Pershing County’s record-breaking 4x200 relay team flexes their muscles at the Northern 2A Regional Track and Field Championships at Carson High School in Carson City. Back row: Denzel Zaldivar and Izayuh McGlothin. Front row: Josiah Hunt and Luis Sanchez.
The Pershing County High School track and field team got off the ground this season in more ways than one.
At the Northern 2A Regional Championships in Carson City this past weekend, over a dozen Pershing County athletes progressed to the state level.
They’ll race to the finish line or leap to the sky at Carson High School this Friday and Saturday.
“Overall, we’ll be sending 14 athletes to compete at State as well as two deserving alternates,” said coach Ben Halverson.
The alternates are Emma Blondheim for the girl’s relays and Tyrn Sam for the boy’s 4x100 and 4x200.
On the girls side, Chelsea Woodard, Hayley and Khloe Montes, Kenya Vaughan, and Elizabeth Nava Gonzalez will compete at State.
Khloe Montes finished fourth in the 400 meters race against eight competitors. Chelsea Woodard qualified in the long jump by finishing third with a personal best mark of 14 feet, 5 inches.
The 4x100 relay team of Vaughan, Khloe Montes, Nava Gonzalez and Hayley Montes placed third. They finished second in the 4x200.
Jorden Fitch, Ramon Sanchez, Ashton Jimenez, Angelo Gibson, Josiah Hunt, Luis Sanchez, Denzel Zaldivar, Izayuh McGlothin and Aaron Zelaya will represent the boys.
Zaldivar, McGlothin, Sanchez and Hunt teamed up for the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. They broke Pershing High School’s previous record in the 4x200 by clocking in at 1:32.60, the fastest of the six finalists. They also qualified in the 4x100 with a fourth-place finish.
The 4x800 relay team of Sanchez, Fitch, Gibson and Jimenez finished second. At State, McGlothin will be an alternate for the 4x400. Zelaya will be an alternate for the 4x800.
Gibson also qualified by outrunning his eight competitors in the 400 meters and finishing second in the 800 meters, fractions of a second behind Noah McMahan of Incline.
Josiah Hunt was the top runner of the eight competitors in the 200 meters. He finished third in the 100-meter dash.
Zelaya qualified in the high jump with a leap of 5-4 and a fifth-place finish.
The Pershing County boys finished fourth out of eight teams. With this year’s bigger squad, Pershing County’s 69 team points added up quickly. Coral Academy (183), Battle Mountain (103.5) and Incline (89) were the top three.
“The weekend went great for us overall. We came in with high hopes for our athletes and they did a great job of performing their best when it mattered most. We ended up qualifying athletes in everything we came into the meet thinking we should qualify in. We even got a couple more in events where it seemed possible but wasn’t as expected,” said Halverson.