Competing in an odd format with new combinations on two different squads, the Douglas High School track and field team made a strong statement last week that it will be very difficult to contend with in the relays throughout the rest of the year.
Douglas took victories in the boys' 4x100 and 4x800 and the girls 4x400 relays at the Outer Relays in Fallon Thursday.
"The whole format of the relay meet is very different than anything they'll have to do during the rest of the season," Douglas boys' coach Rick Brown said. "It's a fun meet. I think we really had an excellent showing."
The Tigers came within 16 hundreths of a second of the school record in the boys' 4x800 as Derrick Jenkins, Spencer Lewis, Brad Boyd and Seth White teamed to run the event in 8:32.16.
"They put it all together and had a great run," Brown said. "It's still early in the season, so we're hoping it will only get better."
The boys' 4x100 team blistered off a 44.34-second time to take first. Varsity football running backs Tyler Tinstman, Julius Bailey and Will Sheerin teamed with Michael Banks for the win.
"That was the first time we had those four together as a team this season," Brown said. "Needless to say, they'll stay there. They knocked over a second and a half from our previous best this year, and that put them in the top three in the Northern 4A this season."
Sheerin, Jenkins, Tinstman and Lewis ran a 3:34.5 in the 4x400, a full eight seconds faster than the previous best time this year, but just missed winning the race as Spring Creek ran it in 3:34.2 in a seperate heat.
"They want it bad now," Brown said. "As a group, they are going about it with the approach now that the only team who can beat us is ourselves through the remainder of the league season."
Sheerin and his younger brother, Johnny, Banks and Heidt won the triple jump relay even though Banks and Heidt had not previously competed in the triple jump this season.
The girls won the 4x400 with a time of 4:10.7.
"We were running with Alicia Sturgess, Nicole Mehrer, Skylar Young and we threw Jessica Gorton in there," Brown said. "When Jessica's leg came up, we were not winning, but she ran a strong third leg and passed a Carson girl down the stretch.
"It was a very good leg for a kid who's not used to running with that team."
Young, Mehrer, Sturgess and Sarah Allen team to take second in the distance medley relay. Mehrer ran a personal best of 2:33.
The girls also won the high jump realy and took second in the long jump and triple jump relays.
Douglas will be mixing and matching relay squads over the next two weeks as the school is on spring break.
"It's always a little tough, figuring out who will be here and who won't," Brown said. "We'll have the boys' 4x100 and 4x200 teams intact for both weeks and we'll have the girls' 4x400 team intact for both weeks.
"Outside of that, it will give us an opportunity to look at some other kids too. We've got 10 guys in the 4x400 running 56 seconds or lower right now. They'll only get better and a lot of these kids are underclassmen. It really says a lot for our future."
n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
Coming off a walk-off home run loss earlier in the day, the Douglas baseball team bounced back with a vengeance to take a 20-10 win over No. 2 Reno Saturday afternoon to take the doubleheader split in Reno and clinch the season series against the Huskies.
The Tigers put together 22 hits and cycled through nine different Husky pitchers in the second game, using an eight-run fifth and a five-run sixth to break the game wide open after trailing 8-7.
"It's good to get out of here with a win," Douglas coach John Glover said. "That was our goal coming into today and we accomplished that.
"Hitting is contagious and today it really rolled along that way for us. We tried to move runners around and just play the game. There's no handbook on it, we were just trying to do what works at the time."
Douglas jumped out to a 3-0 lead after opening the game with five consecutive singles.
Reno's Chad Doerr came on in relief with two on and no outs and struck out three consecutive batters.
He ended up striking out seven of the first 11 batters he faced, scattering a walk and a hit in the middle of that stretch while Reno managed to bring three runs across in the bottom of the second inning to tie the game.
Heading into the fourth, however, Douglas managed to break through against Doerr as Brandon Bernard drew a walk to open the inning and Tyler May laid a perfect bunt down just inside the first base foul line.
May was able to beat out the throw and Jordan Hadlock sent Bernard home with an infield single.
"Doerr came in there and did a good job," Glover said. "We ended up getting to him a bit and went from there."
