Paul Orong had a simple way of phrasing his girls team’s goal for Saturday’s 3A North track and field trials.
“We wanted to fill the bus and we did that for this week,” Orong said.
Both the girls and boys teams achieved their goal in advancing as many as possible to this weekend’s regional finals at Carson High School. And there were some unexpected surprises.
Fallon qualified eight individuals on the girls side and 12 on the boys during Saturday’s trials at the Edward Arciniega Athletic Complex. To qualify, athletes needed to place in the top nine, which includes all ties, in all events but the 800-meter and 1600 where the top 12 advanced. All the relay teams and 3200 participants automatically advanced.
A four-pack of jumpers managed to qualify in both the long and triple jump events for the girls.
“We just wanted to qualify,” Orong said. “We wanted to save our big jumps for this week and next. We try to do one jump. In the long jump, we did it twice and in the triple, I had to let them jump three times. We’ve never jumped that. It was different. They had to jump into the wind. It kind of wrecked with their steps. All they wanted to do was qualify.”
Cassidy East had a personal best in the long to win the event with a mark of 16 feet, 1 inch, while Whitney Skabelund finished fourth at 15-11.25 and Brynlee Shults was fifth at 15-10.5, a personal best. Sierra Hickox leaped 14-9.25 to finish ninth.
Skabelund was the leader in the triple jump by leaping 33-0.75 to finish second. Shults, Hickox and East each jumped 32-2.25, 31-2.5 and 29.11.5 to finish fourth through sixth, respectively.
Allie Lister qualified in the pole vault by clearing the bar at 8 feet and Savannah Robinson snuck in at the high jump with a personal best of 4-8. East missed the cut by 2 inches and Mayla Dahl fell 6 inches short.
Misaki Claire led Fallon in the throws by finishing fifth in the shot put at 30-4.25 and sixth in the discus at 99-5. Gracy Lisanti had a personal best of 85-8, but was 10-2 short of qualifying.
Skabelund and Kyndal Collins led the team on the track with Skabelund dominating the hurdles and Collins qualifying in the sprints.
Skabelund finished second in the 100 hurdles at 15.98 and fourth in the 300 hurdles at 49.91. Collins scored personal bests in both the 100 and 200 by running them in 12.88 and 26.89 to finish third and fourth, respectively.
Hickox was 0.01 second from qualifying in the 100 hurdles but she landed an eighth-place finish in the 300 hurdles at 52.95, a season best.
The boys fell victim to hard luck where several missed out on one spot. But overall, boys coach Steve Heck was pleased with the results.
“We had a very successful day at the region trials,” Heck said. “Our goal was to qualify as many kids as we could for the finals. Most of the kids we expected to qualify did and a few more snuck in we weren’t sure would. There were a couple disappointments.”
Colton Peterson ran the fastest time in the 200 with a 22.97 effort and was third in the 100 at 11.38, a personal best. Broder Thurston also had a personal best in the 200 with a 23.44 to finish fourth but Drake Copley was 0.03 second from qualifying.
Jacob Weber qualified in the 400 with a personal-best 57.02 after spending the season ranked outside the top 20. J.R. Demillo was less than 2 seconds (58.44) shy from advancing.
Joe Terry qualified in the 800 after running a personal-best 2:07.44 to take fifth. Demillo qualified in 12th at 2:14.66. Terry qualified in the 1600 with a 4:59.7 for 12th.
Trevor Brown snuck in the 110 hurdles to qualify with an eighth-place effort of 18.24 while Reid Clyburn, who false started in the 110, found redemption in the 300 hurdles by running a personal-best 42.49 for third. Trevor East finished fifth in 43.43, a personal best, but Brown’s best time of the year (44.77) was 0.62 second shy of advancing.
T.J. Mauga posted season-best marks in both the shot put and discus; he won the discus with a throw of 157-6. He took second in the shot put at 46-10 while Ben Dooley fell 4.25 inches shy of qualifying in the shot put at 38-2.5. Dooley, though, threw for 129-9 to take sixth in the discus.
“Ben and Trevor (Brown) stepped it up in their other event, though, to get in,” Heck said. “Trevor was not even ranked in the top 10 in either hurdle race so to get qualified was awesome. Some kids we expected would qualify without a problem.”
Bryan Duenas qualified in both the long and triple jumps with marks of 19-1.25, a personal best, and 38-11.25 to finish fourth and third, respectively. John Kirkland also qualified in both with jumps of 18-4.5, a personal best, and 36-8.75, while East finished second in the triple at 38-11.75.
“The boys have really set themselves up to do well both individually and as a team at the region finals this week,” Heck said.