Trojans take back hardware to Pahrump following state track meet

The Pahrump Valley Trojans track & field team came home with some hardware following their participation in the Nevada 3A state track & field meet that took place over the weekend at Reed High School in Sparks.

Pahrump Valley competed against 18 other schools in the girls events and 19 other schools in the boys events.

On the girls side, the Trojans finished in ninth place with a total score of 36 points, while on the boys side they finished in 12th place with 21 points.

Spring Creek High School won the overall team competition in the girls events with a total score of 104 points. Moapa Valley finished in second place with 78 points and Virgin Valley came in third place with 76.5 points.

In the boys competitions, Moapa Valley took home the top spot with 116 points. Spring Creek came in second with 95 points and Virgin Valley came in third place with 59 points.

The Trojans had 16 athletes qualify across 13 different events throughout the competition.

“Some natural talent was represented,” track head coach Fred Schmidt said of his athletes. “But the majority of those represented earned their right to be there through sweat equity and not shying away from hard work.”

Of the 16 athletes, seven of them finished their events with a medal in one of the top three spots.

Seniors Devin Varlack and Jessica Kern each won silver medals, finishing the highest for individual events of all the Pahrump Valley athletes.

Varlack took second place in the boys 800-meter event with a personal record finishing time of 2:01.86. He beat out Joel Herman of Spring Creek, who finished in third place, by just 0.07 seconds.

Varlack also participated in the 400-and 1600-meter events, however, he failed to medal for those events. He finished the 1600-meter event in fourth place with a time of 4:39.22, missing out on a medal by just 0.37 seconds.

Kern went home with not one, but two silver medals from her performances at the state competition. Both of her second-place finishes were personal records.

Kern’s first silver medal came in the shot put event where she finished with a throwing distance of 37 feet, 11 inches, beating her regional mark by over two feet.

In her second event, Kern and her teammate, Elizabeth Shockley, took second and third place in the discus throw.

Kern finished with a distance of 105 feet, 7 inches, while Shockley finished with a distance of 91 feet, 8 inches.

Shockley just edged out fourth-place finisher Madeline Stephens of Churchill County who finished with a distance of 91 feet, 2 inches.

The Trojans girls 4x200-meter relay team also took home a silver medal. The team of Dakota Fodge, Dakota Fernandes, Lilian McGhee and Payton Weaver finished with a time of 1:51.02.

This is a young team, with three out of their four members being freshmen, so we should see them be able to build on this success and come back next year ready to challenge for the gold medal.

Despite none of the other Trojans placing in the top three spots of their events, they can take pride in knowing that they are among the top eight athletes in their respective events in the 3A class of Nevada. That’s no easy task and they deserve every bit of credit and acknowledgement of their accomplishments.

“This team is fairly young with a double handful of graduating seniors,” Schmidt said. “We could not have a traditional senior night, so I would like to give a shout-out to them. This group of seniors will be missed. The coaching staff anticipates them to make waves in the world.”