Even a couple of wrong turns couldn't prevent Shanna Sparks from winning another cross country race. By the same token, Daryl Nourse may have welcomed a little adversity in his race on Wednesday afternoon.
As it turned out, both Carson High School runners won with relative ease and helped the Senators' boys and girls teams breeze to victories during a three-way Northern 4A conference meet on their home course at Fuji Park.
Nourse was out front all the way to win the boys race with a 17 minutes, 11 seconds. He crossed the finish more than a minute ahead of teammates Andrew Pederson and Jeff Martin.
"It was OK," Nourse said after winning his first race of the fall season. "I wasn't really feeling all that good. My legs were a little tired and I was kind of lonely, actually. I'm not used to running alone."
That wasn't entirely a problem in the girls race for Sparks, who took two brief wrong turns on the sandy and hilly 5,000-meter course but still managed to remain unbeaten in Nevada this season. The sophomore cruised to a 20:12 clocking, 64 seconds ahead of Taryn Joyce-Mendive of Douglas.
Sparks also led a charge in which Carson captured eight of the top 10 places and captured the team victory by a 19-46 margin over Douglas. Fallon finished third with 80 points.
The boys team story was similar, as Carson swept the top three places and seven of the top 10 to defeat Douglas, 18-41. Fallon was third with 83 points.
"It was a good meet for us," Carson coach Jason Macy said. "Basically, we're taking it easy this week leading up to Stanford, so it was nice to be able to come out and run without pressure."
There will be no lack of competition on Saturday when the Senators compete at the Stanford Invitational, which will draw high-powered teams from California, Oregon and Nevada.
"That's a big meet for us," Macy said.
Sparks finished third in the Division I meet last year. This time, she will be up against a field that is expected to include Anita Siraki of Hoover High in Glendale, Calif., who was undefeated during the spring track season en route to the California state title.
The Stanford meet will present a new challenge for Nourse.
"I don't know anything about California competition, so I'm not sure what to expect," said Nourse, a senior in his fourth season with Carson's cross country program. "I'd like to run my p.r. (personal record for 5,000 meters), which is 16:47.
"I'd also like to come back here the week after and break 17 minutes at our invitational," he added, referring to the Carson Invitational at Fuji Park on Friday, Oct. 6.
Pederson, a sophomore, finished second in Wednesday's boys race with a time of 18:22, two seconds ahead of Martin. Mike Hackler of Douglas was third in 18:35.
"This was a very good outing for Mike," Douglas coach Keith Cole said. "He's been consistently running No. 2 for us all season and he gets stronger every race."
Joyce-Mendive ran 21:16 to finish second for Douglas, followed by a pack of Carson runners that included Megan Zahnter (21:41), Sarah Shaw (22:05) and Amy Martin (22:20).
"It was good to see Megan pop up like that," Macy said of Zahnter, a junior. "She was sick and had been stuck in the four position (on the team) for a while, but it looks like she's bouncing back."