Dust Devils celebrate homecoming

Kim Wilson sped to victory in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and ran on a gold-medal winning 4x200 relay team to help Dayton High School's girls capture runner-up honors at the Dayton Kiwanis Invitational track and field meet on Saturday.

The meet was a homecoming of sorts for the Dust Devils, who were competing on their home track for the first and only time this season, plus it served as a tune-up before heading into the home stretch of the season.

"We were a little light today because we had a few people out of town on vacation," Dayton coach Mike Paul said. "This was a good meet for us. We've only got the Lyon County Championships (May 3) and Yerington Relays (May 6) left, and then we go to divisionals. And once we get everything together, I think we're going to be in pretty good shape."

Dayton is the defending 3A Division II champion in both the girls and boys divisions, and judging from Saturday's results, the Dust Devils appear to be challengers to take a run at repeating that double again when the division meet is held in Yerington.

Spring Creek scored 147 points to capture the girls team championship on Saturday, followed by Dayton with 97. Battle Mountain was a distant third with 62 points and Fernley was fourth with 43. Mineral County was fifth with 40 points - and the closest Division II team to Dayton.

On the boys side, Rite of Passage rolled up 176.5 points to run away with the team title. Fernley edged Dayton for second-place, 65-57, while Mineral County was fourth with 42 points.

The Dust Devils have their sights set on bringing another Division II championship home, according to senior Brandon Essman.

"We're doing real well," said Essman, who placed second in the 400 and ran a leg on Dayton's second-place 4x200 relay team. "We haven't seen all of the teams yet - we really haven't seen Manogue - but if everybody steps up and takes their places, I think we have a chance to do it. The girls have a good shot, too."

On a sunny but windy day, Wilson set the pace for Dayton's girls by dominating the sprints. Wilson won the 100 in 13.22 seconds, ahead of Battle Mountain's talented Tracy Argo in 13.57, then came back later in the day to take the 200 in 27.89. Teammate Joanna Slivkoff placed third in the 200 with a 28.78 clocking and was fifth in the 100.

Wilson and Slivkoff also ran the third and fourth legs for Dayton's 4x200 relay team, joining with Cindy Wanbaugh and Amanda Adamson to turn a winning time of 1:58.83.

Tasha Thompson gave a gold-medal performance for Dayton in the girls shot put as the senior logged a mark of 36 feet. Smith Valley's Dana Nuti, the defending 1A state shot put and discus champion, finished second with a mark of 35-7.

Nuti won the girls discus with a meet record throw of 116-1. Dayton junior Rebecca Edy was second with a personal record mark of 109-0

"I improved by 12 feet today," said Edy, a first-year thrower whose previous best was 97-3. "All four of my throws were over 100 feet today. I was like, 'All right.' All of our throwers have been doing well. We've all been working hard and it seems to be paying off now."

Kristyn Jacobson, Dayton's school record holder in the girls discus, also placed fourth with a throw of 104-6. Jacobson and Edy also placed fourth and fifth with respective marks of 33-4 and 31-0 in the shot put to score points for Dayton.

Essman placed second in the boys 400-meter dash with a 56.54 clocking, close behind the first-place effort of Fernley's Joey Fennessey, who ran 55.80. Essman also combined with Jose Marquez, Genaro Coronado and Shawn Merrill to take second in the 4x200 relay in 1:41.

Justin Caudill cleared 5-8 in the high jump to place second, losing only on fewer misses.

Another meet record fell when James Berryman from Rite of Passage hurled the discus 167-5. His mark shattered the previous meet record of 148-7 held by Dayton's Paul Howard.