May scored on a sacrifice fly by Niko Saladis, Nate Whalin singled and Phil Mannelly picked up two of his six RBIs in the game with a double to right-center.
That ended Doerr's afternoon but Reno was able to get out of the inning with another sacrifice and a ground ball to first.
Reno got back out in front in the bottom of the frame. The Huskies brought two runs across before pinch-hitter John Linert hit a three-run home run to left.
Troy Torres came on in relief for the Tigers and got out of the inning on a fly to center.
Douglas again loaded the bases to start the fifth as Willie Morgan reached on an infield single and Bernard drew a walk.
May again bunted safely, this time down the third baseline and Hadlock drew a bases-loaded walk to open the floodgates on an eight-run frame in which six different Tigers would drive in at least one run and four different Reno pitchers would take a turn on the mound.
Reno got two more runs across in the bottom of the inning, but Douglas brought five more across to start the sixth.
Hadlock came on to close the game on the mound, striking out two and getting a ground out to third to end the game by the 10-run mercy rule in the sixth.
Torres picked up the win in relief and Whalin, Eilers, Saladis, Hadlock and Morgan each had two RBIs. Pruitt, Bernard and May each drove in one.
Earlier in the day, Douglas battled toe-to-toe with the Huskies as Reno ace Garrett Luippold and Tiger sophomore lefty Wyatt Graham each turned in complete games on the mound.
Graham was the hard-luck loser, surrendering a walk-off solo shot to Drew Simpson in the bottom of the seventh to give Reno a 4-3 win.
"Wyatt threw really well, we were very happy with what he did today," Glover said. "I thought we did a good job with Luippold today. He's as good as there is in the league and we were right there all day.
"He had 11 strikeouts, but we had some good at-bats against him. When you lose on a walk-off homer, you have to bounce back. You have to get that second one. We were happy to be able to do that today."
Douglas led 3-1 heading into the third inning, but Reno brought two across on two hits in the bottom of the frame to tie it up.
Douglas is now 8-1 in league play on the year and will take on Wooster Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Reno.
The Douglas High swim team pushed ahead to victories on the boys' and girls' side Saturday, sweeping the Lowry Buckaroos Saturday in Fallon.
On the girls' side, Whitney Simpson led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 breaststroke, followed by Lisa Van Den Berg and Paula Sigala.
Simpson also won the 200 IM and teamed with Haley Van Schottenstein and Paula and Sara Sigala to win the 400 free relay.
Von Schottenstein, Simpson, Virginia Evans and Sigala teamed to win the 200 free relay.
Von Schottenstein won the 500 free and the 50 free, with Paula Sigala taking second in the 500 free.
Sara Sigala won the 200 free and took second in the 200 IM and Evans won the 100 butterfly and took third in the 200 free.
Denai Neilander took third in the 50 free and Chandra Matheson took third in the 100 butterfly.
Lisa Gourlay took third in the 100 free and Anna Jackson took second in the 100 backstroke.
Douglas took the top two places in the 200 medley relay.
On the boys' side, Marco Hyman won the 100 fly and the 100 backstroke and Blake Maxwell won the 100 free and the 200 IM to seal the boys' win.
Bryant White won the 50 free and took second in the 500 free and Paul Von won the 100 breaststroke and took second in the 100 fly.
Ryan Dykes took third in both the 200 free and the 50 free, Ben Weiss took third in the 100 free and Andy Pozun took third in the 100 backstroke.
Hyman, Maxwell, Von and Dykes teamed to win the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay.
The Sierra League-leading Reno High softball team made short work of the Douglas Tigers over the weekend, completing a season sweep with 15-3 and 14-0 victories Saturday in Reno.
The Huskies jumped out to a 5-0 lead through the first two innings in game one before Morgan Barone doubled, Dorothy Sliva singled and Nicole LaPorte drove Barone home on a fielder's choice.
Reno scored 10 runs over the next two innings before the Tigers brought two more across on an Emily Weaver sacrifice and and Donna Judd single.
Weaver picked up Douglas' only hit in game two as the Tigers dropped to 10-7 overall and 3-3 in league play on the year.
