State XC 2011: The Aftermath

Another cross country season in Nevada is now history. Oh, there is Nike Cross Nationals and Footlocker still out there, but for all practical purposes the high school season ends with the state meet.

This year, as in all odd years, it was held in the North, usually Reno but sometimes Carson City or Sparks. But this year, like it has been since 2001, the meet returned to San Rafael Park, which has been the graveyard of dreams for runners and teams, especially teams, from southern Nevada.

For some reason, or reasons, the South just doesn’t do well at San Rafael Park, never has. Altitude? At 5000 feet the lack of oxygen feels like knives in your legs late in the race and you just can’t get air in your lungs. Weather? Probably. We who live in the Vegas valley just aren’t used to snow on the ground and below-freezing temperatures during the cross country season. Hills? Not so much, but yes, to an extent. There aren’t many hills on the campus courses we use, mostly, or even at the Vet in Boulder City. And, finally, the bus ride from Las Vegas and sleeping in a strange bed the night before the race? Yes, that too. It affects the kids from the North in reverse. They never seem to do as well when the meet is held in the South, like last year when the 4A races were swept by Centennial and Palo Verde. 

I remember my first trip to San Rafael Park in 1987. I was coaching at Bonanza and my girls had just won the Southern Zone Championship the week before at Lorenzi Park. We had upset favored Gorman. It turns out that we had peaked for that race. A week later we would finish fifth at state, behind Reed, Gorman, South Tahoe, and Basic. Kind of like what happened to SECTA and Green Valley this year. You work so hard to get to state, that you can’t duplicate the effort a week later.

The boys Zone meet in 1987 was won by Basic, led by a superb runner named Pat Hubbard, who would later qualify for Footlocker Nationals (it was called Kinney back then). By the way, Pat Hubbard is the only runner from southern Nevada not named Abby who has even qualified for Footlocker Finals. But I digress.

The parallels between that Basic team in 1987 and the Centennial team of 2011 are striking. Whereas Basic had Pat Hubbard, Centennial has Nick Hartle. Both were dominant runners. And both won their qualifier with ease. Hubbard won Zone in 1987 with a time of 16:07. Hartle won the Sunset Regional with a time of 16:11. Pat Hubbard would win state in 1987 with a time of 16:33, 19 seconds clear of second place, and set a course record. Nick Hartle, twenty-four years later, would win state with a time of 16:41, 45 seconds ahead of the next runner. It too was the fastest time of the day. Both teams had two strong runners backing up their striker. Basic had Kenny Harmon and Brian Watkins, who would finish 3^rd and 7^th at state. Centennial has George Espino and Jackson Carter, would finish 3^rd and 5^th at state.

But here is where things go awry. Basic would score 54 points and beat the Northern champion, South Tahoe, by 11 points. Centennial actually did even better than Basic. They scored 52 points in 2011. Unfortunately for them, Galena, the Northern champion in 2011, scored 43 points. And so ends that saga.

Who among us on that cold, freezing day at San Rafael Park in 1987 would have predicted that no top-class team from the South would win a team race over that course for the next 24 years and counting?

But hope springs eternal. Two years from now, while Nick is running 10K’s in college, Centennial will have George Espino and Jackson Carter back as seniors. Bishop Gorman will have the Holland brothers, then juniors, leading what could be the team of the future. This year Josh Holland finished 15^th and Jake was 23^rd.

Finally, just a word about our girls at state, and running at San Rafael Park. This year was a disaster. No other word for it. There are 12 chances to be a state champion, team and individual. This year the North went 12 for 12. (But for Nick Hartle, the boys from the South would have been 0 for 12 as well). Incline, Sage Ridge, and Sierra Lutheran were dominant in 2A. The 3A races were like a dual meet between South Tahoe and Elko, and in 4A all three teams from the North beat our four teams from the South. Individually, it was just as bad. Becky Grabow (Sierra Lutheran) in 2A; Mary Jo Wright (Elko) in 3A, she had the fastest time of the day; and the next frosh sensation, Lindsey Adams (Douglas)—whose mother was an Olympic marathoner, by the way—in 4A. That’s a clean sweep. Based on combined individual results, we had only one runner in the top 10, Marissa Suan, who was 5^th overall, and just four in top 20: Suan, Sydney Badger, who knows now what it’s like when you run out of oxygen at altitude, was 11th; Andrea Gonzalez, 16^th overall; and Hannah Pavlov, our best 9^th grader, was 19^th.

The only time we have ever had team success up North was for a brief window of time during the Abby Miller era when Cheyenne won in 1997 and Green Valley won in 1999, both times on a hilly course at Reed. Small school teams have won up North a few times: Faith Lutheran (when they were 2A), Boulder City, and Laughlin, but even that’s an anomaly.

The future? Maybe we’ll do better in 2013. Marissa Suan will be back with a Palo Verde team, hopefully. Sydney Badger will be a senior on a Centennial program that is on the upswing. Coronado and Green Valley will have three and four, respectively, of this year’s scorers back—unless soccer in the fall determines otherwise—and last year’s state winner will likely be back, running for somebody.

Of course things will change come 2012 with the new alignment. But one thing is not likely to change. We’ll still be talking about how difficult it is for teams from southern Nevada to win when the state meet is held in the North. Meanwhile, congratulations to Elko, Carson, Douglas, Galena, Incline, South Tahoe, and Sierra Lutheran—who all produced state champions in 2011—as well as Centennial and Nick Hartle.

(Phil Lawton)