Zachary Sever, Hunter Rauh and Ethan Byasse all finished in the top 15 to lead the Carson High boys cross country team to a third place finish in the NIAA 4A State Championships on Saturday at Boulder City’s Veterans Memorial Park.
Carson improved each week throughout the season and moved up from a third place league meet finish to a regional title and third at state.
Hannah Kaiser, in her first season of competition, finished 27th in the state girls race in 21 minutes, 22 seconds.
Kaiser became one of the top runners in Northern Nevada on a team that returns all its runners and also has numerous other prospects as well.Carson’s boys finished with 94 points, four points and a total of 20 seconds behind second place Desert Oasis. Centennial won the state title with 59 points.
Sever was ninth overall in 17:22 and second among Northern Nevada runners, setting himself up for a strong track season. Rauh was 13th overall in 17:21, as he also ran his fastest overall time for the year, finishing up an outstanding career.
Byasse finished 15th and only 14 seconds behind Sever in 17:36, setting himself up for a strong track season in the 3,200 as well.
Mark Ramirez, who has been battling injuries for two years, completed his comeback with a 46th place finish in 18:07, a season best. Senior Adan Garcia placed 72nd and is in good shape for upcoming track season where he would like to get under 50 seconds in the 400. Jacob Heller, although not at 100 percent, finished 76th in 19:18.
“With a very dedicated junior varsity team which moved up to finish second in their championships and most varsity runners returning including Jacob and Gabe Heller, Andrew Ingram, Cody Jackson and Kyle Holloway the Senators will be returning a strong contingent of runners for next season’s efforts,” Carson coach Pete Sinnott said.
“The girls team led by Hannah have a great group of athletes returning, many of whom had some nagging injuries due to growth, youth and not enough summer conditioning. They will be ready for next year.”
On that list are Kaitlin Schulze, Claire Cartier, Hailey Ponzoch, Ginger Cullom, and Ella Wick.
Marchegger, McNeely win state titles
Sierra Lutheran’s Jared Marchegger won his third straight state title in the 1A/2A race, finishing with the best overall time of all the races in 16:51 to lead the Falcons to a second place finish. Emily McNeely also won the state title for the Falcons in the girls race.
“I have a sense of accomplishment to have three state championships, but the bigger accomplishment was winning second as a team,” Marchegger said.
Teagan Hansen made it a 1-2 finish for Sierra Lutheran, finishing second in 17:28. Also for the Falcons, Andreas Gilson came in 21st in 19:23; Aaron Waite came in 37th in 21:04; Jacob Tack was 40th in 21:25 and William Webster was 45th in 23:20.
“Jared’s three consecutive state champion performance is admirable. Jared and Teagan were pretty much a given in the race. Our final four runners knew that the race would be tight. Silver Stage beat us by three points at regionals and there were two teams in the south to contend with,” Sierra Lutheran coach Steven Kubel said.
McNeely won the state title in 20:48.
“It was a nice way to close out my high school cross country career,” McNeely said. Taylor Davison came in ninth in 23:51 for the Falcons.
The Sierra Lutheran boys also brought home the 1A/2A Academic Award with a grade point average of 3.88.