Johnson wins pole vault at State track meet, Vaqueros have three runner-ups

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Although they didn’t have enough qualifiers to be able to challenge for a team title, the Fernley High School track team still managed to bring home some hardware from the 3A State Track & Field Championships held at Liberty High School in Henderson.

The Vaqueros had one individual state champion and three state runner-ups among the 12 events they were qualified in.

Kiriann Johnson won the state championship and broke the school record in the girls pole vault with an 11-foot vault, and her sister Evven Johnson broke the personal record she had set at the regional meet the previous week, with a vault of 9-6.

For the boys, Keeshawn Love placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.08, which was .01 faster than his regional championship time.

HayDen McGinnis was the Vaqueros third runner-up, placing second in the discus with a throw of 149-11, which was more than seven feet longer than his qualifying throw at the regional meet.

Naomi Wyant also made the medal stand for the Vaqueros, taking fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 31-5.5.

Overall the girls team placed 11^th as a team with 30 points. Elko won the team championship with 88 points, Durango was second with 65 and Spring Creek finished third  with 61, The boys team was 10^th with 29 points. Moapa Valley finished first with 123, Spring Creek was second with 119.5 and Sparks came in third with 68.

Other individual results for the Vaqueros were:

Girls

Karley Hodgden, 400 meters, seventh place, 1:02.58

Girls 4×400 meter relay (Kiriann Johnson, Kensey Kreller, Myla Bott, Karley Hodgden) sixth place, 4:19.03

Kiriann Johnson, triple jump, seventh place, 30-10

Boys

Kael Paz, boys 3200, fifth place, 10:08.59

Manny Galvan, 110 meter hurdles, seventh place, 17.40

Boys 4×800 relay (Michael Fitzgerald, Angelo Mulei, Sheldon Jacobson, Kael Paz) fifth place, 8:48.14

Bryce Dunagan-Stephens, high jump, seventh place 5-8; long jump, eighth place, 19-8.5