Schroy paces Carson cross country in opener

Chad Schroy ran to second-place in the junior boys race and logged the second fastest time of the day overall to lead the Carson High cross country team in its season opener at the Northern 4A all-class meet on Friday afternoon in Gardnerville.

Schroy was edged out by Elko's Kyle Alegria in a close race for first-place in the junior race at Lampe Park. Alegria was clocked at 13 minutes, 20 seconds on a flat and fast 2.4-mile course, while Schroy finished in 13:23. By comparison, the next fastest time in any of the other boys races was Hug's Adrian Garcia, who finished first in the senior race in 13:29.

"Chad's in pretty good shape," Carson coach Dennis Brinson said. "I had a GPS watch and converted his time to 17:17 for 5K, which is pretty good for his first race of the year."

Carson had other highlights on the day. Among those, Christy Works placed fourth in the sophomore girls race in a time of 16:20 that ranked No. 1 for the Senators. Annie Brinson also placed fourth in the senior girls race and her time of 16:59 was second fastest on the team. Hannah Riedl also took fourth in the freshman girls race with a 17:49 effort. Carson's girls also landed three runners in the top 10 of the junior girls race: Hannah Works was fifth (17:58), Meagan Myer sixth (18:02) and Danielle Judge seventh (18:05).

Ethan Graber, who is out for his first cross country season after playing football last year, emerged as Carson's second fastest boy, as he ran 14:41 to place ninth in the sophomore race. He only finished 40 seconds behind the winner, South Tahoe's Patrick Riley.

Other top 10 finishers for Carson included Zack Mapes, seventh (16:05) and Mark Neddenriep eighth (16:14) in the freshman boys race; Jenny Mital, seventh in the freshman girls race (18:21); Gloria Sosa eighth (17:10) in the sophomore girls race.

In the senior boys race, Rusty Turner finished 11th for Carson (16:08), Stephen Maples 12th (16:21), Ahron Osheroff 15th (16:41), Sam Saunders 18th (17:07) and Jeff Turner 22nd (19:40). For Saunders, the race was his first in two years coming off back surgery.

Carson's Kristen Neddenriep finished 14th in the senior girls race 18:06. The fastest time of the day among the girls was posted by Galena's Alyssa Abbott, who won the senior girls race in 15:06.

Also for the Senators, Caleb Carter was 16th (15:32) an Tyler Davies 19th (16:01) in the sophomore boys race; Mike Rupert was 11th (16:38), Lionel Austin 16th (18:03) and Andrew Richards 22nd (18:43) in the freshman boys race (won by Galena's Bryan Tibaduiza in 13:51); Libby Rheault 18th (22:27) in the freshman girls race; Chris Kuhn 22nd (16:10) and Andrew Stevenson 34th (19:30) in the junior boys race. Kristin Dockery ran 17:11 in the sophomore girls race, Andrea Keirstead ran 21:39 in the junior girls race and Carrie Linn 25:47 in the sophomore race.

Overall, it was a good way to start the season, according to Brinson.

"It was just the first race and everybody was just kind of shaking off the cobwebs, trying to focus on how to race," he said. "There was no pressure in this race. I just expect them to get faster and faster throughout the season. And hopefully, at the end of the season, they'll be healthy and running their best."

Another highlight was the way the Senators were bunched together in their times. For example, Brinson pointed out that the time differential between the fifth and ninth girls was only 17 seconds, and the difference between the fifth and 11th boys was 40 seconds.