Shroy second, CHS teams take third

RENO- It's got to be the hair. Or the lack of it.

In what's becoming a tradition for the Carson High boys cross country team, many of the runners shaved their heads for Thursday's Northern 4A Championships at Rancho San Rafael Park. And because sophomore Richard Shroy was able to finish second in the boys race, Carson coach Pete Sinnott will be sporting a shaved head as well.

Shroy's finish led a solid effort by the CHS boys and girls teams, which both finished third to qualify for the NIAA State Championships, which will be held a week from Saturday at Rancho San Rafael Park.

It was also an outstanding day for Douglas High's Whitney Lindsey and the Dayton boys and girls teams. Lindsey pulled off a mild upset, beating South Tahoe's Kelsey Smith to win the 4A girls race. It was the first time this year that Smith, one of the West Coast's top runners, was beaten by a Northern opponent.

Dayton's Theresa Hardy won the 3A girls race to lead the Dust Devils to a third place finish and the state meet. The top three 3A teams and the top four 4A squads advanced to state. Dayton's boys also advanced to state with a third place finish.

But it was a heartbreaking day for the Douglas girls. In another mild upset, Reno won the girls meet with 52 points. South Tahoe was second with 71 and Carson was third with 79.

Douglas and Elko tied for fourth with 117 points. But since Elko's sixt place runner finished faster that the Tigers' sixth place runner - by four places - the Indians got the fourth and final spot to state. The Tigers, though, will have two runners at state as Taylor Biaggi also qualified as an individual.

Galena's boys will be the overwhelming favorite to win the state title after they won the zone title with 26 points. Reno and Carson should both be in the race for second at state. On Thursday, Reno edged Carson 72-84.

Four of Galena's runners finished in the top seven. Manogue finished fourth with 108 points to grab the other state qualifying berth. Douglas High's boys will also be represented at state as Derrik Jenkins qualified as an individual.

For Galena, Bryan Tibaduiza won the boys race, finishing about eight seconds off the meet record. He finished the 3.1-mile course in 16 minutes, 38.71 seconds.

Shroy was second in 17:06. Both of those finishes were excellent times considering the warmer and windy conditions. Galena's Josh Schelling was third in 17:18.71 and the Grizzlies' Joe Abbott was fourth in 17:24.90. Galena's Nathan Jordan took seventh.

Sinnott made a deal with his runners that if either team or an individual finished second, he would shave his head. "I made some kind of deal," Sinnott said.

Two of Carson's female runners came up to Sinnott after Shroy's effort to make sure that he wouldn't welsh on the deal.

"I said first," Sinnott told his runners. "Don't lie," one of the girls responded. The girls were also trying to convince Sinnott to shave his legs. "You can't add stuff up after the event," he said.

Shroy stayed with Tibaduiza for much of the race and finished within 30 seconds of him, giving him a glimmer of hope he can give Tibaduiza a run for his money for the state title. "I'm hoping I can give him a run for his money next week," Shroy said.

"Richard ran a great race," Sinnott said. "He pushed Bryan pretty good for a mile-and-a-half.

"He trained hard this summer. He's peaking at the right time. He was strong the whole race. He just looked real good."

"I think it actually went well," said Shroy about the race. "I just stayed behind Bryan Tibaduiza. I knew he was going to be the person to catch. I'm pround of what I did. It's unbelievable."

Shroy was also proud of the team's effort. "We bonded well," he said. "We ran strong."

For Carson's girls, Yvonne Hollett finished fifth in 20:48.73. "She ran really tough," Sinnott said. "She looked good."

What may have been more surprising than Lindsey's win was the relative ease in which she won. Lindsey won in 20:07.92 while Smith was second in 20:25.33.

Biaggi was 12th in 21:50 to be among the top five runners not on qualifying teams to make it to state.

"I do better in the second half of the race," Lindsey said. "I wanted to go out faster in the first half and try to hold on.

"I just tried to convince myself to push harder. I was really surprised. I was really just amazed."

For Carson's boys, Wwade Smith was 18th in 18:29.63. Jenkins was 19th in 18:30.74 to grab the last state qualifying spot for runners not on qualifying teams.

Also for Carson, Zack Mapes took 20th, Nick Schlager was 25th, Logan Philippi was 27th, Ethan Graber was 28th and Caleb Carter was 46th.

For Carson's girls, Christy Works was 18th, Amanda Gordon was 22nd, Jenny Mital was 24th, Gloria Sosa was 27th, Kat Vonrumpf was 28th and Haleigh Ward was 30th.

Sinnott said Reno, South Tahoe and Carson could all be in the running for the state title next week.

Hardy overtook Incline's Briana Drago in the end to win the 3A girls race. "I just wanted to come in first," Hardy said.

"I thought she was going to get faster, too," said Hardy about her and Drago at the finish. "I was like 'wow, I won.'"

Hardy has been running well lately, which gave her confidence. "I actually felt like I might be able to win," she said.

And Hardy hopes to run even better next week. "I have a better idea of where to pick it up and where to slack off more," she said.

Lowry won the girls race with 45 points while Dayton and Spring Creek finished with 61 points. Spring Creek was awarded second when its sixth fastest girl beat Dayton's sixth fastest girl by one place.

Savannah Pritchett also finished eighth for Dayton's girls. Yerington had two runners qualify for state as Swayze Bauer took fourth and Ashley Austin was 11th.

Dayton's boys finished with 62 points behind Lowry (39) and Truckee (49). Kris Marshall finished fifth for Dayton's boys.