For the first time in the school’s history, Laughlin High School now proudly displays a State Championship trophy in their trophy case as the Laughlin girls cross-country team came home victorious from the Nevada State Championships held at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno this past Saturday.
Despite the cooler temperatures and higher elevation of Reno, the girls were able to edge out Virginia City to earn the first state title in any sport for Laughlin High School.
Senior Scott Eubanks also made history winning the first individual State Championship for the Laughlin Cross-Country program in the boys 2A race. Eubanks’ time of 17:33 over the 3.1 mile course was not only the fastest time of the day in the 2A race, but also the fastest of any 3A or 4A Southern Nevada runner.
The Lady Cougars were led by Senior Chynna Yates running her best race of the season to finish 5th with a time of 23:51. The next 4 Laughlin girls all finished within an 11 second time span with Gracie Geremia 12th in 25:42, Cady Groves 13th in 25:46, Brenda Cortez 14th in 25:51, and Christine Acosta 15th in 25:53. Alejandra Zuniga finished 29th in 33:14 and Alexandra Condray was the final Cougar girl to the finish in 32nd place.
Only 5 points separated the top 3 teams in the girls 2A race but the tight grouping of Laughlin’s top 5 girls sealed the victory with Laughlin finishing with 45 points compared to 2nd place Virginia City and 3rd place Sage Ridge both tallying a score of 50. Whittell was 4th with 88 points and The Meadows School 5th with 99 points.
The Laughlin boys team placed 2 runners in the top 5 with Eubanks winning individual honors and Junior Derek Fajardo placing 5th with a time of 19:00. With his best effort of the season, Freshman Richard Swartz was next for the Cougar boys with a 20th place finish in 21:12. Other finishers include Devin Tilley (25th) in 21:51, Kyle Winters (27th) in 21:55, Julian Estrada (36th) in 23:12, and Shaun Rees (46th) in 26:24.
The Laughlin boys team placed 3rd with 58 points behind Whittell with 37 points and Sage Ridge with 52 points. Rite of Passage was 4th with 83 points and Trinity High School 5th with 136 points.
Quotes from Coach Lori Petrik:
“I could not be more proud of a group of kids. I thought they went up to Reno and represented Laughlin High School exceptionally well.”
“I cannot say enough about the effort that our girls gave to bring home the championship trophy. The runners from the southern region are always at a disadvantage when the meet is held up north because of the elevation difference and cooler weather. The northern teams have historically dominated and this year was no exception. Out of the 6 races on Saturday, 5 were won by northern schools. Laughlin was the only program from the south to win a team title.”
“Our Senior girls, Chynna, Gracie, and Christine came through in a big way for us today. Chynna ran the best race of her career today and really battled from start to finish. Gracie ran well in the number 2 spot and Christine who has been running 6th for us all season was a huge factor in our win today. She improved her previous best this season by almost 2 minutes and filled the final scoring spot left when one of our freshman who typically runs 2nd for us dropped well back in the race.”
“These 3 seniors have been with this program almost as long as I have. In fact, Gracie has been here all 5 of my years since she started running for me her 8th grade year. Between these 3 girls, they have 11 seasons with this program. For that reason, this title was very emotional for me as well. I cannot think of a more fitting way for them to finish out their cross-country careers than with a State Championship.”
“Scott ran an outstanding race today. He led from start to finish and even though he was never pushed during the race, he still ran the fastest time of any 2A, 3A, or 4A southern Nevada runner and there were only two 4A boys from the north with faster times. Coaching my first individual champion means a great deal to me as well. It’s hard to believe this kid is competing in his first year of cross-country. I have a feeling more titles would have been won had Scott been out for 4 years.”
