BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Carson's Kayla Sanchez crosses the finish line during the 100 meter finals at the NIAA 4A State Championships on Saturday at Reno High School. Sanchez claimed three state titles.
RENO - The Carson girls' track team entered Saturday only 14 points behind Galena for first place in the NIAA Class 4A State Championships at Reno High School, but the Grizzlies pulled away when they needed to for their first ever state title.
Galena scored 112 points, followed by Carson (96), Reno (58) and Western (44). Douglas finished 19th, with 10 points.
The Galena boys made it a sweep and picked up their second state championship and first since 2002, scoring 87 points. Silverado was second (60), followed by Las Vegas (58) and Reno (54). Carson tied with Reed for 14th, with 16 points and Douglas finished 22nd, with 10.
The Galena girls were able to score 64 of their points in field events alone - a spot where Carson was thin.
"They swept the high jump-1-2-3 (on Friday). That's a lot to overcome," said Carson coach Todd Ackerman. "We had one girl in fields - Alex McAlman (who won the shot put with a stadium record 41 feet, 6 inches)."
McAlman also won the discus event Friday with a personal and stadium record of 139-4.
Carson was not without its highlight performances Saturday as sophomore speedster Kayla Sanchez won the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.16 seconds and the 300-meter hurdles (44.44) to give Carson 20 points.
"She came in as the favorite and did extremely well," Ackerman said of Sanchez. "The pressure didn't get to her as a sophomore. She had a little problem in the highs (Friday's 100 hurdles), but that's the nature of the beast. She got hit. To finish third, I think she's happy.
"Andrea (Kierstad, who won the 100 hurdles) was the favorite coming in the highs. She had a great race. She's a junior. She's been steady all year long."
Kierstead took seventh in the 100 (12.99) and third in the 300 hurdles (46.66) and Crista Dixon, Sinead McSweeney, Gloria Sosa and Christy Works took second in the 4 x 400 relay. Works took Sosa's handoff in fifth place and poured it on to improve three places and for an extra four points (for a total of eight).
"It's a big place for us," Ackerman said. "A lot of it, for a team like Galena, my feeling is their girls sacrifice club to run for the school track team and they won because of it. It's tough to take the athletes we have and never hurt ourselves in anything.
"We placed where we should've placed. Andrea wasn't the favorite and then finished seventh. We figured we'd be in the hunt and need some luck. Galena didn't give us any. Looking at them, we couldn't have scored a lot more points than we did."
Jeff Folkers, the Galena girls' coach, said his team gave an inspiring performance.
"Our girls are competitors," Folkers said. "They didn't give up on anything. Some girls are injured and still didn't stop. They keep going. Julia Mailander - any normal person wouldn't jump, but she did the triple, high and long (jumps). Her (injured) ankle isn't healing. She had tears coming out of her eyes every jump and she'd keep going. That's competitiveness right there. The whole team's like that."
Lydia Mailander (37-08.75, a stadium record) and Julia Mailander (35-08.00) went 1-3 in the triple jump for 16 points and the quartet of Lauren Neil, Ali Agee, Jill Dowty and Aubrie Neil took second behind Western in the 4 x 100 for eight more points.
Jeremy Gray took second (22.56) in the 200 for the Carson boys and Eric Walther placed fifth in the discus (145-09).
Douglas' Ryan Bertucci won the boys' high jump with an effort of 6-6.
Dan Geib won the 1,600 (4:25.50) and Nick Shannon took second (15.18) in the 110 hurdles for Galena. Cole Dowty, Trevor Williams, Joe Abbott and Geib took third in the 4 x 800 (8:14.65) and Ryan Krueger, Zack Markarian, Zack Shannon and Tobi Howell finished fifth in the 4 x 200 (1:31.43) to help the Galena boys to their second state championship.
"We've been in the hunt the last three years, but we just couldn't get one," said boys' coach Ed Parsie, who credited several former Grizzlies of that 2002 team for coming back and contributing as coaches, including Barrett Young (300 hurdles) and Nate Mekley (high jump). "We knew we had a good shot. The kids worked hard. It's always a joke of mine. We have so many injuries that I say we're held together with spit and bubble gum. I was able to push this group harder than any group I had before."
