The Truckee girls cross-country team raced to a commanding win last week at the 38th Annual North Tahoe Kiwanis Invitational, with junior duo Skyler Flora easily winning the 3.3-mile race with a time of 23:39 and Gabrielle Rinne following in second place in 25:00. 

Rounding out the top 10 were the freshman duo of Claire Lang-Ree and Carrie Bradley. Lang-Ree, who recovered from both a fall and a lost shoe at the start of the race, finished in sixth place (26:23), while Bradley finished ninth (26:45). 

Another freshman, Amanda Rae, scored points as the fifth runner, placing 22nd (28:11) in a field of 85 runners and nine teams. The Truckee girls scored a record-low point total of 26, with Incline a distant second place with 85 points.  

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Meanwhile, the Truckee varsity boys registered two top-10 finishes in their race of 139 runners. Junior Noah Oberriter led in fourth place (21:06) and Nick Morgan, a senior, placed 10th (22:18). 

Other racers also scoring points for the team included senior Ian Wilson in 25th (23:13) and the Murphy brothers, senior Simeon in 26th (23:24) and sophomore Jared in 42nd (24:21). 

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With a tally of 94 points, the boys finished an impressive third out of a field of 17 teams. North Tahoe, the defending Division III state champs, took top honors with 47 points, followed by Spring Creek with 84 points. 

In the 2.8-mile frosh/soph race of 122 athletes, all five Truckee girls finished in the top third of the field, two of which were in the top 10: Olivia Yale in ninth (23:54), Syra Fillat 10th (24:08), Julia Veliquette 15th (25:01), Bri Parker 35th (27:04) and Nicole Rathbun 40th (27:32).

In the freshmen boys race, there were two Truckee finishers in the top half of the field of 58 racers: Hudson Verbeck placed 13th (22:00) and Ian Smith placed 25th (23:38).

With nearly half the roster consisting of freshmen, head coach Rob McClendon is enthusiastic about his team’s future, both in the short term and the long term.

“They’re working extremely hard in the workouts, so this is only the beginning of their improvement over the season,” he said. “As we build a program for the future here at Truckee High School, I can see some great things that will happen over the next four years as these young runners develop.”