By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Track and Field teams sent four athletes to the state meet in Carson City last year.
RJ Hubert who competed in four events came home with two state championships. One was in the long jump with a 22 feet 10 inch jump. The other was in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 00:14.62. He also finished second in the 300-meter intermediates with a time of 00:39.27, which was :00.07 behind state champion Nick Van Patton, of Sparks, who will return this year.
Hubert also placed second in the high jump with a jump of 6’ 4”; just four inches short of Kirin Allen of Elko who will return this year as a senior.
Moapa Valley also lost shotput athlete Hunter Soderquist to graduation. Soderquist finished third in the state with a throw of 50’10”.
Almost any other year a throw of fifty feet would have given Soderquist the state championship. Last year however, there were three throwers who measured over fifty feet. Zachary Howard of Dayton won the state title with a 60”1’ throw. Samuel Gomez of Boulder City place second with a throw of 53’10.25”. All three graduated.
Josh Lee qualified last year for the Pole Vault and finished in 8th place with a vault of 11’. Lee will be returning as a junior this year.
Ashlyn Western qualified as a Freshman last year in two events. In the 400 m she finished in 5th place, just one place from a medal with a time of 2:26.09. She also finished fourth in the 1600 m with a time of 5:30.97, a personal record. Western returns this year as a sophomore.
The Pirate track and field team will be young this year. Nevertheless, the team hopes to qualify several for this year’s regional tournament which will be held here at Moapa Valley on May 12-13.
The Grant Bushman invitational will be May 5 and the Richard Lewis Invitational will be April 21. Moapa Valley will also host two midweek meets this year.
