Carson wins exciting 4x400 relay race at Yerington

YERINGTON - Even in his fourth race on a long and hot day, Carson High School's Matt Moore still found a way to dig down and run harder in the boys 4x400 relay at the 74th annual Yerington Relays Saturday afternoon. He simply shifted into a new gear as he held on to win the race for the Senators during competition at Yerington's William M. Weaver Jr. Track and Field Complex.

Coupled with victories in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays and Moore's gold medal performance in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Carson finished a solid third-place in the boys team standings of Nevada's oldest prep track and field meet. Manogue captured the boys team championship with 119 points, while Galena edged Carson for second-place by a 95-87 margin. Carson finished sixth in the girls team scores with 40 points.

"We had a pretty good day. It was a long day and we had kids missing because of prom, but this a great way to get ready for next week," Carson coach Todd Ackerman said, referring to the start of the Northern 4A Regional Championships this coming Friday and Saturday.

From Carson's point of view, winning the boys 4x400 in a season-best time of 3 minutes, 26.67 seconds was a tremendous momentum builder for regionals. Especially when you consider the quartet of Nick Brothers (54.02), Jeremy Gray (53.41), Tilor Smith (49.54) and Moore (49.48) ran together for the first time this season.

"We had two legs missing," Carson sprints coach Shane Quilling said, noting that two regular team members missed the race because of prom. "Those two guys (Brothers and Gray) kept us in the race. Then to have two guys run 49, that was awesome."

Smith surged from third-place into first on the third leg, and after a clean baton exchange, Moore had a lead of seven meters over Bishop Manogue's Matt Virden at the start of the anchor leg. Virden, last year's 3A state champion in the 400, came back and challenged Moore for the lead at the top of the home stretch. Moore, a 6-foot-4 junior, met the challenge and crossed the finish a step ahead of Virden.

"I finally found the sixth gear," Moore said with a laugh. "I saw his shadow, so I knew he was coming. Then, about 50 meters before the end, I started to see his shadow get smaller. I could tell then that I had it."

Virden was clocked at 48.2 and Manogue finished second in a school record time of 3:26.91.

Carson's time is the fastest in Northern Nevada this season and ranks among the best times in the state overall.

"We get pretty fired up about the 4x4," Smith said. "It's a hard race, but it's what our coaches train us to do, and we take a lot of pride in it."

Moore also won the 300 intermediates in 40.79, placed fourth in the 110 highs (16.0) and combined with Mike Horrigan, Tsuyoshi Curtis and Smith to win the 4x200 in a season-best 1:31.88. Josh Healman, Horrigan, Curtis and Gray also won the 4x100 relay in 45.0, another season-best time.

Smith also placed second in the long jump at 21-3, four inches short of Smith Valley's Jordan Savidge, and he placed third in the triple jump (42-3).

Other Carson highlights during the day included Shay Tom, second in the girls discus with a throw of 114-11 while Alex McAlman was fourth with a personal record 108-0; Ashley Terry tied for third in the girls high jump (4-8) and took sixth in the triple jump (31-9); Curtis placed third in the boys 400 (53.17); Jon Christensen fourth in the boys pole vault (12-6); and Rob Ghiglieri took sixth in the boys shot put (44-11-1/2). Another bright spot was sophomore Caleb Kandor, who was ninth in the boys shot put with a personal record 43-4 in his varsity debut.

Dayton enjoyed its share of highlights during the day, too, including Bridgette Galles with a victory in the girls high jump (5-3) and third in the 100-meter hurdles (17.51). She finished sixth in the meet's individual points standings for girls.

Reno freshman Stacy Challis led the competition after clearing 5-feet on her first attempt, but Galles came back to win it by making her second attempts at both 5-2 and 5-3. Galles missed three straight attempts at 5-4 at the end of a long competition that began with jumpers checking in at 8:30 a.m. and finishing at 1:30 in the afternoon.

"It was a long day; I felt tired and drained," said Galles, the defending 3A state high jump champion. "But I'm looking forward to coming back for (Northern 3A) divisionals in two weeks. This is where I made 5-5 at the Smith Valley Invitational, so this is my favorite place to jump."

Dayton also placed third in the boys 4x800 relay with the team of Stephen Novello, Randy Contreras, Billy Mountjoy and Joey Mountjoy in a school record time of 8:23.17. Billy Mountjoy also took second in the 400 (52.55), while Joey Mountjoy took fourth in the pole vault (12-6) and ran a 2:02 leg in the relay and Novello was sixth in the 800 (2:06.58) to help Dayton's boys finish sixth as a team with 39 points.

Douglas got a sixth-place performance in the girls 300 low hurdles from sophomore Harmony, who ran a personal record 50.33, senior Dan Sipko took sixth in the 800 (2:06.53) and Ryan Bertucci tied for third in the high jump at 5-10.