Amy Sanchez tried out four new events Saturday at the Bella Invitational track and field meet in Sacramento.
Even so, the Carson High School senior managed to win the pentathlon, one of three gold medal performances the Senators produced during the meet held at American River College.
Sanchez scored 3,080 points in the five-event competition, 444 points better than the runner-up.
"Actually, I was surprised. I wasn't sure what the competition would be like," Sanchez said. "I had never done the high jump, shot put or 800 before, and I hadn't run the hurdles since back in 8th grade."
Sanchez started off on the right foot by winning the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 17.74. She went 28-feet, 1-3/8 inches in the shot put and 4-2 in the high jump.
Sanchez won the long jump with a 15-6-1/2 distance. And finally, she finished second in her first attempt at the 800 meters, running 2:39.84 for second-place - not more than a step out of the lead.
Meanwhile, Carson's girls received first-place points from freshman Shanna Sparks, a double winner in the 800 and 1,500 meters.
Chandler Menteer and Josh Carter placed second and fourth respectively in the boys discus, Jordan Payette placed fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 16.01 and Darryl Nourse was fourth in the boys 1,500.
Payette also combined with Doug Brooks, Rob Handley and Jed Abowd to place sixth in the 4x100 relay with a 44.9 clocking.
Track notes ... The Senators will be on their home track for a Northern 4A conference meet on Thursday, followed by the Carson Invitational on Saturday. Action on Saturday starts with the field events at 8:30 a.m. and running events at 10 ... This past Friday night, Shanna Sparks ran a 2:18 split to help the Senators win the 4x800 relay at the Reed Invitational. She combined with Nicole Williams (2:41), Caitlin Prunty (2:27) and Megan Zahnter (2:28) to run 10:10, one second faster than Reno ... Three meet records fell at the Reed meet, including Battle Mountain's Tracy Argo, who went 40-feet in the triple jump to outduel Tenishia Johnson of Reed. Earlier, Johnson bested Argo in the long jump, winning with a meet record leap of 18-9. The third record went to Fallon junior Aarik Wilson, who flew 48-11 to win the boys triple jump ... Douglas senior Chris Chappell took a shot at a meet record in the boys pole vault, but missed three attempts at 15-10. He settled for first-place with a clearance of 15-4. The Douglas team dedicated its performance on Saturday to senior pole vaulter Jason Jarrett, who suffered a serious head injury during practice on Monday. Jarrett's condition at Washoe Medical Center was upgraded from "serious and stable" to "fair" on Thursday morning ... Chappell is undefeated during the outdoor season, including an April 1 victory at the Bob Mathias West Coast Relays in Fresno, Calif., where he cleared 15-6. Jarrett also placed fourth with a 13-6 clearance at Ratcliffe Stadium.
