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By George, Warriors set another school record

Steve Yingling, Tribune sports editor

MINDEN – Even though spring-type weather emerged at the Big George Invitational on Saturday, the conditions weren’t ripe for setting records.

Strong winds kicked up in the afternoon, forcing competitors to readjust their goals.

Whittell High School senior Kyler Felton, however, took advantage of calmer conditions in the morning to continue his assault on the school record books.



Felton, who has spent previous meets bettering his school triple jump record, brought down the long jump mark on Saturday. Felton toppled the 25-year-old school long jump mark with the meet’s No. 1 jump at 21 feet, 11 inches. The former Whittell long jump record of 21-9 belonged to Shawn Baker.

“The past two meets I’ve dramatically improved my marks. I went from jumping 20 feet, 8 inches to almost 22 feet today,” Felton said.



Felton reset his school triple jump record to 45-1 at Whittell’s previous meet at Carson City.

“I was hoping to beat both of the jumping records, which I did, and I want to break the 300-hurdle record,” Felton said.

Large-school meets like the Big George Invitational are typical of Whittell’s scheduling.

“It’s definitely beneficial,” Felton said. “Not to be mean to any of the other smaller schools that we compete against, they are not quite the caliber of competition that we need, so when go to compete with Douglas and against 4A schools and we do well or not well, it definitely inspires us to try harder.”

South Tahoe’s Blair Berry finished a close third at 20-8, and the junior also generated a third-place result in the high jump at 5-10.

Vikings’ sophomore distance runner Shelby McIntyre was primed to take a run at her school’s 1,600-meter record but winds kicked up 20 mph before the event.

“Based on what my kids did and what I know they are capable of doing, I call that a 15-second wind,” said STHS distance coach Dan Wilvers. “Considering that she ran conservative for the first lap and a half … she sat back and let everybody else carry her. Smart on her part. Had this wind not been blowing, she would have been right around 5:10 or 5:11.”

McIntyre took over the lead on the second lap and won by a comfortable margin over Carson’s Katie McFarren, the state 4A cross country runner-up, in a time of 5:25.65.

“I just wanted to get first. I wasn’t really going for a time,” said McIntyre, who has done a lot of her training this season on the treadmill.

McIntyre will have a solid opportunity to break the school record in the 1,600 on Saturday in the Sacramento Meet of Champions.

“I’m hoping to break the school record. It’s 5:03, and I have (done) a 5:07,” McIntyre said.

No entrant was able to beat McIntyre in the 3,200 either. She won the 3,200 in 12:16.35, more than 2 seconds better than runner-up Michelle Mowry of Bishop Manogue.

Whittell’s Shannon Marshall and Isabel Concha-Foley also won events, and the Warriors’ John Robinson took second in the 400 meters.

Marshall equaled her season best in winning the high jump at 5-2 and added another top-three performance by placing third in 300 hurdles at 49.52. She was seventh in the 100 hurdles at 17.05.

Concha-Foley won the shot put at 31-11.5, helping the Warriors place fifth in the final girls’ team standings behind McQueen, Douglas, Manogue and Carson.

Felton beat his season-best 300 hurdles time by more than a second in finishing third at 41.47.

Robinson, who set school records in his previous three meets, was second to McQueen’s Cory Sharp in the 400 at 51.32.

Other highlights for South Tahoe girls included Lindsey Weik tying for third in the high jump at 4-8; Ali Palacios earning fifth place in the 100 hurdles at 16.69; Brooke King finishing seventh in the 400 at 1:05.43; Cassidy Cichowicz and Karly Arroues placing sixth and seventh in the 800 at 2:34.11 and 2:34.26, respectively; Cichowicz taking sixth in the 1,600 at 5:45.63; Alma Burtraw claiming eighth in the 300 hurdles at 53.41; the 4×100 relay team of Palacios, Weik, King and Alyssa Mesecher finishing seventh at 52.41; and Jasmine Enerson capturing eighth place in the high jump at 4-6.

“We have had a hard time with consistent track workouts, making their accomplishments even that much more impressive,” said STHS coach Melissa Berry.

Palacios is closing in on STHS’s 100 hurdles record.

“I believe she will break it before the season is over,” Berry said. “The current record is 16.34 and was set by Jenny Miller in 1978.”

Weik is developing into a strong high jumper, according to Berry.

“I know she can improve her jump by quite a few inches with some more training,” Berry said. “I would love to see her make it to state this year, and I know she has the ability.”

Whittell’s girls’ additional top-eight results included the 4×400 relay team of Shannon Marshall, Sammy Brumbach, Lauren Marshall and Sierra Forvilly taking fifth at 4:26.88, as did the 4×800 relay team of Morgan King, Samantha Rupp, Caranina Palomino and Lauren Marshall; and Sammy Brumbach placing sixth in the long jump at 14-11.

For the Whittell boys, who came in 11th in the team standings, Blake Heldt-Werle took seventh in the 800 meters at 2:08.88, the 4×400 relay team of Garrett Bronken, Jenner Felton, Heldt-Werle and Robinson finished seventh at 3:42.62, and the 4×800 relay quartet of Chris Crawford, Mikey George, Zach Welch and Heldt-Werle came in seventh at 9:22.26.

Whittell is scheduled to compete Saturday in Yerington. South Tahoe’s home meet – the Sierra Challenge – set for Saturday has been canceled.


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