Counting down: A look back at Nye County sports in ‘22

First and foremost, happy new year to all of my readers.

With the 2022 year being over with, I thought it would be a fun idea to remind the readers of the biggest sporting events and achievements that happened last year throughout schools in Nye County.

This includes Pahrump Valley High School, Beatty High School and Tonopah High School.

No. 10: PVHS Soccer Regionals

The 2022 Pahrump Valley girls soccer team defeated the Virgin Valley Bulldogs to capture the Southern Nevada 3A regional championship for the second year in a row.

This was their third regional championship in the last four seasons.

Senior Adryanna Avena led the Trojans to a 21-2-2 record, scoring 54 goals and having 14 assists.

Pahrump Valley’s season ended with a 2-0 loss to the Truckee Wolverines in the first round of the state tournament.

No. 9: THS Medals at States

Tonopah High School had two wrestlers finish in the top three of their weight class at the 2022 Nevada state championships.

Following his performance and division win at the southern regional, Miller went on to finish in second place at the state tournament.

He went 2-1 on the day, getting both of his wins by pinfall in the first rounds. Miller fell short during his title run in the championship match, losing to Liam Bundrock in the second round.

Strozzi finished her season with a third-place finish in the 113-pound class. After dropping her first match in the tournament, she would go on to win her next two matches, including a pinfall victory over Ivan Newman of White Pine for the bronze medal.

Zach Newell was the only other Muckers wrestler to finish in one of the top four spots of their division. He ended his tournament with a 2-2 record.

(Tie) No. 7: PVHS Boys Golf

The Pahrump Valley boys golf team had a great season in the spring of 2022 that they’ll be looking to build on this season.

In 2022, they won their first Southern Nevada regional championship in the last 10 years. The team finished with a two-round score of 774, beating second-place Boulder City by 73 strokes.

All six Trojan golfers finished inside the top 10 spots. Kasen Moore and Carter Nygaard led Pahrump Valley with their second-and third-place finishes.

Pahrump Valley went on to finish as runners-up at the state tournament with a team score of 700. They ended their run 26 strokes behind the state champs, Truckee High School.

Moore finished tied for fifth place at the state tournament with a two-day score of 167.

(Tie) No. 7: PVHS Girls Golf

The Pahrump Valley girls golf team gave another example of how they’ve been so dominant against the southern region of Nevada over the last half a decade.

The Trojans won their fourth consecutive regional championship this past fall, dating back to the 2018 season.

Pahrump finished with three golfers in the top six and four of their five golfers finishing in the top 10 at the regional tournament.

The Trojans went on to win the regional championship by 58 strokes over Boulder City to qualify for the state tournament.

In the state tournament, the Trojans were led by Aliana Zuniga who finished with a tournament score of 175, good for seventh place. The team finished in second place with a total score of 754.

This was their fourth straight runner-up finish at the state tournament.

No. 6: THS Wrestling Regionals

This moment and moment 5 for the PVHS wrestling team could go in either order. I decided to put them in this particular order strictly based on alphabetical order.

In the 2022 Nevada 2A southern regional tournament, the Tonopah Muckers had multiple wrestlers take home hardware and qualify in spots for the state tournament.

Following her performance in the first all-girls wrestling tournament, Montana Strozzi participated in the 113-pound weight division of the 2A southern regional tournament.

She finished her day 2-0, winning the championship match with a first-round pin.

Fellow teammate, freshman Mitchell Miller also went 2-0 on his way to winning his 120-pound weight class for the regional championship.

He won his championship match with a pin midway through the second round.

Former Mucker senior Eric Reid won a bronze medal for his third-place finish at the regional tournament. Reid finished his day 1-1, winning the third-place match via pinfall in the first round.

No. 5: PVHS Wrestling Regionals

The Pahrump Valley Trojans wrestling program took home a lot of hardware at the 2022 Nevada 3A southern regional tournament.

In addition to winning the overall regional tournament, the Trojans also won the Nevada state academic championship with a cumulative GPA of 3.37 and had numerous wrestlers win their individual weight class championship.

Five Pahrump Valley wrestlers walked away from the regional tournament as division champions.

(Tie) No. 3: Gold on the track for Muckers

Tonopah’s girls 4x800 track team took home a gold medal at the 2022 Nevada State track & field championships last spring.

The team of Anni Stubbs, Brianna Sanderson, Hayley Palmieri and Kennedy Crawford ran a time of 12:09.94, beating second-place finishers Green Valley Christian by over 12 seconds.

This Muckers team also won the southern regional championships, beating out the same Green Valley Christian team.

On top of the gold medal, the boys and girls teams combined for one silver medal and two bronze medals.

(Tie) No. 3: Gold at State for Hornets

Beatty High School found some success during 2022 on the track and in the field events.

During the state championships, multiple Hornet athletes took home a medal, including the state champion girls 4x200 relay team.

Aracely Quezada, Cristel Lopez, Serenity Salazar and Montana King ran the event in 2:04.99, beating Sierra Lutheran’s team by just one second to capture the title.

This same team won the southern regional championship with a time of 2:03.45.

In addition to the gold by the 4x200 team, Beatty took home three silvers and four bronze medals.

The boys team finished in third place overall at the state championships with a total score of 66 points, just one point behind second place.

No. 2: Tonopah Girls State Tournament

Tonopah High School had two of its wrestlers compete in the first ever all-girls state wrestling championship tournament.

Then junior Montana Strozzi and sophomore Kaya Cobb were the only wrestlers from the Muckers to qualify for the state tournament.

Despite not medaling at the tournament, Strozzi and Cobb still impressed with their work on the mats at a tournament that featured wrestlers from all four divisions in Nevada.

Strozzi finished her day with a 1-2 record, while Cobb ended her tournament with a 2-2 record.

No. 1: PVHS State Wrestling

The biggest accomplishment of the 2022 year in Nye County high school sports was when the Pahrump Valley wrestling team had one of their wrestlers come away with individual state championships.

At the time of his win, Gunner Cortez was just a sophomore in the Trojans’ program. He finished the season with a perfect record in the 132-pound weight division.

Cortez won all three of his state wrestling matches with first-round pinfalls. He won the championship match with just one second left.

As exciting as 2022 was, here’s to 2023 bringing more memories, more excitement and more championships to Nye County.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.