Dayton XC's Brady Heusser.
Josefina Ortiz-Osty, coming off a fourth-place finish at last week’s Sierra League Championships, leads Carson High into today’s NIAA Division 1 Regionals at Rancho San Rafael Park.
The Division I girls get under way at 9 a.m., while the boys are scheduled to run at 11:45. The top three teams and the top five qualifiers from non-advancing teams qualify for next Saturday’s NIAA State Championships, also at Rancho San Rafael.
Ortiz-Osty, just a sophomore, represents Carson’s best shot at advancing to state, according to coach Pete Sinnott.
“She has been coming on,” Sinnott said. “She was 30th earlier this year, and she has moved all the way up to the top-10 in the north. This is her first year of (competitive) running. She has been running around 20 minutes flat, and that’s not bad.”
Sinnott said Eveline Delgado has a sore back and is out for the rest of the season. That makes Carson a longshot to finish in the top three.
“Overall we’re pretty strong without Eveline,” the CHS coach said. “Rheana (Jackson) has improved a lot. Blanca Sosa is stronger and Athena (Favero) is running pretty well. Of the two teams, the girls have a better chance to move on. Everything has to be right. Our girls (except for Delgado) are strong and healthy.”
The news isn’t so good on the boys side, however.
Ian VanRensselaer has a stress fracture, and obviously is out for the season. He would have ben a cinch to qualify for state had he been healthy. It’s another in a long series of setbacks for the talented runner. As a sophomore he broke his leg skiing, and then suffered a fractured tibia during track last year.
“He is the fastest kid I’ve coached in 10 years here,” Sinnott said. “He ran great at Stanford this year (11th, 16:02.3).”
His absence is the big reason why Carson’s team isn’t expected to move on. When healthy, VanRensselaer is a top-5 finisher,
“I’m just looking for a good team performance,” Sinnott said.
“We have a lot of good, young runners.”
The best of the rest is Brandon Copeland, who was tripped and trampled at Clovis, causing him to miss a couple of weeks of action. He also tripped over a rock at the Reed Invitational.
Heusser leads Dayton
The Dust Devils will pin their individual hopes on senior Brady Heusser, who was sixth at the recent Sparks Railroaders Invitational at Rancho San Rafael.
Heusser ran 18:09 on the 5000-meter course. His best time is 17:06 back on Oct. 2.
Dayton enters the event as a darkhorse behind Truckee, South Tahoe, Elko and Spring Creek.
Dayton will also need good performances from senior Hunter Hatch (17:59 PR), freshman Koby Workman (18:32), sophomore Austin Duarte (19:16), brothers Jared (19:20) and Jason Logan (19:19), and Madsen Evans (19:25). The team may need PRs from all of those runners.
On the girls side, Dayton has had just two runners most of the year, freshmen Kaeli Barwig and Emma Heusser. Barwig has a best of 23:54 back on Oct. 9 while Heusser ran a 25:17.
VOLLEYBALL
Virginia City sweeps
SPARKS — Virginia City (18-5, 12-4) swept past Excel Christian 25-10, 25-13, 25-7 to finish second in league. The Muckers enter next week’s league tournament beginning Friday as the No. 2 seed. The top two finishers will advance to state.
Rachel Renaud had three aces and three kills, Bethany Fuller had fiv aces, six kills and nine assists, Chelsea Nevin had two aces, seven kills and six assists, Jordan Seddon had three aces and five kills, Kaitlin Hames had nine aces and three kills and Mackenzie McFarland added three aces against Excel Christian.
Virginia City’s junior varsity (10-8, 8-5) won 25-10, 25-12.