Pahrump Valley’s Varlack opens season with win in home meet

Getting back out and hitting the trails for the first time in a new season is always an exhilarating feeling for a cross country team. It was a bit extra special for Pahrump Valley High School’s team Saturday, as their meet was the first home sporting event in more than a year.

But that wasn’t quite enough for Trojans junior Devin Varlack, who made the morning even better by winning the season’s opening meet.

Varlack covered the 3-mile course on the site of a former golf course near the high school in 17 minutes, 36.6 seconds, outpointing Coral Academy junior Aaron Roy by 3 seconds. Roy’s teammates took the next four spots to give the Falcons a 20-35 win over the Trojans, but the final score wasn’t really the point, especially in this unusual season.

“It was awesome to be able to have an event for the kids today,” Pahrump Valley coach Erik Odegard said. “Everybody seemed really excited to be out here, and regardless of what your time was I think everybody was happy to be running.”

That seemed to be the case, but Varlack was especially happy.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” he said after his race. “I’ve been prepared for a long time. I could probably go some more.”

Varlack said he basically ran the race he expected to run, and aside from Roy nobody else among 23 boys runners finished within a full minute of him.

“I feel like maybe I could have pushed harder, but then I wouldn’t have been able to cross the line as fresh as I did,” he said.

As it was, Roy’s presence pushed Varlack at least a little.

“That one kid was keeping up with me quite well. He was really pushing hard,” Varlack explained. “I noticed he was breaking his form to check his watch, so I used that to my advantage. He was probably a little lighter than me, and the wind was pushing on the uphill, so I knew I had more power so I was like, this is where I’m going to take it.

“Then we came downhill and I just stretched and did what Mr. (assistant coach Taylor) Heron taught me. “It worked out how I expected it.”

White Pine senior Anna Speakman-Watt won the girls race in 23:01.7, but Pahrump Valley juniors Makani Araujo and Kaydance Hagerstrand finished second and third to give the Trojans a narrow victory over the Bobcats.

Araujo finished in 24:10.0 despite admitting she was not too prepared for the meet.

“This is my first time ever doing cross country,” said Araujo, who joined the team three weeks ago. “I feel great.”

Araujo has a straightforward strategy for her first cross country competition.

“Don’t stop, just stick with the person in front of me,” she said. That turned out to be White Pine senior Thomas Frawley, who ran in the second race of the meet, which was not split between boys and girls but split to follow protocols about how many competitors can go at once. “My motivation was to pass him, but then he sped up and I was like, I can’t.”

Yet, by the time they reached the finish line, Araujo was only 4 seconds behind Frawley, and while being the top runner on her team and finishing second in the meet was a positive start, she already has higher goals.

“My goal was to reach 23 minutes,” she explained. “I have no idea if I reached that or not. I’ll find out later, but that was my goal, and if I did beat it, I’m hoping to go down to 22.”

Hagerstrand has more experience than Araujo, but not much.

“I ran a little bit last year, but I didn’t go to any of the competitions, she said. “But I like the sport, and I like running.”

Her third-place time of 24:39.0 was accomplished despite not having a totally smooth experience.

“Today I got this really, really bad cramp, which hasn’t happened before,” Hagerstrand said. “So I just kept running. It’s a goal to not stop. Never stop.”

But by the time the race was over, she said she was feeling fine.

“I feel pretty good,” she said. “I feel like my muscles are starting to come back.”

Junior Beverly Roundy finished fifth for the Trojans in 27:42.3, with sophomore Elizabeth DeAngelis (11th, 29:44.2), junior Stephanie Frias-Esparza (12th, 30:05.0) and sophomore Tia Jones (15th, 35:18.3) rounding out the home team’s contingent.

Back on the boys side, junior Ulises Sotelo ran seventh in 20:15.6 for the Trojans, with freshman Nathaniel Roundy (ninth, 21:04.9), freshman Jackson Floyd (10th, 21:33.0), junior Samuel Machovsky (11th, 21:59.4), sophomore Jacob Gray (13th, 22:34.7) and junior Louis Sposato (15th, 23:07.9) placing in the top 15.

“Some of the kids surprised me today,” Odegard said. “We hadn’t really noticed some things in practice, so we know what we have to do differently in practice for some kids. I was really proud of how everybody finished.”