Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 18, 1993 TAG: 9312180097
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's how fast Nervo moves. The talented sophomore still has worlds to conquer, but she already has stamped herself as one of the state's elite runners at any level.
Nervo joins George Wythe's Jason Alexander, the Timesland boys' runner of the year, as the top cross country athletes for 1993. The coaches of the year are Christiansburg's Steve Shelton for the girls and Giles' Scott Humphries for the boys.
Nervo is joined on the All-Timesland girls' team by two fellow sophomores - Kathy Burns of Bath County and Akemi Eisenhardt of Fort Chiswell. It is Eisenhardt's second year on the All-Timesland first team, and Burns was a second-team performer a year ago.
The rest of the girls' team is Christiansburg's Bethany Eigel, Laurel Park's Catrese Hairston, Pulaski County's Jennifer Pohlig and Cave Spring's Claire Rotramel.
Alexander is one of four boys' runners moving up from second-team All-Timesland a year ago to the first team. The others are Jason Dowdy of Cave Spring, Jeremy Cosgriff of Christiansburg and Rick Jennings of Giles.
Other first-team boys' choices are Franklin County's David Angel, Christiansburg's Kevin Nolan and Blacksburg's Scott Shepherd.
After Nervo dominated Group A, she took on the competition at a higher level. The Highlanders runner finished 10th at a regional meet in Charlotte, N.C., earning a spot as an alternate for the Kinney national high school championships in San Diego. The top seven finishers from the Charlotte meet went to the nationals.
"I think I was definitely a better runner," said Nervo, who broke all the records she set as a freshman on various courses. "I felt more confident this year. Last year, I was just out there."
Dickie Myers, Glenvar's coach, said Nervo shaved a minute off her time on most courses.
"She was injured in the spring [for outdoor track]," Myers said. "I didn't know what to expect, but she worked at her dad's [outdoors] camp and lost weight. She's taller and stronger."
Nervo polished off the Group A girls' field in the time of 20 minutes, 13 seconds. That was 49 seconds faster than Burns, who finished second. Nervo was a second better than the winning performance in the Group AA meet, where Hairston finished four seconds behind the winner, Western Albemarle's Stephenie Ingersoll. Nervo's time would have placed her 11th among Group AAA runners.
Nervo beat out Pohlig out for Timesland girls' honors. The Pulaski County runner finished ninth in the Group AAA state meet, a rare performance in recent years among Roanoke Valley District athletes. Pohlig won the district title and finished third in the Northwestern Region. In her one meeting with Nervo, though, the Glenvar runner won the Metro title and Pohlig finished second.
Among other achievements by the first-team runners, Hairston won the Region III title before her strong state showing. Rotramel was the key runner for Cave Spring as the Knights just missed making the Group AAA state meet as a team. Burns and Eisenhardt had the misfortune of running in Nervo's class, but they dominated other Group A performers from across the state while finishing right behind the Glenvar runner in Region C. Eigel was a district and regional champion before having her only bad race, a 24th-place finish in the state meet.
Shelton coached both Christiansburg teams. His boys' team had a better state finish (second) than his girls' squad (third). The difference was that the boys were expected to do well; the girls were not.
Alexander beat out Jennings for the top boys' honor in Timesland. Jennings finished second in the state, 10 seconds ahead of Alexander. However, the Wythe runner beat Jennings in two races before that, including the Region C meet the week before the state championship. Alexander also had a regular-season victory over Matthew Repass of Patrick Henry-Glade Spring, who won the Group A title.
Alexander hopes to run in college. He'll probably go to James Madison, Radford or Virginia Tech, where he will walk on if he isn't offered a grant-in-aid.
Jennings helped Giles finish fourth at the Group A meet. That enabled Humphries to win the honors as boys' coach of the year. Only Shelton's Christiansburg boys' team had a stronger performance than Humphries' squad on the state level.
Humphries built the program at Giles, which didn't have a cross country team when he became coach four years ago.
Among other boys on the All-Timesland squad, Nolan and Cosgriff were Christiansburg's best runners and made All-State by placing in the top 15. Cosgriff finished second in the Region IV race ahead of Nolan, who was third. That was just ahead of Blacksburg's Shepherd, a fourth-place finisher. Angel, a junior, was sixth in the Northwestern Region after winning the Roanoke Valley District title. Dowdy won the Metro crown over Angel and was 12th in the Northwestern Region meet.
by CNB