Track team wins first home meet

The Trojans track team had its first home meet with both boys and girls teams winning the four-team event on Tuesday afternoon.

The Pahrump boys took first place out of four teams, scoring 106 points. Second place went to Sunrise Mountain (89), Beatty had 41 points and Tonopah 18 points.

The Trojans girls took first with 139.5 points, Sunrise Mountain was second (68.5), Tonopah was third (28) and Beatty fourth with 11.

Pahrump Valley track coach McKenzie Dean was proud of her kids.

“Both sides, boys and girls, claimed the top spot at our first home meet,” she said. “This meet was a great opportunity to capitalize off the hard work we have been putting in as a team. We had multiple athletes surpass their personal records, several by a large difference in time or mark. It was a great feeling for all of us to get several individual wins and as a team, combined.”

For the boys, she said the 4x800 relay team, with Bryce Odegard, Nik Clark, Layron Sonerholm and Sergio Sanchez, now lead the state of Nevada in the Class 3A with a time of 8 minutes, 44.24 seconds.

Also for the boys, Dean said the “throwing core continues to score heavily for our team with junior Jeremy Albertston winning discus (136 feet, 4 inches) and Morgan White having a big personal record of 41-9.5 in the shot put.”

In the meet the boys took the 800-meter run with Bryce Odegard taking second (2:12) to Sunrise Mountain’s Musio Jimenez (2:05.4). But junior Layron Sonerholm took third (2:13.8) and junior Cole Goodman took sixth (2:19.5) to give the event to Pahrump.

Long distance belonged to Pahrump as the boys also took the 1,600 and the 3,200.

Odegard took second in the 1,600 (4:49.7) and was helped by Sonerholm, who took fourth (5:01.2) and sophomore Sergio Sanchez, who took fifth (5:03.1).

The Trojans then swept the 3,200 taking first, third and fourth. Odegard won it with (10:31.5), Sanchez was next with (11:12.5), followed by sophomore Jacob Cipollini (12:09.1).

The Trojans owned the hurdle events too with senior Dylan Montgomery taking the win in the 110 hurdles (16.1 seconds). Senior Nick Harris was second (17.5) and sophomore Kaden Hastings was third (20.3).

In the 300 hurdles, senior Nik Clark took second (43.2), Nick Harris was third (47.6), freshman Cameron Ellis fourth (50.0) and Christopher Geer was fifth (50.8).

In the field events, the Trojans boys took the triple jump, taking the event was sophomore Ethan Whittle (38-08.5) and fourth was Montgomery (37-02).

On the girls side, Dean said she has a strong thrower there too.

“Caeli Havel won the disc with a 104-foot throw and placed second in shot put,” she said.

Havel also had help from other throwers as the Trojans swept the shot put with junior Jessica Turner taking third (29-04.5), sophomore Jasmine Kern was fourth (27-02.5) and freshman Deja Jackson took fifth (26-06.5).

The girls scored a lot of points in the relays, winning three of four relays. The Trojans took the 4x100 with a 56.8 time (Jazmyne Turner, Haile Souza, America Hurtado and Cynthia Martin). Then they took the 4x400 with a time of 5:07.5 (Zarah Whittle, Katherine Goodman, Nsringa Breathwaite and Hannah McElheny). They won the 4x800 with a time of 11:56.6 (Diamond Sonerholm, Veronika Howell, Grace Plumb and Alicia Quiroz).

Dean said freshman Jazmyne Turner claimed the top spot in both the 100 and 200.

She did this “while anchoring our women’s first place 4x100 team.”

The girls had success in the 300 hurdles, with freshman McElheny taking second (1:01.2), freshman Breathwaite taking third (1:06.6) and freshman Jordan Stebbins taking fourth (1:08.9).

The girls distance runners were also hard at work. Junior Plumb took first in the 3,200 (14:22.1).

The girls took the 1,600 with Sonerholm taking first (6:38.3) and Plumb taking second (6:38.5). Sonerholm also won the 800 (2:52.3).

Dean loved the performances from all her athletes.

“All of our athletes had great performances and it was exciting to celebrate the victory of winning, especially in front of our home crowd,” she said. “It was definitely a proud moment, as a coach. I look forward to many more throughout the season.”

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at Vhee@pvtimes.com