Girls 2nd, boys 4th at Silver State Invitational

Douglas High School's girls' track team continued its blazing start to the season, taking second at the Silver State Invitational at Bishop Manogue High School Saturday.

The girls were only topped by long-standing track power Reno High, while the boys combined for a fourth-place finish behind Reno, Hug and Manogue. A total of 19 schools competed at the invitational.

Alicia Sturgess and Skylar Young each continued their torrid pace, taking home four medals apiece.

Sturgess won the 800, took second in the high jump and took third in the 1,600. She also teamed with Taylor Biaggi, Nicole Mehrer and Young to take second in the 4x800 relay.

Young won the 400, followed closely by Mehrer, and teamed with Mehrer, Sarah Rowe and Tina Dantin to with the 4x400 relay.

Mehrer also took second in the triple jump for her fourth medal of the day as well.

Young, Rowe and Dantin teamed with Sarah Hartley to win the 4x200 relay. Hartley also won the girls 100 and finished 2nd in the 200.

Freshman Jessica Gorton continued her improvement in the long jump as she finished in second place with a season-best jump of 15-1.

"The girls are having fun right now," Douglas coach Rick Brown said. "They're competing well and steadily improving week after week.

"The next few weeks, with Spring Break and all, will be critical to their success down the stretch as we approach the league meet in May."

On the boys side, Ryan Bertucci won the high jump while Tyler Tinstman won the 200 meter dash.

Spencer Lewis finished second in the 800 meters and the 4x200 relay squad of Michael Banks, Will Sheerin, Tristan Bates and Tinstman finished second.

"We could have easily won that race, it came down to one sloppy hand-off," Brown said. "In this race, you have to trust your teammates and we were running with a new combination of guys and that trust factor wasn't in place, but they'll get there.

"We have so many hard-working athletes this year on both the boys' and girls' side and we look forward to the challenges coming down the road over the next month. It should be very exciting."

The team competes in the Reed Rotary Invitational this weekend. The meet features 33 schools and more than 1,600 athletes.