Douglas runners enjoy successful opener

The start to the 2006 Douglas track & field campaign had another delay on Saturday.

After attempts to get the first meet of the season failed twice during the last week due to weather, the Tigers arrived at Manogue High School on Saturday only to find about an inch of snow and ice sitting atop the $1 million track facility.

But, after all of the teams arrived and the coaches met, it was decided to wait an hour and see if the problem would melt away. Indeed it did and the season finally got started.

Douglas competed in a four-way conference meet with Manogue, Carson and Fallon.

The Lady Tigers finished second in the team competition and the boys finished third. Leading the way for the Lady Tigers was Alicia Sturgess, who finished first in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, third in the 800 meters with a time of 2:48, third in the 1600 with a time of 6:05.9 and joined with teammates Skylar Young, Taylor Biaggi and Nicole Mehrer to finish second in the 4x800 relay with a time of 10:39.

Young, Mehrer and Biaggi were not to be outdone by their teammate as Young finished first in the 400 meters with a time of 66.2 seconds, while Mehrer won the triple jump with a fine early season mark of 32-4.5 and finished second to Young in the 400 with a 66.8-second clocking.

Biaggi made her high school track debut by finishing second in the 3,200 meters with a time of 13:11.

Young and Mehrer also teamed up with freshman Tina Dantin and senior Sarah Rowe to finish second to Carson in the exciting 4x400 relay.

Carson's winning time was 4:29.2 while Douglas came in at 4:31.3.

Also performing well for the Lady Tigers was freshman Jessica Gorton who had a second place finish in the long jump at 14-4.5 and a third-place finish in the triple jump at 31-3. Sara Hartley completed the 1-2-3 finish in the triple jump by capturing second place with a mark of 31-4.5.

On the boys' side of the competition, junior sprinter Tyler Tinstman, had an excellent start to the season as he finished second in the 200 meters (23.4) and third in the 100 meters (11.8) and teamed up with Michael Banks, Will Sheerin and Shawn Hall to win the 4x200 relay with an excellent first meet time of 1:35.4.

Tinstman also teamed up with Kyle Heidt, Tristan Bates and Hall to capture second place in the 4x100 relay with a time of 46.2.

Sheerin, a sophomore, won the 400 meters with an opening meet time of 54.5 seconds and teamed with Heidt, Derrik Jenkins and Spencer Lewis to take a third in the 4x400 relay. Jenkins and Lewis also teamed with David Williams and Niles Crow to finish second in the 4x800 relay with a time of 9:11.

Lewis and Crow weren't done as Lewis, a junior, finished third in the 800 with a time of 2:15 and Crow, a senior, finished third in the 3,200 with a time of 12:31. Ryan Bertucci and Heidt finished first and second in the high jump to complete the Tigers scoring on the day with Bertucci clearing a respectable 6-feet.

"It was cold, wet, cloudy, sunny, snowy and windy ... all of the elements that make Northern Nevada track & field interesting," Douglas coach Rick Brown said. "It was a very impressive start to the season. The kids put more pressure on themselves than the coaches do, especially those who want success so bad.

We continue to tell them that we will do everything that we can as coaches to get them to the top but ultimately their success has to come from within and that this was only the first step on their way to achieving success. We saw some heart out there Saturday, we saw some young talent step up and perform and we saw some leadership from those who have been with the program. It was absolutely great."

Next up for the Tigers will be the frosh/soph meet at Galena on Friday and the Fallon Invitational for varsity competitors on Saturday.