Eleven personal record times were recorded by the McDermitt track and field squad in Eureka last weekend. The Bulldogs grabbed two golds, one silver and a couple of bronze medals.
Ben Draunidalo shone for the Bulldogs with a gold in the 100 meters, logging a personal record time of 11.02 seconds. In the 200 meters he won again with another personal best of 23.53 seconds.
He also had a second-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 18 feet, 1.25 inches, as well as contributing on the 4 x100-meter relay team for a third place finish.
“The 200 meters was an event that I thought Ben could run, because he had done it two years ago when he was a freshman," said MHS coach Richard Egan. "I talked him into running it in Eureka, because I thought that he had the stamina to do it. He ran a really good race.”
In the 4x100-meter relay the foursome of Draunidalo, Jagger Hinkey, Robert Pope, and Alex Navarro finished in third place (48.50) just behind Tonopah.
“Ben jumped right out there as our starter in the first leg, and Jagger held his own," Egan said. "It was a good race down to the end. In our last leg we were sitting in second place, and that kid from Tonopah turned on the gas. It was a photo-finish for second place, and he beat us right at the end.”
Hinkey had a personal record (40-1) toss in the shot put for a third place finish, which prompted Egan to say, “That throw was up about three and a half feet from his last meet. I was kind of floored by that much of a leap from him, but he has been working at it.” Hinkey also finished fourth in the triple jump (37-2).
McDermitt goes to the Rancher’s Invitational at Crane High School on April 30.
“Crane will be a small meet about 120 miles from us, so it will be right out our back door," Egan said. "They put on a really nice track meet there with about eight teams. The kids are excited about it, but they are bummed out that we don’t have a meet this weekend. We are going to take advantage of this break for our kids. Some of them are a little sore. We are looking at setting ourselves up for regionals, setting our kids up for the different events so we can get some points and get them to qualify.”
The regional meet will be at Churchill County in Fallon on May 10-11.
“The community support for our team has been tremendous,” Egan concluded. “It is outstanding to see these young men pull for each other in the individual events, that says a lot for our boys sticking together.”
