Veloz, Stutzman fastest freshmen for Trojans at state

Veterans’ Memorial Park was the site of the cross-country state championship races on Saturday, Nov. 5, in Boulder City.

On the boys side, 69 runners representing, 17 schools from around the state, participated in the 3A race.

Spring Creek High School finished in first place as a team. Their junior, Nathan Thomas, won the individual race with a time of 16:21.

Somerset Sky Pointe and Moapa Valley high schools rounded out the top three places in the team standings.

The Trojans team finished in eighth place with a total time of 1:41:30.

The Pahrump Valley boys team qualified for the state race by finishing in fourth place at the 3A southern regional meet with a team time of 1:45:32.

Because the Trojans qualified under the team condition, all seven runners were able to participate in the state event.

Just like the regional race, freshman Aydon Veloz was the top Trojan at the state race. He finished in 44th place with a time of 18:54.

Veloz’s finishing time at the state race was more than 30 seconds faster than his regional race time of 19:28.

He was the fourth fastest freshman in the race, finishing behind Carson Key of North Valley, Max Fisher of Truckee and Hal Thompson of Moapa Valley.

Fellow freshman Timothy Stutzman finished second on Pahrump Valley’s team with a time of 19:52, putting him in 55th place.

Antonio Veloz finished with a time of 20:22 for the Trojans, while junior Theron Abbiss ended his race with a time of 20:39.

The final three positions of the race went to Jackson Floyd, Isaac Norton and Nicholas Cowart. They ran times of 21:40, 22:59 and 23:07, respectively.

For the girls 3A cross-country race, 65 runners were looking to represent well for their 15 different schools.

Somerset Sky Pointe came out as the top dogs in the team performance. They finished with a total time of 1:45:43.

Junior Jenna Walters of Virgin Valley ran the fastest individual time during the girls state championship race. She ended the event with a time of 19:58.

Walters beat her regional champion time of 20:33 by 35 seconds.

The Pahrump Valley girls team wasn’t able to qualify under the team condition with their overall performance at the regional race last weekend.

However, the Trojans did have two runners qualify based on their individual performance during the regional race.

Sophomore Aurora Whitney ran the fastest time at the state race for the Trojans. She completed the event with a time of 22:24, shattering her regional race time of 23:44.

She would finish in 26th place for the event.

Freshman Savannah Thompson was the only other Trojan runner to qualify for the girls’ state race.

Thompson finished her race with a time of 25:22, giving her 50th place for the day.

This will do it for another year of cross-country. The outdoor track & field season will begin in March.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.