Tobler and Harris Individual Winners. Shadow Ridge and Green Valley Dominate at Lake Mead XC Invitational.

Jessica Tobler of Boulder City and Doug Harris of Green Valley were the individual winners at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City on Saturday at the Lake Mead Invitational while Shadow Ridge and Green Valley runners dominated both races.

Jessica Tobler was the only small school runner to place in the top 19 of either varsity race. But the Boulder City junior made quick work of winning the girls race, leading from the get go and finishing in 19:58, a full minute ahead of Green Valley sophomore Lindy Eskin (20:58). Ebonique Diaz of Sunrise Mountain (21:11), Clara Jackson of Shadow Ridge (21:21), and Jackie Sanchez of Pahrump Valley (21:31) rounded out the top five.

This was a significant milestone for Tobler. She is only the second girl this year to break 20 minutes over the tough 5K state course. Sydney Badger of Centennial ran 19:57 while winning the Las Vegas Invitational in September.

Tobler ran 20:45 at the 2011 LVI.

“I felt good today,” said Tobler “It’s been a good year so far. We have a really good coach, good program, and I worked more over the summer.”

Shadow Ridge managed to edge out Green Valley by two points in the team scoring 36-38, as both teams placed their five scoring runners in the top 15. Arbor View finished a distant third with 86 points, but coach Tyrel Cooper did not enter his top seven runners. Pahrump finished fourth with 144 points among the 11 large school teams.

“The girls amazed me today,” commented Shadow Ridge coach Patrick Fitzpatrick. “They came to race. We were really proud of them. All the conditions were right. They were ready to run…. I feel like we’re where we want to be; it’s October and this when the races start. We’ve got a ways to go, but we’re ready to do it.”

The boy’s varsity race was closely contested over the first two miles. The Green Valley trio of Doug Harris, Christian Fortner, and Alex Bylina swapped the lead frequently with Shadow Ridge’s Andy Blaine and Frankie Martinez of Desert Oasis. Harris and Fortner pulled away in the home stretch, giving the Gators a 1-2 finish: Harris in 17:15, Fortner in 17:19. Martinez (17:29), Bylina (17:40), and Blaine (17:40.6) finished 3-4-5.

“The thing I’m happiest about is they ran well after not running for a week and a half,” said Green Valley head coach Blaine Thompson. “We’re trying to simulate what it is between division, region, and state: two, off, and then two back-to-back. The seniors (Harris, Fortner, Bylina) ran really well and, maybe most important, our two juniors that ran fourth and fifth (Michael Patrino and Tyler Fyock), were so tight to our one, two, and three. I think our spread was less than a minute.”

It was, 57 seconds, to be precise.

Both Green Valley and Shadow Ridge dominated the team scoring by a tight spread of their scoring runners and placing 13 runners in the top 17. Green Valley’s scoring of 1-2-4-6-16 added up to 29, while runner-up Shadow Ridge had a spread of 27 seconds between their scoring runners: 5-7-8-10-12 for 42 points. Liberty finished a distant third with 132 points and Arbor View was fourth with 140 points, among the 12 schools in the large-team race.

Laughlin and Boulder City shared the small-school team honors. Laughin won the girls race (21-36) and Boulder City won the boys race (24-34).

(Phil Lawton)