Carson girls finish second at Regional meet

RENO - Alex McAlman scored a double win in defending her Regional titles in the shot put and discus, while sprinters Kayla Sanchez and Andrea Kierstead nearly pulled off a quadruple sweep to help lead the Carson girls track team to a second place finish behind Galena at the Northern Nevada 4A Region Track and Field Championships at Reno High Saturday. Galena also won the boys meet.

McAlman won the shot put with a toss of 40 feet, 3 1/4 feet better than her nearest competitor. McAlman's victory in the discus was even more impressive as she threw 132-01 while Amber Burroughs of Wooster took second with a throw of 103-05, a difference of 28 feet, eight inches.

Sanchez and Kierstead finished 1-2 in the 100 meters, 100 meter hurdles and 300 meter hurdles and went 1-3 in the 200 meters.

Sanchez beat her own stadium records in winning the 100 with a time of 12.06 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 43.27, 1.77 faster than her previous stadium record set earlier this year.

Kierstead won the 100 hurdles in 14.94 and finished third in the 200 behind Sanchez and Sarah Hartley of Douglas.

Christy Works was also a Regional champ for Carson, winning the 400 with a new stadium record time of 58.92, eclipsing the old mark of 59.36 set in 2001 by Amy Porath of Sparks.

The 4x400 relay team of Yvette Hollet, Sinead McSweeney, Gloria Sosa and Works finished second to a surprising team from Douglas while the 4x200 relay team consisting of Crista Dixon, Hollet, McSweeney and Works finished third.

Carson coach Todd Ackerman was understandably pleased with the efforts of his tracksters.

"We had a good day. We didn't score as many points as I though we could have, but we did well. Sanchez and Kierstead had great days. Works had a great time in the 400. Alex had a typical Alex day."

With such a strong representation, Carson appears to have a good opportunity to do well at next week's State meet, though Ackerman gives his squad an outside chance.

"We have a shot," he said. "We need some luck, but we've got a shot."

The Carson boys finished sixth, but qualified two individuals for state.

Eric Walther won the discus with a throw of 157-08 and finished second in the shot put with a toss of 51-01.25.

Jeremy Gray won the 200 in 22.34 after a disappointing fourth place finish in the 100.

The girls from Douglas finished a strong fourth and qualified two individuals and a relay team for the state meet, while one member of the boys team will move on.

The Tigers 4x400m consisting of Tina Dantin, Alicia Sturgess, Sarah Hartley and Skylar Young put up a surprising 4:00.21 to win the Regional title, finishing more than six seconds ahead of second place Carson.

Sarah Hartley finished second in the 200 with 26.06 and just missed qualifying in the 100, finishing fourth by .08 seconds.

Young ran 59.58 to finish second in the 400.

Ryan Bertucci cleared 6-6 to capture second place for the Tigers in the high jump.

Cameron Kroll of Reno High set a 4A record in the pole vault, clearing 16 feet. Kroll is now just the third high schooler in Nevada to have cleared that height.