Cross-country team fights for respect at Falcon Invitational

The Trojans cross-country team got mixed results at the Falcon Invitational on Friday. The boys junior/senior was the best Pahrump team, finishing with a fifth place (180 points) out of 15 schools.

Basic finished first (65), Coronado second (67) Clark third (129) and Centennial fourth (131). The competition was stiff as the Trojans were one of four small schools participating in a mainly Class 4A field (bigger schools). The top four finishers ahead of Pahrump were all Class 4A schools. Del Sol, Moapa Valley and Boulder City were the other Class 3A schools competing in the meet for the boys.

For the junior/senior boys, Bryce Odegard was the top finisher, taking third place (16 minutes, 34.6 seconds) out of 131 runners.

Pahrump’s Layron Sonerholm returned to the field, finishing in 42nd place (18:31), and Cole Goodman finished 47th (18:46.9). Stephen Thelaner finished 63rd (19:22.6).

The format of the meet divided competing teams into two categories, frosh/soph and junior/senior.

“I think these type of meets are tough for us because they break up our team, frosh/soph and junior/senior,” Trojans coach Matt Kolodzieczyk said. “This type of meet definitely benefits bigger schools and are good for us at the beginning of the year but not in the middle.”

The coach’s boys team was the perfect example, Jacob Cipollini and Grant Odegard’s times would have helped the junior/senior times with scoring. The boys frosh/soph runners took 10th place. Sophomore Jacob Cipollini took 23rd (18:26) and freshman Grant Odegard took 32nd (18:44) and were the top two runners for the Trojans in the frosh/soph category.

“Jacob Cipollini had a good race,” the coach said. “He has improved two minutes off his time since this time last year. And Grant (Odegard) too continues to improve.”

The girls best team was the frosh/soph team that finished 12th (292) out of 16 teams.

The two top runners for the girls were freshman Diamond Sonerholm, who finished ninth (22:40.4) out of 137 runners and Terrena Martin, who finished 49th (24:01.7).

Kolodzieczyk said Martin set a personal record.

He said the girls continue to improve but he said he wants them to have better starts.

“We would like to see Diamond test herself,” he said. “We want to see her keep up with the faster runners. Diamond usually starts in the middle and then fights all the way to the top.”

For the junior/senior girls, junior Grace Plumb finished 34th (22:48.7) and was the top runner for the Trojans girls. The next best runner was senior Alicia Quiroz with the 62nd place (24:43.9).

The Trojans will travel to Huntington Beach, California for the Central Park Invitational to test their mettle on Saturday against Southern California runners.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes