Carson runners take second at Stanford

The Carson girls cross country team showed it was among the best in the West at the Stanford Invitational.

Carson placed second on Saturday in Division I for big schools in the meet that featured 33 of the top teams in the West Coast. The Senators finished 29 points behind winner Jesuit of Portland. Among the ranked teams in the West Coast that Carson beat were Buchanan of Clovis, Calif. and Woodland.

Reno placed second in Division II in the meet, setting up a showdown between the two schools when they will compete in the Carson Invitational on Friday.

"Next Friday's going to be interesting," Carson coach Jason Macy said. "It will be interesting to see us against Reno. It's kind of nice to see a couple of Northern Nevada schools compete with that level of schools."

Carson was able to finish second even though Shanna Sparks didn't have one of her better races. Sparks settled for 15th place in the event.

"She didn't have the best race of her life today," Macy said. "She was a little off in her time.

"She was disappointed in her race. She's going to come back and run a strong race next week. She'll shrug it off."

Also for Carson, Cassia Roth placed 32nd, Ali Marson was 47th, Sheena Banaldi was 50th, Emily Johnson placed 61st, Lindsay Dorio was 76th and Megan Zahnter took 98th.

Macy said the performance of Marson, Banaldi and Johnson was key to his team's success.

"Emily Johnson had a great race," Macy said. "She had a really, really strong race for us."

Carson's boys also had a solid performance, placing 20th. For the Senators, Josh Corder took 56th, Jeff Martin placed 62nd, Andrew Pederson finished 80th and Brett Anderson took 139th. Also competing for Carson were Brian Rebholz, Doug Holderman and Jason Strull.

Macy said Carson had to overcome its share of adversity such as Anderson losing his shoe.

"Josh Corder wasn't pleased with his race," Macy said. "He thought he could run better."