Three championships, two school records highlight State meet for Fernley track team

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Fernley High School track team qualified 14 event entries for last weekend’s 3A State Track & Field Championships at Foothill High School in Henderson, and made the medal stand in 11 of them.

The Vaqueros wound up with three first place finishes, three second places and five third place medals.

“This was an amazing weekend for the Vaqueros,” coach Todd Wright said. “I couldn’t be more happy and proud of our athletes.”

The Vaqueros’ state champions were the girls 4×800 relay team of Grace DeLeon, Taylor Richardson, Piper Crook, and Sam Manning; the boys 4×400 relay team of Jonathan Roach, Jadan Rotton, Sam Wright, and Jason Hneitina; and Rotton in the pole vault.

The girls 4×800 relay team first posted a winning time of 9:45.66. Richardson, Olivia Schrock, Samantha Manning and Crook came close to another championship, finishing second in 4:11.36, finishing .73 seconds behind Lowry’s winning team.

Crook claimed a second place finish in the 800 meters with a time of 2:22.30, Richardson was close behind finishing third in 2:22.47 and Stephanie Perez finished third in the high jump with a leap of 4-10.

The girls finished eighth as a team with 38 point. Truckee won the state title with 81 points, Cheyenne finished second with 76 and Virgin Valley came in third with 65.

Both of the boys championship winners also set school records.

The 4×400 relay team of Sam Wright, Jason Hneitina, Jonathan Roach and Rotton, broke the record they had set the previous weekend at the Northern 3A Regional meet with a time of 3:27.59.

Rotton also won the pole vault with a school record of 14-1, and also claimed a second place in the 400, with a time of 50.45.

Wright had two individual third place finishes, in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.09, and in the 300 hurdles in 40.37.

Justin Turner also made the medal stand, taking third in the pole vault at 13-6, and finished sixth in the high jump at 5-10.

Richard Dumont finished fifth in the discus with a throw of 130-11 and Nicholas Bernardo came in eighth in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.22.

The boys finished fifth as a team with 54 points. Sunrise Mountain was the state champion with 70 points, Mojave was second with 64, Pahrump finished third with 59 and Elko was fourth with 57.

“I’m especially thrilled for our seniors, who all brought it this weekend, Grace DeLeon, Stephanie Perez, Taylor Richardson, Jonathan Roach, Jadan Rotton, Justin Turner, and Sam Wright,” Todd Wright said.