The Pahrump Valley High School boys cross-country team took on some of Southern Nevada’s toughest teams at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Invitational and came out in fourth place with 123 points, beating all Class 3A teams.
First place was taken by Green Valley, (61); Centennial, second (85); and Clark was third (105), (all Class 4A teams).
Senior Bryce Odegard for the Trojans finished third (16 minutes, 33 seconds), out of 157 runners in the 5,000-meter run on Saturday at UNLV.
He finished behind Milton Amezcua (16:23) of Green Valley, who took second place and Alexander Miller, of Centennial, who took first place (16:20).
“Odegard was a little upset and the wind played a factor and he will shrug it off, but on the upside, the two teams that beat us were 4A schools and we finished ahead of all the 3A schools,” Trojans coach Matt Kolodzieczyk said. “We beat Tech and we had 13 personal best both boys and girls.”
The next runner for Pahrump was senior Layron Sonerholm, (17:13) 23rd place. He was followed by sophomore Grant Odegard, (17:44) 31st place; senior Cole Goodman, (17:46) 32nd place; sophomore Michael Sonerholm, (17:53) 34th place; sophomore Brandon Ruud, (18:18) 51st place; and senior Ulisses Perez, (19:36) 102nd place.
The Trojans girls cross-country team finished in 11th place (276). The first girl to cross the line for Pahrump was sophomore runner Diamond Sonerholm, (21:49) in 37th place out of 129 runners.
Finishing behind her was junior Katherine Goodman, (22:04) 45th place; senior Grace Plumb, (22:28) 55th place; senior Cynthia Martin, (22:57) 64th place; junior Neele Steljes, (26:17) 95th place; and freshman Shailynn Winter, (26:18) 96th place.
“The girls team did well too and we are still trying to see how we shape up against teams like Desert Pines and Tech, who all finished ahead of us. We were hoping for a fourth place.”
The girls finished third among the 3A schools.
Sophomore Trojans runner Diamond Sonerholm continues to improve.
“She will still get better and she is working hard at practice,” the coach said.
The girls also had three Varsity B runners, sophomore Nsringa Breathwaite (26:14), who finished 45th; junior Mindy Broderick (30:10), in 70th place and senior Carmen Changano, (42:39) 84th.
Both teams will be off this weekend but will be on their way to Huntington Beach next week for the Central Park Invitational.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com