Track teams place in top 15 at Reed

The Greenwave track and field team was among the best of the small schools in last weekend’s Reed-Sparks Rotary Invitational.

The Lady Wave placed ninth overall out of 23 teams and was second to Fernley in the 3A. Fallon amassed 34 points, 3.5 behind Fernley, while Reed won the division with 138 points. For the boys, Fallon finished 14th of 22 but was third of the 3A schools with 16.5 points. Reed won the boys, too, with 178 points.

Fallon heads to Rockland (Calif.) this weekend to face different competition before returning to compete at McQueen in two weeks.

“We’re getting better and we’re almost getting to the middle of the season,” Fallon girls coach Paul Orong said.

Whitney Skabelund continued to impress both on the track and in the pits. She won the long jump, took second in the 100-meter hurdles and triple jump, and finished fifth in the 300 hurdles. Skabelund leaped 17 feet to win the long on her last attempt and posted a 34-3.5 mark in the triple. She improved on her preliminary time in the 100 hurdles to finish at 16.36 seconds, a personal record, and ran the 300 hurdles in 50.20.

“She was in good position to win the triple and only lost by 3 inches,” Orong said. “She beat the girl from Manogue on the last jump (in the long). She had a lot of focus and a lot of guts.”

Corin Ramos led Fallon in the 40-yard dash at 6.05 for 11th while Kyndal Collins was 25th (13.79) and 28th (28.76) in the 100 and 200. Brynlee Shults finished 26th in the 400 at 66.21 and Chandler McAlexander was the top finisher in the 800 (34th, 2:47.11) and 1600 (35th, 6:19.3). Amanda Pursley finished 26th in the 3200 at 14:49.09.

The 4x200 relay team finished seventh and the 4x100 team was ninth to round out the track events.

Misaki Clare finished 13th in the discus at 84-11 and 18th in the shot put at 28-6.75, while Savannah Robinson was 11th in the high jump at 4-6. Sierra Hickox finished seventh in the triple jump at 32-1 and Shults was 11th at 14-5 in the long.

For the boys, Colton Peterson was two spots shy of qualifying for the 100 finals by running the preliminary in 11.75 while Drake Copley finished 13th in the 40 dash at 5.31.Drake Copley led Fallon in the 200 with a 26th place finish at 24.58, a season best.

“We did pretty well, especially considering that we have some key athletes nursing injuries,” Fallon boys coach Steve Heck said.

Broder Thurston ran the 400 in 54.69, a season record, to finish 13th while J.R. Demillo was 24th in the 800 at 2:16.97, a season record. Joseph Terry led the distance runners with a ninth-place finish in the 3200 at 10:42.01, a personal best, and Justin Cathey was 21st in the 1600 at 5:07.19, a personal record.

Reid Clyburn was one place short of the 110 hurdles finals after running the preliminary in 17.80, a personal best. Trevor East led the team in the 300 hurldes with a 45.42 to finish 19th. Trevor Brown also ran in both hurdle events, taking 15th in the 110 and 20th in the 300.

The 4x400 relay team of Bryan Duenas, Clayton Steelmon, Peterson and Copley placed fourth in 45.50 while the distance medley team of Cathey, Thurston, Demillo and Terry took eighth in 11:53.80.

“Our relays were pretty strong,” Heck said. “The 4x1 team did a great job keeping their passes in the zone and taking advantage of other team’s errors.”

T.J. Mauga led Fallon in the field events by taking third in the discus at 151-6, and seventh in the shot put at 44-08.25.

“T.J. is just starting to get back into form,” Heck said. “He looked great in the discus and I think we will see some even bigger throws soon.”

Duenas finished seventh in the triple jump at 39-3 while Cathey had a personal-best 5-6 in the high jump to take eighth.

“That was impressive since he has been focusing on his distance events,” Heck said of Cathey. “Bryan Duenas is getting very close to the 40-foot mark in the triple jump and I know he is excited to hit that mark.”