Fallon's Whitney Skabelund breaks a personal record to qualify for state in the long jump.
CARSON CITY — The best jumping corps in the region was on display over the weekend.
The Lady Wave track and field team qualified two individuals to this week’s state meet as senior Whitney Skabelund advanced in three events, and junior Brynlee Shults snuck in the triple jump with the best leap of her career at the Northern 3A Regional meet at Carson High School.
Truckee won the division with 139.5 points followed by Lowry with 106.5 and Fallon with 84.5.
“I liked the way we competed. It was a team effort,” Fallon girls coach Paul Orong said. “They all stepped up. I was really proud of them.”
Battling strep throat, Skabelund still managed to qualify in three of her four events.
“Whitney had strep throat for the week,” Orong said. “It was a brave thing for her to do. The first day was all on adrenaline. It took a lot out of her. I expect her to return and get it all done in state.”
She won the long jump on her final leap of 18 feet, 1 inch, a personal best and meet record on Friday and then took second in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.01 seconds. Skabelund placed second in the triple jump on Saturday at 34-9.25 followed by Shults’ 34-foot mark.
“With both Whitney and Brynlee, they’re in a good spot,” Orong said. “Brynlee jumped real well. She did what she was supposed to. She finally cracked the 34-foot barrier. It’s the first time all year she was really consistent.”
With the new format in which only the top three qualify for state, several missed out over the weekend.
Skabelund hit a hurdle during the 300 race but still finished fourth at 48.50, while Misaki Claire posted fourth-place results in the discus and shot put. Claire threw for 104-6 in the discus and 33-0.75 in the shot put.
Cassidy East was sitting in second before the last run in the long jump but dropped to fourth after scoring a 16-4 mark. She also had a tough break in the triple jump by placing fifth at 32-5. Shults finished seventh in the long at 15-4 followed by Sierra Hickox in eighth at 14-3. Hickox was sixth in the triple jump at 31-3.75.
“Cassidy worked so hard and improved so much,” Orong said. “I wish she could have gone.”
Kyndal Collins was fifth in the 100 at 13.74, Allie Lister took fifth in the pole vault at 8-6 and Savannah Robinson was sixth in the high jump at 4-8. Shelby Hickox finished ninth in the 300 hurdles at 53.51, Collins was eighth in the 200 at 28.75 and Amanda Pursley was 17th in the 3200 at 15:17.35.
The relay teams came close to cracking the top three with the 4x100 and 4x800 squads taking fifth. The team of Emily Evett, Collins, Shults and Sierra Hickox finished the 4x100 in 53.45, while the 4x800 team of Jordyn Dahl, Shelby Hickox, Chandler McAlexander and Robinson finished in 10:55. The 4x200 team of Evett, Shults, Sierra Hickox and Collins was seventh at 1:54.16 and the 4x400 team of Robinson, Lister, McAlexander and Shelby Hickox was seventh at 4:37.57.
“I was hoping our relays would have done a little bit better,” Orong said. “They ran the fastest time of the year. Everybody else just ran faster. We have a bunch of young teams. Our 4x1 was only about half a second away and we came up short.”