Fallon track heads to Yerington for regional meet

A new chapter begins for the Greenwave track and field team this weekend in Yerington.

Behind record-breaking performances, the boys are in position to not only win several events but they will be contending with Elko for the team title while the girls could encounter a bigger challenge. Nevertheless, Fallon opens the 3A regional meet in Yerington on Friday as the top-three finishers in each event qualify for next week’s state meet in Carson City.

Fallon’s boys team ranks first in six events, including both 100- and 200-meter dashes, 300 hurdles, both 4x100 and 4x200 relays, and the triple jump.

The record-breaking relay team of seniors Drake Copley and Broder Thurston, and juniors Reid Clyburn and Colton Peterson has been the most consistent force on the Greenwave this season. They shattered the 4x200 school record again last weekend in Lowry and are poised for another regional championship and state berth.

The quartet clocked in a time of 43.69 in the 4x100 and leads the competition by a full second while they have almost a 2-second edge in the 4x200 at 1:30.88.

Outside the relays, Peterson and Copley lead the sprinting events with Copley tops in the 100 at 11.18 and Peterson is No. 1 in the 200 at 22.62 with Copley close behind in second at 22.86. Peterson ranks fourth in the 100 at 11.41 and is fourth in the 400 at 53.42, less than a second from first. Thurston is also No. 6 in both the 100 and 200 at 11.55 and 23.77.

Clyburn and Fernley’s Nicholas Bernardo have battled back and forth in the hurdles with the Vaquero holding the edge in the 110 race at 15.56 to Clyburn’s 16.58. Clyburn, though, has the edge in the 300 race with a 41.67 over Bernardo’s 42.81. Junior Trevor East is in striking distance in the 110s with a 16.81 to rank third in the league while senior Trevor Brown is fifth at 17.40.

East leads the triple jump crew with a 40-8 leap and junior Bryan Duenas is second in the league at 39-6 followed by Thurston, who’s third at 39-1.5. Duenas is also third in the long jump at 19-6 and East is fourth at 19-3.75.

The 4x400 relay team, which was just formed several weeks ago, ranks third with East, Copley, Clyburn and Peterson running a season-best 3:40.22 at the Thunder Invitational last month. The 4x800 team of seniors Justin Cathey and J.R. Demillo, Daniel Tapia and Ugalde ranks sixth at 9:04.95.

Demillo is Fallon’s best shot in the 800 with a personal best 2:07.48 last week to rank sixth in the league but he will need to shave another 3 seconds off his time to contend for state. Cathey is tied for third in the high jump at 5-8 and senior Micah Whitaker ranks eighth in the discus at 122-7. Senior Nathaniel Klein is tied for fifth in the pole vault at 10-6.

Kyndal Collins is ranked No. 1 in the 100 and No. 2 in the 200 with times of 13.00 and 26.91, trailing the leader by 0.43 seconds. The 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams each rank third in the league with times of 52.58 and 1:51.77 with 1.07 seconds separating Fallon from the leader in the 4x100 and 5 seconds in the 4x200. Collins, Aisha Sharron, Sierra Hickox and Brynlee Shults compete on the 4x100 team while Allie Lister, Hailey Guerrero, Collins and Shults are on the 4x200 team.

Tiffany Sorensen is less than a foot from third place in the shot put with a best throw of 29-5.5 and she’s about 5 feet off from third in the discus at 104-1. Lister ranks third in the pole vault with a mark of 9-3.

Hickox and Shults are Fallon’s best shot in the triple jump with Hickox ranking second at 34-1 and Shults is third at 33-10.25. Shults is also 8 inches off the third-place mark in the long jump at 15-3.