With the spring sports season starting earlier and earlier on the calendar, one never knows what to expect weather wise. In the past, the Lowry High School track and field team did its best to avoid rain or snow in beautiful northern Nevada in early March. The Buckaroos changed that all up and headed to Patterson, Calif., this past Saturday to open its season with the 6th annual Tiger Rustbuster Invitational.
The Lowry High School baseball team packed its bags and gear up and made its way to Needles in Southern California last week to begin the year at the Colorado River Invitational. The Buckaroos were competitive all weekend, picking up one win in four games and are 1-4 after a busy three days in the California desert.
It was long days and seemingly later nights but the Lowry High School softball team accomplished what it needed to during the Colorado River Invitational in Needles, Calif. The Lady Bucks left last Wednesday for southern California and didn’t finish play until late Saturday afternoon, reaching the bracketed semifinals before getting eliminated. Lowry, with some new faces in the lineup, along with some veterans, went 4-2 in six games. One of those new faces, freshman Makinley Hislop threw a perfect game against Elko.
The Pershing County High School girls basketball team finished the year with 22 wins and the Northern 2A championship but victory eluded them last Friday in the semifinal round of the state tournament at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas. The Mustangs lost 48-47 to Lincoln County, as it meant the end of the road for Pershing County until next year. The Panaca girls went on to face Needles, Calif., in the championship game at Cox Pavilion which Needles won 48-25.
With Mother Nature fighting between holding onto winter and spring arriving, the Nevada High School Rodeo Association started its second half of the season with a stop in Pahrump on Feb. 15-16. Humboldt County’s Taylor Hill posted a 10th-place finish in the average in the barrel racing with a time of 43.081 seconds. She knocked down a barrel in her first run but bounced back to place fifth in the second performance at 18.685. She also placed eight in girls cutting with 60 points in each performance.
After facing Pyramid Lake in the 1A State Championship in 2024, the McDermitt High School girls basketball team had the tough and tall task of facing the two-time reigning state champion in the quarterfinals of the 2025 championships this past Thursday at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas.
Even though it’s been a wild ride for the Battle Mountain High School girls basketball team, the young squad of mostly freshmen and sophomores still had a chance of qualifying for the state tournament in Elko. Battle Mountain entered last weekend’s Northern 2A Regional Championships in Lovelock as the No. 3 seed against Oasis Academy of Fallon.
Misfits won the 2025 Don Peters Memorial Tournament at Spare Time Bowl. The Winners Inn, Winnemucca Inn and Winnemucca Convention and Visitor’s Authority helped sponsoring the tournament, as 36 teams and nearly 110 bowlers participated, with 92 of them from out of town. Over $13,000 in prize money was awarded as 36 teams competed. Misfits won the top prize of $3,600 and team members include Bruce Haylett, Micheal Duncan and Derek Conrad. Misfits also won the tournament in 2024.
The postseason often throws in some surprise come tournament time and unfortunately it was on the wrong side of the scoreboard for the Battle Mountain boys basketball team. The Northern 2A Regional Championships opened on Thursday. Feb. 13, at Pershing County High School in Lovelock, with No. 6 seed Yerington upsetting Battle Mountain 78-67 in the quarterfinals. The Longhorns finished the season at 17-8 overall.
The Battle Mountain Northern Nevada Aquatics swim team began its new season with a pair of meets. The 2025 Blizzard Blast Swim meet, season-opener, was held Jan. 17-19, at the Carson Aquatic Facility. Beckett Buffington competed in the boys 9-10-year-old division and placed 10th in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 4 minutes, 10.18 seconds. He finished 12th in the 100-yard backstroke (2:06.57), 15th in the 25-yard freestyle (22.21), 16th in the 100-yard freestyle (1:57.45) and 18th in both the 50-yard backstroke (1:01.16) and the 50-yard freestyle (51.92).
The cardiac kids didn’t go quietly, as the Lowry High School girls basketball team was looking to capture a fourth consecutive 3A state championships, beginning at the Northern 3A Regional Championships last weekend in Fernley. The Lady Bucks rallied from double-digit deficits in the last two seasons to come back and win state titles in Lawlor Events Center in Reno and almost did the same on Friday afternoon in Fernley.
After struggling the past few years, the McDermitt High School boys basketball team had one of its best seasons since the 2016-17 group won 18 games. The Bulldogs advanced to the semifinals in the 1A East Regional Championship but were knocked off by Eureka 41-33 to see their season end. McDermitt finished the year 12-10, its first winning in eight years. In the opening game of the tournament, McDermitt blew past Jackpot 82-63.
If you look throughout the state of Nevada, you will find rivalries all over the place. It’s no different here in northern and eastern Nevada, as the McDermitt High School girls basketball team met up once again with Eureka in the championship game of the 1A East on Saturday afternoon. Over the last three years, the teams have played nine times, with the Vandals winning the regional title in 2023, while the Lady Bulldogs claimed the championship in 2024.
Last weekend, the Pershing County High School girls basketball team defeated West Wendover 44-27, Yerington 46-40 and North Tahoe 45-42 to win its first Northern 2A Regional title since 2017. To make it even more exciting they did it at home in front of hundreds of fans. The Mustangs secured a spot as the No. 1 seed from the North at the state tournament. North Tahoe will be the No. 2 seed. Pershing County faces Lincoln County at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas on Friday, at 6:50 p.m. If they win, they'll head over to Cox Pavilion at UNLV to play either Needles, Calif., or North Tahoe on Saturday for the state championship.
To build a program like the Lowry High School girls basketball team has over the past couple of decades, it all starts at the beginning as young girls dreaming of playing in the blue and gold uniforms and progresses through the ranks from there. The Lady Buckaroos have won four state championships, since 2014, including three straight titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Lowry also has two runner-up finishes on its resume in that span as well. Since 2002, Lowry has played in 17 state tournaments