Trojans track runs strong at Arbor View Invitational

The Arbor View Track invitational for Trojans Coach Ed Kirkwood was supposed to be just an invitational for his team to sharpen its skills. He really did not expect that many teams to be there. He was wrong. The invitational attracted 19 men’s teams and 22 women’s teams last Friday at Arbor View in Las Vegas.

“This one was better competition than the week before. Everyone was there except Centennial, who went to the Sky Hawk Invitational at Silverado High School. Last year everyone went there and it was so long, so this year I decided not to go there. For the Arbor View Invitational this was its first year it ran and I decided to go there, but so did everyone else. We got to run against the best and that is what you want to do,” Kirkwood said.

Invitationals are scored differently than normal dual meets. At invitationals, it’s the top 10 places that score points and at a regular dual meet it’s the top three.

Pahrump Valley, Beatty and Tonopah represented Nye County. Pahrump took 9th place on both sides of the house and Tonopah edged out Beatty for 16th place on the women’s side.

Pahrump men scored 29.5 points. On the track, the team was led by sprinter Devon Montgomery in the 400-meter run with a 51.66 time and 5th place. Montgomery also took 2nd place in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.16. Teammate Michael Carlson was in 4th place with a 15.59 time.

Kirkwood said Montgomery was not happy with the loss.

“He had beaten Dorian Williams from Arbor View before last week. So, they are coming into the seventh or eighth hurdle, when the kid from Arbor View just smashes his hurdle. It hits the ground and comes up and hits Devon in the leg. It just laid his leg wide open. It almost looked like a spike gash, but he said it was the hurdle. He came off at the second to last hurdle having to deal with being smashed by the other hurdle and he lost the race and he was not happy,” Kirkwood explained.

Montgomery also had a decent throw in the discus with a throw of 119-09 to take 10th.

Carlson took 4th also in the 300-meter hurdles with a 41.95 run. He was upbeat about his future on the track.

“I started out the season kind of great and it fell down and now I am coming back up. I am feeling a lot better. I had 3rd in the 110-meter hurdles but the guy leaned a little bit more. I feel like I am running a lot better and I am in better shape. The only thing I am doing differently is trying to stay away from the distance and working more on the sprinting this year. I am not going to worry about distance. I am also trying vault this year, which is looking good. I just got 8-6 on the first try. I am looking to becoming a decathlete or pentathlete in college,” he said.

In the pole vault, Jacob Stearns did a 10-06 for 4th place and John Clark did a 37-06 in the triple for 10th place.

The Lady Trojans also had a decent showing at Arbor View.

On the track, the Ladies scored 23.5 points with points coming from the sprinting of Kelbie Middleton, who had third in the 100 meter and a second in the 200.

Middleton was happy with her 3rd place in the 100-meter dash but was even more excited about her performance in the 200.

Middleton was right up there with Clarissa Maxey of Faith Lutheran on Friday in the 200 and came in a close second by just a few tenths of a second. Maxey’s time was 25.90 and Middleton’s time was 26.15.

“I kind of surprised myself at Arbor View. I pretty much got up to Maxey, but my knee has been hurting in the 200-meter run,” Middleton said.

When Middleton was asked what it would take to beat Maxey, she replied, “Hard work, working with Randall Cunningham in Las Vegas. I should see him more often.”

The young sprinter said this year she is working harder because she wants to get noticed.

“I just want to make an impression with the big Vegas schools for college and maybe for going into the air force,” Middleton said.

Also on the track, the Trojans placed 9th in the 100-meter hurdles with Meghan McDermott with a time of 18.89.

The Trojans girls were also helped by great performances by the field events. Cassandra Clark was sick so freshman Caeli Havel had to take up the slack. Havel was able to prove to the Trojans coaches that she will soon be a strong thrower. Havel took 9th place in the discus with a 81-11.

Havel was a bit surprised with her throw.

“I was really satisfied with how I did at Arbor View because usually with the discus I am horrible. The discus surprised me a bit. I did 20 feet over my personal record. In shot put I keep going up, which is what I want to do so I can go to state. My goal in shot is to hit 32 feet,” Havel said.

The Trojans also had a good showing in the jumps. McDermott placed 10th in the triple jump with a 30-65. Andi Bishop vaulted a 7-06 for a seventh place and Mikayla Davis jumped 4-08 for a seventh place in the high jump.

The Lady Hornets were led by Beatty jumper Christina Thompson who placed seventh in the triple jump with a 31-03 and she did 15-1.5 in the long jump for eighth place.

The Lady Muckers were led by Ashley Gray who placed 4th in the shot put with a throw of 30-11 and a discus throw of 92-03 for 6th place.