It's Fast times at Carson High

SPARKS - Forget about Sean Penn and the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Kayla Sanchez, Josh Heilman, Matt Moore and the rest of the Carson Senators put on a show of their own during the Northern 4A Track and Field Regional prelims held on Saturday at Reed High's Northern Nevada Track and Field Facility.

Sanchez, a freshman, equaled Reed's stadium record with a time of 44.10 seconds in the 300-meter low hurdles, and she logged the fastest individual times in the 100 and 200 and ran a leg for a 4x200 relay team that qualified No. 1 in the girls competition on an overcast day. Meanwhile, Heilman was fast qualifier in the boys 100 and 200, plus he ran legs on 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams that turned in school record times, and Moore qualified No. 1 in the boys 300 intermediate hurdles and anchored a 4x400 relay team that shattered its season best time and approached the meet record.

"It's a good day to be a Carson Senator," sprints coach Shane Quilling said after the Senators clocked a 3:25.02 to win their heat of the 4x400 at the end of the meet.

"We've had a great day. We've had a bunch of personal record times and everybody got through (to the finals). It will be nice to finish like we did today," he added, referring to the regional finals next Saturday at Reed. "But next week, the pressure meter goes up a notch and we're going to have to get it done again."

The top three finishers in each event at the finals next Saturday advance to the NIAA State Championships the following weekend in Las Vegas.

Sanchez began by running 12.22 in the 100 to surpass the school record of 12.23 set in 1998 by her older sister, Amy Sanchez. Her 44.10 in the 300 lows equaled the fastest qualifying mark by Polly Smith of North Valleys - times that eclipsed the stadium record of 44.34 set by Fallon's Dixie Williams in 1994 - and capped her day with a 25.30 dash in the 200 that qualified as fastest among the girls. Another school record fell in the 4x200 when Sinead McSweeney, Lindsay Ford, Christy Works and Sanchez ran 1:45.43.

"The 300 hurdles is going to be a great race next week ... Megan Olivetti (of Wooster) is the two-time defending state champion, it's possible she could run a personal record and still not win that race," meet spokesman Lynn Mentzer said. "Sanchez and Smith both broke the stadium record and we had to go down to the thousandths to determine who would get the first seed (Smith was one-thousandth faster than Sanchez)."

Carson also got school record performances in the boys 4x100 and 4x200. Tilor Smith, Sam Pincock, Jeremy Gray and Heilman clocked a 43.62 in the 4x100 - .02 faster than a mark that had been in the books since 1969 - and a half-second ahead of Bishop Manogue, the No. 2 qualifier. Seth Carter, Heilman, Pincock and Moore combined to run 1:28.94 in the 4x200 to break a record in that race as well.

There were more fast times in both the 100 and 200 individual races, as three Senators cracked the top four in each event. Heilman led all qualifiers in both with times of 11.01 in the 100, a personal best automatic time, and 22.62 in the 200. Smith and Pincock qualified No. 3 and No. 4 in the 100 with personal best times of 11.30 and 11.32. In the 200, Carter qualified No. 3 and Pincock No. 4 with personal record 23.09 clockings.

Carson's 4x100 team ran without Bryan Maffei, who sat out to rest a tight quad muscle but is expected to be ready for the finals. Gray was more than an adequate fill-in on a day when he also ran a personal best of 51.22 to qualify No. 2 in the 400 and a 51.74 leadoff leg in the 4x400.

The girls quartet of Works, Ford, Sandra McAlman and Amanda Benson qualified No. 1 in the 4x400 with a 4:07.71 clocking. Earlier, Benson ran a personal best 59.64 to qualify No. 2 in the 400 and Works also advanced with a personal best 59.98. McAlman also ran for Carson's No. 6 qualifying 4x100 relay team which clocked a season best 51.37, qualified in the triple jump at 33-0 1/4 and ran a strong third leg who put the 4x400 team in the lead with a strong effort on the third leg. Works also advanced in the 800 with a 2:29.67.

Moore ran a personal best 39.02 to lead all qualifiers in the 300 intermediates, while Carter qualified No. 5 with a 41.29 effort. Moore ran 15.22 in the 110 highs to qualify No. 2 and he ran a 50.16 anchor leg in the 4x400.

Smith only needed one attempt to qualify in the long jump, a 21-5 that led the field.

"I was just trying to qualify," he said. "I just took one jump to save my legs. Now, I have to come back next week and finish it."

Carson had another highlight in the girls 300 lows when Ford ran nearly two seconds faster than her previous personal record with a 48.84 clocking that qualified No. 6. In the 100 highs, teammate Andrea Kierstead qualified No. 3 in 16.19.

There were highlights in the field events as well, including Alex McAlman qualifying No. 2 in the girls shot put (36-5) and discus (123-6). Stephen Waicul and Eric Walther advanced in both the boys shot put and discus - Walther threw 49-6 1/4 and 147-2; Waicul threw 48-2 1/4 and 156-11. In the girls pole vault, Amber Whitworth advanced with her 7-6 clearance.

n Contact Dave Price at dprice@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-1220.