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Truckee’s Montgomery defends cross-country league title, leads Wolverines to team championship

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Truckee senior Montana Montgomery raced out to an early lead Saturday against 59 other runners at the Class 3A Northern League cross-country championships, and never looked back.

Montgomery turned a quick start into a 20-second gap by the end of the 5,000-meter race at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park in Reno to defend his league title from a year ago.

“I didn’t really have a strategy in mind,” said Montgomery on jumping out to an early lead. “I just kind of planned on winning.”

Montgomery won this year’s event with a time of 17 minutes, 5 seconds, and led the Truckee boys to the program’s first team title of this decade.

Truckee junior Benjamin Picard finished in third place with a time of 17:33. Senior Benjamin Breuch claimed fifth place with a time of 17:45, followed by senior Steffen Cuneo in 15th place with a time of 18:27. Truckee freshman Reed Loper finished in 19th place with a time of 18:45, and sophomore Sage Boyer gave the Wolverines six runner in the top 20, finishing the race with a time of 18:51. Junior Wyatt Peek finished in 27th place with a time of 19:13.

As a team, the Wolverines edged Spring Creek by 10 points with a low score of 43. Elko was third with 64 points.

On the girls’ side, senior Isabella Terrazas posted a third-place finish with a time of 20:59. Sophomore Petra Kidd also cracked the top five, finishing fifth with a time of 21:14. Senior Deanna Sunnergren claimed eighth place with a time of 21:38, followed by junior Hana Mazur in 10th place with a time of 21:48. Sophomore Sonny Strusinski was 12th with a time of 21:53. Junior Ella Freeman finished in 21st place with a time of 22:37, and junior Grace Hodous took 28th with a time of 23:40.

As a team, the Lady Wolverines fell two points shy of Spring Creek for the league title. The Spartans, led by race winner Kendra Lusk (19:56), took the team championship with a low score of 36. South Tahoe was third with a score of 93.

Truckee qualified both the boys and girls’ teams to the state championship meet for the fourth consecutive year.

Last season, Montgomery finished in third place, and will look to become the first member of the boys’ team to win an individual state title since Noah Oberriter claimed the championship in 2013.

“Next week isn’t going to be easy,” said Montgomery on facing the competition from Southern Nevada, which includes defending state champion, Valley High School senior Christian Franklin. “Christian is a pretty good runner, so I’m just going to plan on hurting a lot.”

On the girls’ side, the Wolverines were state runners-up last year, and were led by Terrazas’ fifth-place finish.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Cross-Country Championships will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno.

Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. Contact him at jscacco@sierrasun.com or 530-550-2643.

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