MVHS Boys Track Comes Out On Top At State Meet

By DAVE BELCHER

The Progress

The sirens, flashing lights and car horns at 12:45 am early Sunday morning moving down Moapa valley Boulevard indicated another Nevada State Championship had been won by Moapa Valley High School. It was the second time this school year that Moapa Valley has had such a celebration.

High school track and field teams from all across the state traveled to Sparks, Nevada last week where they competed for individual and team championships.

The Moapa Valley High School Boys team scored 116 points to win the 3A State Championship. That was 21 points more than state runner-up Spring Creek. Virgin Valley High School placed third with 59 points.

The Pirate girls team ended up finishing as the state runner-up behind Spring Creek who won the meet with 104 points. Moapa Valley scored 78, just a point and a half more than Virgin Valley who scored 76.5 and took third place.

Moapa Valley’s Cyrus Katich won two individual state titles. His time of 4:33.77 in the 1600 meters, and 10:06.4 in the 3200 meters, were the top in the state.

Katich was also on the state champion 4X800 team with Jed Stephens, Marcus Shambaugh and Ethan Witter.. Their winning time was 8:26.71.

Witter won the 800 meters with a time of 2:00.37. He placed second in the 400 meters with a time of 50.44.

The other individual Pirate champion was CJ Anderson in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 41.41.
Jonathon Mork finished third in the 110 meter hurdles with a personal record time of 17.34.
The Pirate 4X400 relay team composed of Anderson, Mork, Trevor Witter and Ethan Witter placed second in the race with a time of 3:31.85.

Jimmy Kelly won the high jump for the Bulldogs with a jump of 6-1. He also won the long jump with a leap of 22-3.5. Kelly placed third in the 100 meters with a time of 11.5.

Ashten Roman placed second in both the long jump for Virgin Valley, 21-1.5. He also took second place in the triple jump, 43-9.

On the girls’ side, the state runner up position was actually determined in the final 4×400 relay race. A Virgin Valley win and Moapa Valley fifth place would give the Pirate team the points they needed to place second in the meet.

The Bulldogs came into the race with the fastest time for the season. But they were beaten at state by Truckee who had made some changes to their relay team. Those changed ended up gaining them seven seconds over their previous best time in the season.

Moapa Valley placed sixth with a team season record time of 4:21.28. The team included Paige Fairchild, Brooke Sherwood, Talli Fairchild and Linn Engelgren.

The Bulldog team; made up of Calla Haviland, Logan Cude, Jasmine Aguilar and Kelly Denninghoff; finished the race in second place with a time of 4:14.16. That made the sixth place Pirate finish enough to give the MVHS team second place in the meet.

Paige Bodily of Moapa Valley won the Pole Vault beating the favored Kiriann Johnson of Fernley with a 10-09 vault.

Emma Humes placed second in the 3200 meters with a time of 12:03.94, a personal record.
Sydney Reese placed third in the high jump, 5-1.

The Pirate girls 4X200 relay team finished third with a time of 1:51.86. The team included Paige Fairchild, Paige Bodily, Talley Blackwell and Allison Mills.

The 4X800 team also placed third at 10:16.65. The team included Paige and Talli Fairchild, Engelgren and Humes.

Kelly Denninghoff was the big winner for the Virgin Valley girls team. She won the 400 meters with a time of 57.99 and also the 800 meters at 2:22.9.

Jenna Walters placed second in the 1600 meters at 5:29.55; third in the 800 meters at 2:26.88 and third in the 3200 meters with a time of 12:11.3.