Venturo, Ondrisko lead Trojans on the track

Pahrump Valley High School hosted its first and only track meet of the 2023 season on Thursday afternoon.

The Trojans welcomed eight other teams from around the state to compete in the midweek track competition at the school.

The Pahrump boys and girls teams combined to win 11 of the 35 events in the competition.

Four of the 11 wins were individual racing events. Senior Cole Venturo was the only winner in an individual race event for the boys team.

Venturo won the boys 100-meter race with a personal record time of 11.54 seconds, beating his previous record of 11.63 seconds, which was set at the Palo Verde track meet earlier this month.

Venturo also had a second-place finish in the long jump competition, finishing with a successful distance of 19 feet, 2 inches.

On the girls side, freshmen Julianna Ondrisko and Savannah Thompson and sophomore Sasha Strain all won individual racing events.

Ondrisko’s first-place finish in the girls 1,600-meter race was her second win in a row and her third win in her last four meets.

She finished the race with a time of 6:08.15, beating her closest opponent, Camille Lamb of Lincoln County High School, by 16 seconds.

Thompson’s win came in the girls 3,200 meter race, where she finished with a time of 16:40.91.

Strain had a good day in her individual races. In addition to finishing as the runner-up in the girls 100-meter hurdle event, she took home the top spot in the girls 300-meter hurdle race.

Strain ran the 100-meter hurdle event in 18 seconds flat, while she ran the 300-meter hurdle race in a time of 53.07 seconds. Her 300-meter hurdle time was her second fastest of the season just behind her time of 52.04 at the Richard Lewis Invitational.

Pahrump Valley’s girls team took three of the four field events during the competition.

Seniors Elizabeth Shockley and Lillian McGhee and junior Aspen McCormack took home wins for the Trojans.

Shockley’s win came with a personal record distance of 100 feet, 3 inches in the discus event. She beat second-place finisher Aliza Sytko of Clark High School by over 14 feet.

This was her first win of the season in the discus event. Her highest previous finishing position was second place at the Ken Jensen Invitational in March.

Shockley also took third place in the shot put event with a distance of 29 feet, 2 ½ inches.

McGhee set a personal record in the girls’ long jump event when she successfully jumped a distance of 16 feet, 8 inches. This was her second consecutive win in the event.

Aspen McCormack had a strong day in her field events.

She finished in a tie for first place with teammate Grace Miller in the high jump event with a successful height of 4 feet, 6 inches.

This was McCormack’s fifth win of the season in this event. She has finished three of the five wins at the same successful height.

McCormack came in second place in the triple jump event, her first time participating in the event. She jumped a distance of 27 feet, 1 inch.

On Saturday, the Trojans traveled to the Las Vegas Valley to participate in the 2023 Red Rock Invitational track competition at Shadow Ridge High School.

Eighteen high school teams and two collegiate teams competed in the events.

Despite not performing well overall, the Trojans did have a handful of athletes end their day with top-10 finishes.

Junior Mickey Skinner had the best finish of the day for Pahrump Valley. He set a personal record in the boys high jump event with a successful height of 5 feet, 8 inches.

He tied for the top spot with Jack Monson and Jon Wilson of Shadow Ridge and Valentino Wedderburn of Arbor View.

Freshman Aydon Veloz was the only other Trojan with a top-5 finish. He set a personal record with his time of 52.27 seconds in the 400-meter race.

On Tuesday, the Trojans played in the Faith Throwers Invitational at Faith Lutheran High School. Results were not available by press time.

Pahrump will head back to the Las Vegas Valley for a Wednesday track meet at Liberty High School for their final meet of the regular season.

The Southern Regional track and field meet will be held on Friday and Saturday, May 12 and 13 at Boulder City High School.

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