Sierra Lutheran cross country impressive

Appeal Staff Report

The Sierra Lutheran High boys and girls cross country teams have gotten off to a strong start to the season.

Among the highlights has been Wayne Meddles winning the junior class at the Douglas Invitational on Friday.

With freshman Becky Grabow and Tori Jackson, Sierra Lutheran is again fielding a girls cross country team. Bot had respectable finishes to open the season at the Twilight Meet at Ranch San Rafael Park.

Sierra Lutheran coach Dave Marson said both "ran very well" at Douglas. Grabow improved her time by two minutes, finishing the 2.5-mil course in 19 minutes, 36 seconds and Jackson knocked a minute off of her time, finishing in 22:00. . 

For the boys, the Falcons had five freshmen who finished in the top 25 in the freshmen class in a meet that featured all of the top Northern Nevada runners from all classes. Nathanael Williams came in second in 14:31 for the 1A school. John McRae was 10th (15:59), Jason Deterding 14th (16:14), Anthony Brewer 18th (16:42) and Conner Love 23rd (16:51).

For the sophomores, Nathan Conover finished in 16:45, Nick DePaoli finished in 17:07 and Ben Martin finished in 21:36.

Meddles won the junior race in a blistering 12:47, finishing second overall, just 12 seconds behind defending NIAA 4A State champion Bryan Tibaduiza of Galena, who finished in 12:35.

Also in the juniors for Sierra Lutheran, Andrer Deterding was 18th (14:30), Levi Grabow was 25th (15:13) and Preston Lyons was 24th (15:07) as the Falcons had four juniors in the top 25.

For the seniors, Michael Kubel was seventh (14:21), Bob DePaoli was 35th (15:43) and Ryan Jackson was 46th in 17:42.Seniors Michael Kubel & Ryan Jackson are now joined by Bob DePaoli who proved his prowess in track last year.