Seven Vaquero runners qualify for State Meet

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Seven Fernley High School runners qualified for this week’s State Cross Country Championships with their performances in the regional meet last Friday at Shadow Mountain Park in Sparks.

The Fernley girls team had four individual at-large qualifiers for the State Meet, while the boys had three. At large qualifiers were the top seven runners from non-qualifying teams. The top four teams at the regional meet qualified for State. The Fernley boys and girls teams both finished fifth.

For the boys. Kael Paz was the teams highest overall finisher, placing sixth overall with a time of 17:27. He was the fastest individual qualifier. Behind him, Mikey Fitzgerald qualified by finishing 25th, with a time of 19:46, with Levi Patterson crossing the finish line right behind him in 26th place with a time of 19:49.

Other runners for the boys were Kevin Rodriguez, 32nd in 20:09; Tonatiuth Velazquez, 34th with a time of 20:20; Emmanuel Galvan, 36th in 20:45 and Niclaus Pearl, who came in 44th with a time of 21:25.

Spring Creek was the boys team champion with 27 points,, with three of the top five finishers and four of the top seven.

For the girls, Fernley’s top placer was Myla Bott, who came in 11th overall, with a time of 23:03. She will be joined at State by Laila Kinnick, Brooklyn Harvey and Trinity Garcia-Anders. Kinnick finished in 18th place with her time of 23:30; Harvey ran in 24:12 to place 25th and Garcia-Anders came in 29th place with her tie of 25:39.

Other girls who ran for Fernley were Kori Scot, 36th in 26:47, and Sasha Smith, 41st with a time of 31:31.

Spring Creek was also the girls champion with 45 points, edging Elko, which collected 48 points.

The State Meet will be held this Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City.