Trojans boys track beats former state champions, Desert Pines

The Trojans boys and girls track team dominated a five-team meet.

For the boys, distance runners Michael Sonerholm, Layron Sonerholm and Bryce Odegard helped the Trojans team to a big home win.

The boys dominated the meet, taking first place with 171 points. Chaparral was second (82), Beatty was third (52), Desert Pines fourth (47) and Tonopah fifth (22). This was a good meet for the boys because they showed a lot of progress in beating Desert Pines, who was the state champion team last year.

During the meet, Trojans track coach McKenzie Dean was excited to see how her boys would do against the Desert Pines team since they were state champions last year.

“I feel we definitely made a statement last week with both boys and girls winning last week, I think we definitely can come out and compete against the Desert Pines boys. It would be great to see how our boys are progressing. I want to see the momentum going.”

For the boys, the momentum started with the distance runners.

Michael Sonerholm took first in the 800-meter run (2 minutes, 16.2 seconds and a personal best), Grant Odegard took second (2:22.2) and Vincente Maglia took third (2:28.2). An interesting aspect about these runners is they are all freshmen.

In the 1,600 meter, junior Layron Sonerholm (4:56.8) was edged out by Beatty’s Jose Granados (4:54.7).

In the 3,200, junior Bryce Odegard took first place (10:29.9), leading a Pahrump sweep of the event. Sophomore Sergio Sanchez was second (10:35.9) and third was Layron Sonerholm (11:04.9).

Dean talked about her distance crew during the meet.

“We have strong distance runners, we are strong in the 800 and distance crew and we are getting there,” she said.

Bryce Odegard also helped the Trojans sprinters, taking second in the 400 (53.6 seconds). Senior Dylan Montgomery was second in the 200 (23.0) and was first in the 110-meter hurdles (15.3, a personal best). Second in the 110 was senior Nick Harris (17.0). Montgomery also took first in the 300 hurdles (40.1, a personal best). The Trojans swept that event too, with senior Nik Clark taking second (41.6, a personal best) and Harris third (45.4, a personal best).

Dean said she was also pleased with the efforts of the boys sprinters.

“The sprints are taking time but we are progressing in that we are seeing huge personal bests from our sprinting crew, which is great.” the coach said. “And that is what I want to stress to our athletes. How are they improving each day? How much are they progressing?”

In the relays, the Trojans boys only had one first place, and that was in the 4x800-meter relay. The team is composed of Bryce Odegard, Layron Sonerholm, Sanchez and Clark (9:00.0).

The field events for the boys were led by junior Jeremy Albertson, who took first in shot put (42 feet, 9.5 inches, a personal best) and the discus (138-08) and junior Morgan White took second (116-08).

The Trojans took the pole vault with junior Cole Goodman taking first (9-03, a personal best) and Grant Odegard second (8-06).

Trojans girls track

The Trojans girls dominated their meet with freshman sprinter Jazmyne Turner helping the Trojans to first place (164 points).

Dean was also pleased with her girls and the program as a whole.

“It will take time to build this program and it is awesome to see how fast we are progressing,” the coach said. “The girls program is coming along. Strength in numbers has not been there and so we are really trying to build that program as well. We just had the junior high school program here the other day. With the girls we want to see the work and consistency in practice every day. It doesn’t matter if we have the best coaches in the world, we can’t teach heart. We need to motivate them but we need to work on their confidence so we can reach their full potential.”

Chaparral was second (63), Desert Pines was third (61), Tonopah was fourth (38) and Beatty was fifth (29).

Turner took first in the 100 (13.3, a personal best) and second in the 200 (28.1, a personal best). She also helped the Trojans take first in the 4x100 relay (57.5) composed of Turner, Cynthia Martin, Zarah Whittle and Haile Souza.

Freshman Veronika Howell took first for the girls in the 800 (2:57) and junior Grace Plumb took second in the 1,600 (6:14.5, a personal best). Plumb also went on to take second in the 3,200 (13:56.3).

In the 300 hurdles, freshman Hannah McElheny took second (57.9 a personal best) and Jordan Stebbins took third (1:01.5, a personal best).

In field events for the girls, senior Caeli Havel took first in the shot put (32-00.5) and also first in the discus (102-09). Senior Madison Shay took second (86-3).

The Trojans swept the high jump event, with sophomore Elaina Dattillio taking first (4-02), sophomore Abbie Schott second (4-02, personal best) and junior Annabelle Brophy third (4-00).

Freshman Olivia Sharp took first in the pole vault (5-04, a personal best) and Romilyn Carreon took second (5-04).

In the long jump sophomore Samantha Mansuy took first (13-03.5, a personal best) and Dattillio took second (12-09.75, a personal best).

The triple jump was swept by the Trojans with Brophy taking first (27-07.5, a personal best), junior Kaylei Atkinson second (27-05.5, a personal best) and Dattillio third (27-02.5, a personal best).

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com