Carson's 3200 relay squad sets school record

MINDEN " The Carson High boys' 3200-meter relay squad started the NIAA 4A Track & Field finals with a bang.

The Senators' quartet of David McMasters, Richard Shroy, Nick Schlager and Robby Barlow shaved approximately six seconds off the school record and recorded the fastest time of the year in the state with an 8:01.71 at the Big George Complex at Douglas High School.

Also qualifying from Carson for next weekend's state meet at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas are the girls' 800 and 1600-meter relay quartets of Emily Field, Haleigh Ward, Krista Baumgartner and Julianne King; Baumgartner in the 400 and Shroy in the 3200.

Douglas will send five athleted to next week's meet " Jordan Cruz (200), Liz Nickles (triple jump), Jessica Gorton (long jump, high jump), Jessica Waggoner (discus) and Minneah Holdridge (discus).

"It was a good day," Carson coach Robert Maw said. "Everybody that we expected to get through got through. I would have loved to see Alex (Fallon) make it in the triple jump. She's a sophomore and she'll come back.

"David (McMasters) ran a great race. He had to work his way up the pack. He set it up for us to have a great race."

McMasters led off with a leg of 1:59. He was fifth on the first 400 meters and then worked his way up into the lead during the second lap. Shroy followed with a leg of 2:01, Schlager ran a 2:02 and Barlow brought it home with a 1:59, the first time he cracked the 2-minute barrier.

"We were smoking," said CHS assistant coach Jeanne Stelzer. "It was the first time Robby broke 2 minutes, Richard shaved two seconds off his time, Nick was a second faster and David was four seconds faster.

"I told them if they broke the school record I would take them all out to dinner at Beijing Palace. It's all worth it in the long run."

Barlow, who also cracked the 2-minute barrier in the open 800 (1:59.66), smiled like a proud papa afetr both of his races.

"I'm proud; I'm happy," Barlow said. "I gave it my all. David ran a great leg on the relay. That fourth leg I was thinking about not coming in anywhere worse than second."

Shroy was the only 3200 runner to crack the 10-minute mark (9:55.14) in a talented field that included Reno's Brandon Nied, Galena's Bryan Jordan and Reno's Gary Dunagan.

Through the first 1600 meters, Shroy was content to stay on the rail and about 10 meters behind Galena's Bryan Jordan. On the fifth lap, Shroy moved abreast of Jordan at the 1,800-meter mark. Nied, who had been hanging in back of Jordan and Shroy, made a move on the sixth lap. On the next-to-last lap, Shroy took the lead starting to enter the backstretch, and he was able to glide to a victory by five-plus seconds.

Shroy admitted that he was happy he didn't have to run the 1600. He was sick last week and didn't run the 1600 in trials.

"It was a godsend," Shroy said."I didn't want to do anything that drastic (in the 3200) just to get it going. I just back and waited to see how the race was doing.

"I kind of figured he (Jordan) would come back (to the pack). He's a great runner. I didn't think the pace was that fast."

Barlow had an outside shot to qualify in the open 800, and he was actually fifth with about 150 meters to go. Then it appeared he ran into the proverbial brick wall, and he was unable to make up any ground on the lead pack. The top five finishers all ran under 2-minutes.

In the 800-meter relay, Carson suffered through a couple of sub-par handoffs, but still grabed the final qualifying spot with a 1:46.37.

"We tried to hold on and make sure we got in the top three," Baumgartner said. "The first handoff and the second were kind of iffy. When I handed off to Emily, I was able to catch us up."

Carson took second in the 1,600 relay, finishing two-plus seconds behind McQueen, 4:02.91 to 4:05.49. It was a PR for the Senators, however.

King got the group started with a 59-second lead leg, Ward followed with a 63.77 split, Field ran a 62.13 and Baumgartner's split was right at a minute.

"Fifty-nine is really good for me," King said. "Our handoffs were better in the 1600 because we're coming in at a slower pace and we're tired so we're slowing down. I think we lost about four seconds off our (previous best) time."

The anchor leg by Baumgartner was gutty, considering she was suffering from heat exhaustion after her 400-meter race which saw her finish second in a PR of 60.16. Baumgartner thought she was going to vomit and went to the training tent on the field. Trainers put a cold cmpress on her forehead and took her shoes off. She stayed there for approximately 20 minutes.

"Before the race I was really nervous," Baumgartner said. "They were telling me to just run my race. I tried to hold it at the end. I wanted to make sure I got in the top three."

Douglas had 17 athletes in individual races or events on Saturday and only five moved on. One of those was Waggoner, who after not moving on in the shot put, won the discus with a throw of 135-3. Teammate Minneah Holdridge was second at 108-1. Waggoner is coached by Carson throws coach Mike Louisiana, and the DHS senior credits Louisiana for her progress.

Waggoner said she didn't put any extra pressure on herself in the disc after the shot put.

"I love the discus," Waggoner said. "The discus is more eventful. It's fun to watch the discus fly through the air. Today, I wanted to PR (she's at 153-9). There is a girl from Shafter (California) throwing 190. My goal is to get up there.

"Coach (Louisiana) has helped me tremendously. I worked with him the last quarter of last year and all this year. He comes here and I go there."

NOTES: Kelsey Smith, South Tahoe's outstanding distance runner, collapsed at the finish line area after her 3200 race where she finished sixth. The meet was delayed for about 20 minutes, while ambulances were brought into the stadium to take care of Smith and a Douglas athlete... Carson finished eighth in the boys standings with 36 points, while the Carson girls were 10th with 30 points... Douglas girls won the team title.