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And then, there was one -- but that one has a shot at winning a state championship.

McKenzie Dean, a sophomore on the Pahrump Valley High School cross country team, won the Southern Nevada Class 3-A regional championship Friday at Mountain View Park in Laughlin, beating 21 rivals, including Boulder City's JoJo Stanton, who had outraced the PVHS runner a couple times this fall.

Dean -- Pahrump Valley's only qualifier for the state championships to be contested Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City -- won the state 3200-meter run last spring at Reno, so she has some idea of what to expect at a state-level competition.

Her time in the 3.1-mile run Friday morning on an all-terrain course in Laughlin was 21 minutes, 37 seconds, putting her 14 seconds ahead of Stanton. In essence, it was a two-girl race; Keely Bakken of team champion Las Vegas Faith Lutheran was a distant third in 22:23, while fourth-place Gloria Rhodes of the Crusaders was clocked at 22:38. Brittany Hatchel, another Faith Lutheran runner, was fifth in 22:59.

Faith Lutheran finished with 31 points (its fourth and fifth runners were ninth and 10th in 26:01 and 26:07, respectively). Boulder City had 34 points (2, 6, 7, 8, 11) and Pahrump Valley had 65 (1, 13, 16, 17,18).

Also running for coach Richard Andersen's PVHS team were Stephanie Andros (27:58), Tiffany Kelley (30:10), Nicole Dillon (31:48) and Sabrina Stotz (35:23).

In the Northern 3-A girls race, contested Thursday at Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno, the winner in 21:39 was Hailey Yadon of team champion Winnemucca Lowry.

Madison Gray of Lowry was second in 22:15, and third was Erin Altick of North Tahoe in 22:46.0.

At the 2005 state finals, also held at Rancho San Rafael, Yadon was second in 22:06, with Altick third in 22:15.

Lowry had 31 points to win the girls' team title. North Tahoe had 50, SpringCreek 60, and Dayton 90.

In the boys' race at Laughlin Friday, Pahrump Valley freshman David Jacobi was 10th in 20:32, missing qualifying for state by seven seconds.

Moises Cervantes of Mesquite Virgin Valley was eighth in 20:26 and was one of three runners not on a qualifying team to earn a trip to the state meet.

The other two were Cervantes' teammates Sam Sylvester (second in 19:16) and Oscar Fragoza (sixth in 20:19).

The winner, in 19 minutes flat, was Colin McAllister of Faith Lutheran, which claimed the boys' championship. The Crusaders had 33 points (1, 4, 5, 9, 14), with Boulder City at 50 (3, 7, 12, 13, 15). Virgin Valley had 51 points, while Pahrump Valley had 92 points.

Boulder City's Matt Lundgren was third in 19:40.

Lowry had little trouble winning the boys' 3-A crown at Reno, totaling 36 points. Truckee, Calif., had 53, with Spring Creek at 64.

Matt Pike of Lowry toured the hilly, twisting Rancho course in 17:34, edging Truckee's Micah Silver by four seconds (17:38). Lowry won the 2005 state team title with a perfect 15 points, as its runners finished 1-2-3-4-5.

In the Class 4-A girls meet, Marie Lawrence, a national-class runner out of Reno High School, set a course record as she won in 18:09.

Lawrence will be running at Veterans Memorial Park Saturday, with the Class 4-A girls' event closing the competition at 1:40 p.m.

The other races will start at 10 a.m. (Class 2-A boys), 11:40 a.m. (3-A boys), 11:15 a.m. (4-A boys); 12:15 p.m. (2-A girls), and 1 p.m. (3-A girls).

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Veterans Memorial Park is located at 1000 Airport Road in Boulder City. Enter Boulder City from Las Vegas; turn right onto Buchanan, and drive two miles to the park, on the right.