Local runners to compete at Foot Locker Regional

Nine local area runners will compete at the Foot Locker West Regional Cross Country Championships today in Walnut, Calif.

Shanna Sparks, Taryn Joyce-Mendive and Drew Casselberry are entered in the featured seeded girls and boys races -- which serve as qualifiers for the Foot Locker National Championships next weekend -- while Josh Corder, Andrew Pederson, Sheena Bonaldi, Monica Buccambuso, Mike Freeman and Annie Brinson are entered in their respective class races in a meet that will showcase runners representing 12 states to Mt. San Antonio College.

The top eight runners in both the seeded girls and boys races will qualify for the Foot Locker national finals next Saturday, Dec. 8, in Orlando, Fla. A total of 150 runners are entered in the 10:15 a.m. girls race and 219 in the 10:55 a.m. boys race.

Sparks, a Carson High School junior, was Nevada's 4A high school state champion in 2000 and placed 10th at the state meet earlier this month in Reno. Joyce-Mendive, a Douglas High junior, placed 13th in the same state meet race.

To earn a trip to Orlando, they will have to compete with the likes of Amber Trotter from Ukiah, Calif., who won her state high school meet Division I race in a time of 17 minutes, 1 second over 5,000 meters in a driving rain storm last weekend in Fresno. Another blue chip runner in the race is Amber Harper from Orem, Utah, a gold medal winner at the Junior Olympic National Championships held last year in Reno.

Casselberry, a senior at Incline High School, won the 2A state boys race in Reno and two weeks ago placed second at the Region 14 Junior Olympic meet in Fresno with a 5,000-meter personal record time of 16:23.

A pair of Californians who are unbeaten this fall, Yong-sung Leal from Arroyo High (San Leandro) and Billy Nelson from Taft are the featured entries in the boys race. Leal and Nelson ran 15:17 and 15:22 to win their respective Division II and Division IV races at the California state meet.

Corder, who placed third at the state meet for Carson, and Pederson are entered in the junior boys race on Saturday. Bonaldi, who placed eighth for Carson's girls at the state meet, is entered in the freshman girls race. All three run for the Carson City-based Godspeed Wings youth running club.

Buccabuso, a junior at Douglas, is entered in the junior girls race and Freeman, who ran for the Carson Valley Home School cross country program this fall, is entered in the freshman boys race. Freeman ran a personal record 5-K time of 18:26 two weeks ago at the Davis (Calif.) Turkey Trot.

Brinson is a Carson Middle School student who earned Junior Olympic All-American recognition last year.

The list of states to be represented at the Foot Locker Regional include Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. In all, 23 races will be run during the meet.