Men’s and women’s cross country reached the state finals together for first time ever in Bishop Gorman High School history.

As the season came to a close on November 5th, both squads put it all out on the track. The women’s team fought valiantly and came in 10th at the state final, and the men’s team took the gold. This marks their second state championship, a perfect way to cap off their historic season. 

The weekend of October 28 were the men’s and women’s regional finals meet. Both squads proved to everyone what the Gorman competitive spirit is all about by taking home: 1st place for the men’s team and 3rd place for women’s. Top runner, Gio Moya, stated, “this is definitely without a doubt the fastest top 5 team we have had in Gorman history. The team is filled with such talented and driven runners who are looking to make a mark in the regions across all of Nevada.”

Even with such a new team, the cross country squad shows an abundance of skill, cooperation, and success. One could infer this is a greatly experienced team with years worth of growth and training, but it is quite the opposite. Coach Thorpe explains that, “this year, we had a ton of new freshmen and incoming sophomores who had never participated before. Over Covid we had a drop in participation, and then this year was the biggest team we ever had…over 50 athletes came out this year, which was a lot of fun. So it’s kind of a rebuilding year trying to just reestablish culture and who our team is, but a lot of fun too.”

Gorman Cross-Country is definitely having a season for the books by qualifying for both the men’s and women’s Nevada state finals for the first time ever. Gio Moya adds that this success comes from valued teamwork and cooperation, “because every practice and every meet in some way we always work together.”

Moya, who is a senior this year came in fourth in the 5,000 Meter regional final, 1 of 7 Gorman runners in the top 10. The most notable runner would be first place winner, Jordan Kreiseberger, who ran a blazing 16:28 minute run. 

Running in Las Vegas is a formidable challenge as the heat poses a greater opponent than other runners themselves. Coach Thorpe took this into account and formulated a training program to ready her runners both physically and mentally, “I think it is one of the hardest sports there is to do because of the weather that we have in Vegas. The summer is blistering hot, and we run a lot
on trails and parks around town, so we try to liven it up with sprinklers and getting close to splash pads and water as much as we can.”

On the flip side, there is the rest of the time to build character and bonds among the runners as Coach Thorpe states, “it’s one of the best sports on campus that probably has the best friendships and sense of community because we have so much time to just talk to each other while we run.” 

Coach Thorpe took in a new program and instantly turned it into a championship caliber squad, she credits her team as, “it was nothing short of magical. They all just ran, really loving what they were doing… they were just hungry to get it.”

After all the hard work and dedication, it paid off kindly with new hardware for Bishop Gorman Cross Country.