ago, the underdog Carson girls used a team effort to move up and win the 4A team championship during competition at Rancho San Rafael Park. The Senators packed four runners into the top 20 to score 58 points, followed by Arbor View (83) and South Tahoe (90) in the race for team honors.

The result was much different than the Northern 4A Regionals one week before, when South Tahoe bested Carson by a 41-69 margin. Then again, coach Pete Sinnott reminded the Senators they were running for their second state championship in three years.

"I told them last week they were 3 minutes and 25 seconds behind South Tahoe, but the 2007 team was five minutes back at regionals ... and that they had the ability to do the same thing again," Sinnott said. "I told them, 'You guys are starting to come to your peak, you just have to look at the top of the mountain and not take your focus off until you get to the top.'"

The Senators completed their ascent led by Katie McFarren's second-place effort of 19:32 over the hilly 5-kilometer layout. The senior trailed only South Tahoe's Kelsey Smith, who became the sixth girl to win three individual state titles as she won with an 18:59 clocking.

Meanwhile Amanda Gordon placed 10th (20:44), Amber Karnofel 14th (20:59), Yvonne Hollett 18th (21:13) and Erika Sosa 43rd (22:06) to complete the scoring for Carson. Chelsea Gordon also finished 48th (22:22) and Haleigh Ward 62nd (23:22).

"We were pumped today," said Amanda Gordon, a junior who cracked the top 10 at state for the second year in a row. "I know I was excited. I knew we could pull through again, just like we did my freshman year."

That enthusiasm ran from top to bottom.

"This is really exciting," said Ward, a four-year veteran of the Carson program. "I was looking back at what we did (in 2007). It kind of pushed me to go faster. This is my senior year, I wanted to push as hard as I could."

Gordon was Carson's fourth runner and 18th overall at the regional meet, but improved her time by 13 seconds to provide a big boost on Saturday.

"Amanda really came on strong at the end of the season," Sinnott said. "I really think she'd be pushing for first-place if we had another month to go in the season."

Hollett, who has battled a hip ailment through much of the season, and Sosa, who was ill late in the week, also came up with clutch contributions.

"If not for both of them, it could have been a different story today," Sinnott said. "We weren't sure up until today how well Erika was going to be. And Yvonne was huge the way she ran so gutsy both weeks. If she doesn't run last week, we might not have even qualified for the state meet."

Ironically, even though Carson finished 5-2 during its Sierra League dual meet season, this was their first victory all season in a large meet. But as Carson assistant coach Tom Sullivan pointed out, no meet is bigger than the last one.

"I like to tell people, 'You only have to beat everybody once a year,'" Sullivan said, laughing.

HISTORY:

Carson's boys have won three state championships, taking three in a row between 1989 and '91 and now 2009. The girls have won state team titles in 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2001, 2007 and now 2009.

Individually, Bob Ryser won back-to-back state titles in 1989-90, Robb Parish won in 1994, Alexander Tomas won in 1996, Chad Shroy in 2006 and now Richard Shroy in 2009. On the girls side, Lauren Miller won in 1982, Cindy Rockwood in 1984 and '86, Kim Orlando in 1990, Sarah Piccolo in 1991 and Shanna Sparks in 2000.

Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association:

http://www.niaa.com/

See link to results:

http://www.nts-timing.com/2009NIAAXC/