Annie Brinson and Meagan Myer finished 28th and 29th respectively with personal record times in their Young Women's division age group race for the Sierra Flyers at the USATF Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships held in Smithfield, R.I., on Saturday.
Brinson, a Carson High School senior, lowered her best time by 13 seconds as she covered a snow-lined 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) course at Bryant University in a time of 19 minutes, 48.71 seconds.She crossed the finish one second ahead of Myer (19:49.98), a junior at Carson. It marked the first time under 20 minutes for both runners.
Not bad considering Friday's pre-race workout was conducted in a blizzard that produced eight to 10 inches of snow.
"Well, it was a wild trip, but well worth it," said Flyers coach Dennis Brinson, who took 10 team members on the trip. "All of the Carson City runners and their parents had travel difficulties because of the weather. We all made it to the starting line, though."
On Saturday, the sun came out and temperatures were in the mid-30s for the more than 2,000 runners ages 8 to 18.
"It was a perfect running day, if you don't count the fact that the first 400 meters were in 6 to 8 inches of fresh snow," Brinson said. "The organizers did a good job clearing most the deep snow, but left 1 to 2 inches of packed snow on the course."
In the Youth Boys 4K race, Nick Schlager placed 77th with a 15:37 clocking and teammate Brent Moyle finished 187th in 16:38.
Gloria Sosa also cracked the top 100 in the Intermediate Girls 5K race, as she placed 98th in 21:04.
In the Midget Girls 3K race, Alexandra Schlager finished 137th in a time of 14:34 and Samantha McCarty finished 173rd in 15:00. Peter Brinson also finished 173rd in 13:40 and Nicholas Dicianno took 227th in 15:01. In the Youth Girls 4k race, Hannah Riedl finished 145th in 18:27.
The top 25 finishers in each race received All-American recognition.
One highlight for the Reno-based Silver State Striders was Tiffany Heflin, who finished second in the Midget Girls 3K race with a 12:08.61 effort, just one-half second behind Amanda Ward of Team Idaho in first-place. Joelle Slater (18:20.38) and Nicole Lajeunesse (18:28.87) placed ninth and 13th respectively for the Striders in the Intermediate Girls 5K race.