Centennial Boys Dominate at Lake Mead Invitational

When junior Nick Hartle of Centennial was approached after crossing the finish line first, nearly a minute ahead of the second-place runner, at the Lake Mead Invitational on Saturday, he was the one asking the question: “What did Brewer run?”

Hartle was referring to Chris Brewer of Rancho Buena Vista (Calif.), the individual winner at the 2010 Las Vegas Invitational, who set a new record over the 3.1 mile course at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Boulder City. In that race Hartle finished second in a time of 16:32.

As it turned out, Hartle’s time today of 16:10.4 was a second slower than the course record of 16:09 that Brewer set back in September. But that was the only “second best” for Nick and his Centennial teammates today.

Centennial placed their 5 scoring runners in the top 7 of the large school race, for a total of 20 points. Shadow Ridge finished a distant second (51), followed by Green Valley (75), Arbor View (118), and Cimarron-Memorial (166).

Hartle had a 25-second lead over Shadow Ridge senior Kyle Wilson at the mile and pulled away steadily from there. He called it, “pretty easy.”

Wilson (17:04.2) finished second, followed by three Bulldog seniors: Kyle Merritt (17:24.4), Dominic Lopez (17:31.3), and Bryce Fessler (17:33.8).

Centennial coach Mike McGuire called it a, “great race. The guys are starting to come together as a team. It was the first time this year that we’ve run all our top runners in the same race…. Jackson Carter, a freshman, had a huge race today as our fifth man.”

“Competition on this team is 15 deep. They’re all fighting to make the top 7. It’s a great situation for a coach.”

In fact, not only did Centennial place their 7 boys in the top 15 of the varsity race, they swept the top 4 places and captured 8 of the first 12 spots in the JV race.

The Centennial boys were runners-up at state in 2009 and seem determined to improve on that on their “home course” in Boulder City on November 7^th.

Mallory Reese, a senior from Shadow Ridge, won the large school girls event (21:09.4) followed by Green Valley freshman Lindy Eskin (21:13.9) and Arbor View sophomore Amberly Halstead (21:19.5).

The girls race was a closely fought four-way battle throughout between Reese, Eskin, Halstead, and freshman Sidney Badger of Centennial,. Badger, suffering apparent dehydration, dropped out with 600 meters to go, leaving the race to the other three girls.

The large school girls race was the fourth race of the day and by then the cool temperatures, for southern Nevada (mid 70’s), had turned warm (mid-80’s). Eskin, Halstead, and Badger had all raced on Tuesday at the Freshman-Sophomore Championships. 

Winner Reese, looking fresh after the race, said she “had fun and enjoyed myself. She called it “a nice experience.” The Shadow Ridge senior is the lone holdover from the Shadow Ridge team that went to state in 2009.

“I want to be the best. We’re putting together a good team.”

Green Valley won the team race by 20 points over runner-up Shadow Ridge, 37-57. Arbor View (72) finished third; Las Vegas (130) and Centennial (132) rounded out the top five.

Green Valley coach Blaine Thompson was pleased with his girls performance.

“We ran well, considering we were missing three runners who were taking their SATs today.” We were missing our number one, our number two to six—depending on the day—and our number seven.”

Summer (Holloway) ran really well today. She’s our number three, usually. She didn’t run Tuesday at Frosh-Soph. The time off helped her.”

Green Valley wasn’t the only team missing key runners due to the SAT test. Arbor girls coach Tyrel Cooper said he was missing five of his top eight, which would explain the Lady Aggies—big winners at the Laughlin Invitational last Saturday—modest showing today.

Moapa Valley’s Josh Thompson won the small school boys race in 17:32.4 and Moapa Valley edged Laughlin for the team title, 26-30.

Boulder City’s Stephanie Adams (21:31.9) and Jessica Tobler (22:09.1) finished 1-2 in the small school girls race, but Laughlin prevailed in team scoring 25-35.

(Phil Lawton)