Cross Country : Nelson places 15th in regionals

Shadle Park sophomore Andrea Nelson crossed the finish line in 15th place at the Foot Locker West Regional Championships at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif.

Nelson narrowly missed out on an opportunity to compete in the 29th Annual Foot Locker Cross Country National Finals in San Diego. The top 10 boys and top 10 girls from each regional championship are invited to the national finals.

Nelson’s time of 18 minutes was 10 seconds short of 10th place and a trip to San Diego.

Nelson was the only Spokane-area girl competing in the race.

On the boys’ side, Mead senior Kelly Lynch finished in 60th place with a time of 16:01. Lynch was the highest area finisher in the boys division.

Ferris sophomore Adam Thorne crossed the line 4 seconds behind Lynch in 64th place with a time of 16:05.

Other area runners included Mead junior Jordan Curnutt, who ended the competition in 92nd place (16:21), and Ferris senior Paul Hawkins, who completed the course in 16:24, good for 102nd place.

Gig Harbor (Wash.) senior Miles Unterreiner finished in fifth place (15:17) and Tahoma (Maple Valley, Wash.) senior Jonathan Lafler ended the race in 10th place (15:22).

Unterreiner and Lafler are the only two runners, boys or girls, representing Washington in the national finals Saturday.

“North Central freshman Andrew Kimpel led the Indians to a sixth-place finish in the Nike Team Nationals at Portland.

Kimpel finished in 22nd place with a time of 16:42.1. Following Kimpel was fellow freshman Leon Dean in 33rd place (16:55.8) and freshman Jeffrey Howard in 37th (16:58.5).

Also for the Indians, sophomore Alex Avila crossed in 82nd place (17:25.8) and junior Andrew Wordell ended in 122nd place with a time of 17:52.9.