The Truckee girls cross-country team came within six points of a state championship three-peat last Saturday at Reno’s Rancho San Rafael Park.

The reigning Northern Division I-A champs lost to regional runner-up Spring Creak in their rematch a week later on the same 5K course, 32 points to 38. Elko finished a distant third with a score of 74 points, showing the Northern Region’s dominance over the three teams visiting from the South. 

Truckee’s all-junior squad placed four runners in the top 10, with Brenna Wapstra-Scott in third (20:49), Claire Lang-Ree in fourth (20:57), Carrie Bradley in seventh (21:11) and Amanda Rae in ninth (21:27).

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The remainder of the team finished in close succession, with Julia Veliquette in 22nd (22:18), Syra Fillat in 23rd (22:21) and Lily Robertson in 24th (22:28), all in the top half of the competitive field of 52 runners and six teams. 

Spring Creek senior Julia Mahlke won the individual stat title with a time of 20:14, an improvement of 36 seconds over her fourth-place finish the previous week at regionals. 

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“In these small races every point counts,” Truckee coach Rob McClendon said. “At a state meet, you always need a little luck to win. Julia Mahlke’s improvement over regionals made the difference in this race.”

On the bright side, the Truckee squad will lose no team members to graduation next spring, whereas Spring Creek will lose two of its five scorers, including Mahlke.  

While the Truckee boys did not advance to the state meet as a team, two juniors qualified individually.

Ian Smith finished 18th (18:00) and Hudson Verbeck placed 27th (18:46) in a field of 52 runners. Both improved their times over the previous week.

Faith Lutheran senior Chase Wood was crowned D1-A State Champion with his 16:46 finish. 

Once again, the North outran their Southern counterparts, with Elko winning with 49 points, Spring Creek placing second with 53 points and South Tahoe rounding out the top three with 78 points. 

Although the Truckee boys did not advance to state as a team, they did receive recognition by earning the academic state title by achieving the highest collective GPA in the state among all D-IA teams, at 3.96.