By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
The final week of the season and the year brought some excitement, some disappointment and some amazing results for the Moapa Valley High School Track and Field teams. The state championship meet concluded last Saturday in Carson City.
With the threat of rain both days, and following a hail storm that pounded the city on Wednesday, a migration from the south to the north saw four southern region teams come away with boys’ team titles in the four leagues. Two southern girls’ teams came away with state team titles as well. That means the south dominated again in the track and field competition. More on this later.
Moapa Valley High School sent the favorite in the pole vault event: Josh Lee. Lee put a scare in the Pirate faithful when he failed to clear his opening height on the first two attempts. He changed his pole then cleared the vault and won the state title with a finishing height of 14 feet.
Lee was the lone Pirate to capture a state title this year. His hard work and dedication made him the best in the state. His highest vault was 14’6” this year.
In the girl’s pole vault, two Pirates competed at the state meet. Both were freshman: Faith Witter and Hannah Watson.
Both girls set personal records. Witter finishing fifth with a vault of 9 feet. Watson placed third with a vault of 9’9”. Watson, who had set a new school record earlier in the season, broke and set her record with that vault.
In other field events Josh Cox and Josh Leavitt, each threw the discus in the state meet. Both set personal records on their first throws. Leavitt finished in fifth place with a throw of 133’11”. Cox finished in seventh with a throw of 129’9”.
The boy’s 4X400 relay team; consisting of Tristan Lehman, Derek Reese, Josh Cox and Greg Morrissey; finished sixth in the state meet with a time of 45.75.
Preston Humes, a freshman, ran the 3200 meters finishing sixth with a time of 10:55.88.
Alexis Schraft ran in four events. She ran the 400 meters placing seventh with a time of 1:03.80. The 4X200 relay team of Schraft, Watson, Erika Baldwin and Natalie Mills placed sixth with a time of 1:51.67.
The Pirate 4×400 relay team placed fifth just behind Virgin Valley. Moapa Valley’s time was 4:12.18 in the race. Virgin Valley finished with a time of 4:11.43. Ashlyn Western, Schraft, Mills and Baldwin ran in the relay.
The 4X800 relay team finished fifth with a time of 10:24.14. Schraft, Western, Andi Hillstead and Bailey Bunker ran the relay.
Mariah Mendoza finished in eighth place in the shotput with a throw of 92’5”.
Freshman Skotlyn Hill finished seventh in the high jump with a personal record of 4’6”. Hill also placed placed eighth in the 300 meter hurdles.
Watson finished seventh in the long jump with a jump of 15’2.25”.
Andrea Mogren finished seventh in the triple jump with a leap of 31’5.75”.
Mills ran both hurdle events finishing seventh in the 100-meter hurdles and medaling with a fourth place finish in the 300-meter hurdles.
Ashlyn Western finished third in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:22.17, a personal record. She placed third in the 16oo meter run with a time of 5:40.36.
Lowry ended up winning the girls meet with 72 points. Truckee placed second with 63 points. Sunrise Mountain finished third with 58 points. Spring Creek finished fourth with 55 points. Moapa Valley finished fifth with 48 points. Mojave had 46, Dayton 43, Virgin Valley 40, and Del Sol 38. Elko rounded out the top ten with 36 points.
Mojave won the boys state championship with 110 points. Desert Pines finished second with 100 points. Pahrump finished third with 78.5 points. Fallon was fourth with 50.5 points, Spring Creek had 42, Western 38, Truckee 34, Cheyenne 34, Del Sol 32 and Elko 29 to finish the top ten. Moapa Valley placed eleventh with 25 points.
Bishop Gorman won the 4A as several members of the football team came out for track this year. They scored 113 points doubling runner-up Reed who scored 66 points.
Centennial won the 4A girls meet with 103 points while Rancho finished second with 68 points.
White Pine won the 2A boys and girls meets. Spring Mountain won the 1A boys meet and Wells won the 1A girls.
