Thomson, Overlie lead cross country

Trying to build on last year’s success and competing in several big cross country meets could turn the Greenwave into a contender for 2015.

Tristen Thomson, who placed 13th, and one who just missed out on the girls side, Chloe Overlie, Fallon is loaded and ready to take a stab at competing for a team title this season. With eight boys new to the team and one girl, second-year coach Tommy Thomson has Fallon looking strong with the focus on running for quality, not quantity.

“We’re putting a lot of quality instead of quantity involved,” Thomson said. “We put on a lot of miles (last year). We’re taking on a lot more quality, more speed.”

And with his son, Tristen, and Overlie, a sophomore, returning from last year’s success, Tommy Thomson has already seen improvement, especially from last weekend’s run-a-thon fundraising event with Fernley.

“We’re looking pretty good. We’ve got a very strong varsity and we’re going to have a strong JV,” Thomson said of the boys’ side. “Everybody pledged so many (during the run-a-thon). We had 590 laps. We had a good turnout. We raised quite a bit of money.”

Seniors Thomson and Michael Anderson and juniors Ethan Smith, Craig Smith, Devyn Frederick and Terry White return for the boys. New to the team are junior John Kirkland, sophomores J.R Demillo, Dawson Frost, Kapili Gleason and Isaiah Williams, and freshmen Justin Cathey, Franklin Gant, Logan Green and Hunter Thomson are new to the team.

Seniors Diana Martinez and Jordyn Rogers, junior Amanda Pursley, sophomores Jeannie Anderson, Shelby Hickox, Overlie and Brynlee Shults return for the girls. Junior Diana Enriques is new.

With the emphasis on quality this season, Thomson said Tristen Thomson and Overlie will compete in several out-of-state meets, including an exclusive invitational. Both will run in the Josh Ruff Memorial Trojan Invitational in the Sacramento area, then compete in a Stanford cross-country event before rejoining with the rest of the team for the Mount Sac College Cross Country Invitational at the end of October.

“All the good teams in Nevada will be there,” coach Thomson said of the Mount Sac event. “We’re stepping up the competition.”

Fallon will also compete in the Nevada Twilight Classic at Shadow Mountain (Sparks) next month after opening the season at Douglas on Friday.

“It will give us a really good test against all the Division I schools (at Douglas), then we go to the Nevada Twilight Classic under the light at Shadow Mountain,” Thomson said.

All of this experience will be key for Fallon to compete against the best in the division.

“There are some very good programs out there,” Thomson said. “Spring Creek has all their kids back in the boys. They won the state championship last year. They also have two boys who play football and did the 800 in track and are doing cross country. Cross country’s become very competitive. They’re going to be very, very strong.”

But Spring Creek isn’t the only team to worry about this year.

“Elko is always good. South Tahoe is a very good team,” Thomson said. “We do have a shot, both boys and girls. We have a shot to position ourselves if we do what we want to do.”