Cross Country teams running hard against top talent

The cross country team had two meets last week. On Wednesday they had a Sunset League meet at Village Green in Las Vegas and then went to a power-packed invitational at Red Rock. The boys and girls both finished in third at the league match. For the boys, Clark was first with Faith Lutheran in second. Chase Wood had the fastest time for the boys, finishing 17:45 and Filmon Fre for Clark finished second with a time of 17:46.

Bryce Odegard for Pahrump, the freshman sensation for the Trojans, finished in third with a time of 17:49. For the Trojans the next fastest time was Layron Sonerholm, who finished in 17th place with a 19:45 time. The team had a large grouping of five runners that finished in the 21-minute time range and they were: Dylin Montgomery 21:22, Wesley Warren 21:45, Nicholas Iwinski 21:45, Joseph Zarabozo 21:52 and Morgan Adams 21:53. Stephen Thalaner finished with a 22:41.

For the girls, Faith Lutheran finished in first and Clark in second place. The top female runner for the Trojans was Fenny Descuatan, who finished with a 10th place showing with a 24:40. Amber Skilling was the next runner for the Trojans, finishing with a 25:30 time. She was followed by Shiloa Gulden with a 25:31 time.

Trojans Coach Matt Kolozieczyk told the PVT after his league meet that his team was improving with every meet. “To do better than third some of the middle guys will have to step up and that will help,” he said. One of the team members Kolozieczyk is talking about is Dylan Montgomery. Montgomery is primarily a sprinter for the track team. “He is capable of good times. He likes to come out fast like a sprinter. He is capable of good times around 18-19,” the coach said.

The girls for Pahrump Valley are working hard after losing some key runners last year. “All the girls are going in the right direction,” Kolozieczyk said.

On Saturday, The Trojans went to the Red Rock Invitational and went up against the best Division I and I-A teams.

The top team there was Centennial and they took first place, with Clark taking second and Coronado third. Pahrump finished 15th but was the fourth Division I-A school behind Clark, SECTA and Del Sol. The Trojans finished ahead of Faith Lutheran.

Odegard ran his fastest time of the season with a 13th place finish out of 162 runners. His time was 16.53.2, his fastest of the year. Sonerholm also had his fastest time at 18:38.6 along with Montgomery at 19:54.9 and Iwinski at 19:55.8.

Descuatan for the girls had one of her fastest times at 23:09.7. At the Red Rock, the boys finished 15th out of 22 teams and the girls finished 17th out of 18 schools.