In other notable performances, Reno's Mel Lawrence beat her own state record in the 800, with a time of 2:11.39. Galena's Alyssa Abbott was second at 2:14.94.
Lawrence also set a stadium record in the 3,200, notching a 10.49.67. Abbott was again second (11:42.29).
3A
The Dayton Dust Devils overcame last year's heartbreaking 3-point loss in the final event and went on to make history, becoming Dayton's first boys' team to win a state championship of any kind (girls' volleyball was the school's only other state champion).
The Dayton boys, co-coached by Rob Turner and Mike Paul, took first place with 116.5 points, followed by Pahrump Valley (109.5), Boulder City (95) and Truckee (70).
The Dust Devil girls finished in sixth with 46 points.
Spring Creek took first with 104 points, followed by Faith Lutheran (98), Pahrump Valley (97) and Boulder City (79).
"It's a good feeling winning the first state championship in any sport," Paul said. "Last year was close - we had a good group of kids. This year the guys stepped up and did what they needed to do. We didn't want to be second again. It's cliché, but it was a team win."
Dayton was strong in field events and Trace Feemster (21-0) won the long jump, while teammates Josh Wagoner (19-3 1/4) and Troy Gray (19-01 1/4) finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Paul Cox (158-03) and Brandon Seymour (144-11) went 1-2 in the discus and Jesse Vickers (6-0), James Yeater (5-10) and Erik Hopper (5-10) went 2-6-8 in the high jump to garner 46.5 points.
"We only had 12 boys, but they were the right ones," Turner said.
Mike Martin (51.22) and Yeater (54.14) went 2-7 in the 400, Wagoner (15.35) took second in the 110 hurdles and Bill Storrs (23.68) and Feemster (23.71) went 4-5 in the 200.
Rebecca Monzello (33-09.75) won the discus event for the Dayton girls and the squad of Shaelynn Morris, Portia Horn, Jerrika Gutierrez and Maria Weeks won the 4 x 100 with a time of 52.31.
Weeks (13.56) and Charlene O'Connor (13.59) went 4-5 in the 100.
1A
A lot of coaches say their team is like a family, but for Smith Valley coach Jim Gleason, part of his team actually is his family.
His son, Casey Gleason, finished second in the 400 (53.00) and anchored the 4 x 800 relay squad (9:38.71), which also finished second, to help guide the Bulldogs' boys to their third consecutive state championship.
Meanwhile his daughter, Kylee Gleason, won the 100 (13.14) and the pole vault (11-1, for a new state meet record) in helping the Smith Valley girls' team to finish second behind Laughlin.
The Smith Valley boys finished with 136 points, outdistancing second-place Spring Mountain (109). Laughlin finished third with 64 points, followed by Indian Springs (63).
For the girls, Laughlin finished first with 123 points, followed by Smith Valley (106), Lund (68) and Wells (57).
"After losing a lot (of athletes) last year, we thought it would still be tough," Jim Gleason said. "We had a couple of kids come out and help with the depth points. I knew we could compete, but I didn't know if we could win with our depth. The key in 1A is you have eight places and we had 12 kids."
And the Bulldogs made the best out of their numbers. Harris Easton earned 20 points for his team, winning the 200 (22.94) and 110 hurdles (14.57, a new track record), David Boznik took first in the discus (134-03) for 10 more, and the 4 x 800 squad of Aaron Marshek, Seth Nuti, Alez Michelson and Gleason added eight in finishing behind Round Mountain, which set a new state record at 8:26.15.
Sarah Smith and Lesley Christensen finished fourth (7-6) and sixth (7-0), respectively, in the pole vault, while Arianne Smith (47.03, a state meet record) and Christensen (52.13) went 1-2 in the 300 hurdles.
The 4 x 400 team of Christensen, Sarah Smith, Kassandra Gansberg and Arianne Smith took third, while Sarah Smith also finished second in the triple jump (30-5 1/4).