Pahrump Valley track begins at Bulldog Classic

The Pahrump Valley High School track & field team kicked off their 2023 season with back-to-back meets over the weekend.

On Friday, some of the Trojan athletes competed in the Liberty High School Newcomers competition.

This event was for all runners and field athletes who have never competed at the high school level. It’s not just for freshmen, all grade levels are allowed to compete.

Following Friday’s meet, the Trojans traveled back to the Las Vegas valley to compete in their first full competition.

The Inaugural Bulldog Track Classic was held at Centennial High School in northern Las Vegas.

Nineteen schools from around the state participated in the event with schools from four of the five divisions competing. The only division not represented at the track meet was 1A.

Senior Elizabeth Shockley and junior Tatum Bill had the best finishes of the day for the Trojans.

Shockley ended her competition with a fourth-place finish in the women’s discus throw, while Bill finished tied for second place in the men’s high jump competition.

Shockley finished with a distance of 93 feet, 11 inches, just missing out on her personal record of 94 feet, 1 inch that she set last season in the 2022 Southern Nevada regional competition.

Bill tied with three other competitors with a successful height of 5 feet, 4 inches in the high jump. This mark set a new personal record for Bill. His previous record was 5 feet.

Tiafau Gora finished his day with two top-10 finishes in the men’s field competitions for Pahrump Valley.

He finished eighth in the discus and ninth in the shot put events.

Gora threw personal records in both competitions with distances of 111 feet in the discus event and 36 feet in the shot put event.

Sophomore Dakota Fernandes was the only other Trojan to finish in a top-10 position. She ended her day with a ninth-place finish in the women’s 100-meter race with a time of 13.72 seconds.

Fernandes just missed out on a top-10 finish in the women’s 200-meter race, finishing in 14th place. Despite finishing that low, there was only a difference of 0.98 seconds between her and fifth place in the race.

The Trojans’ next track & field competition will be on Wednesday, March 8 at Palo Verde High School. The events will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Following Wednesday’s midweek track competition, the team will head to Virgin Valley on Friday for the Ken Jensen Invitational.

You can get all track & field results by going to athletic.net and looking up Pahrump Valley Trojans.

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