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Warriors go the distance with runners

Steve Yingling, Tahoe Daily Tribune

SPARKS — With the wind howling and snow and rain falling on Friday in Yerington, the Whittell High track and field must wondered why the Northern Nevada 2A track and field champonships couldn’t have been held in Zephyr Cove.

A two-hour delay in the state-qualifying meet pushed some events back to Saturday and put the “Road Warriors” at a disadvantage compared to the teams staying in Yerington.

However, the Warriors persevered and qualified 21 boys and girls for the Friday and Saturday Nevada 2A state meet scheduled for Reed High in Sparks.



Behind another strong showing by their distance runners the Warriors finished third in the seven-school girls meet and third in the eight-team boys meet.

Senior Chad Gerken qualified in three individual events — 3,200, 1,600 and 800 meters — and the first-place 4-by-800 relay team. Gerken was second in the 800 at 2 minutes, 4.38 seconds; second in the 3,200 at 10:51 and second in the 1,600 at 4:48.64.



Gerken combined with Jarret Guajardo, Brian Beebe and Ben Johnson to win the 4-by-800 relay in 9:04 before the bad weather settled in.

“All year we’ve been joking about how after one event we’ll be in the lead and then we’d pray for a tornado or lightning storm, and Friday we got it,” said WHS coach Brian Rippet.

Kim McGlothlin, Hayley Shaw and Courtney Bowland led WHS’s female distance runners. McGlothlin placed second in the 800 with a personal-record 2:36 and helped the 4-by-800 to a third-place finish in 12:04. Aly Vandeusen, Shaw and Bowland were also part of that state-qualifying team.

Shaw also finished second in the 3,200 meters in 13:27, with Bowland in close pursuit in 13:35. Bowland’s third-place time was a PR by 28 seconds.

As well as the distance runners fared, high jumper Lorin Kline, however, provided the most surprising result.

“She wasn’t sure if she even wanted to jump because she didn’t feel confident,” Rippet said.

Kline didn’t clear a height in her previous high jump competition, but bettered her PR by 5 inches at zone to win the title at 4-6.

Other Warriors to qualify for state included: girls 4-by-400 relay team (VanDeusen, Jackie Laurian, Elise Ehrler and Christina Arana), third, 5:00; Kristin Karmann, fourth in shot put, 28 feet, 2 inches; Arana, fourth in 300 hurdles, 58.52; 4-by-200 relay team (Stacy Graham, Kline, Holly VanDeusen and Laurian), third, 2:08.76; Phil Bowman, second in pole vault, 10-6; Ben Johnson, fourth in 800 meters, 2:06.44; boys 4-by-400 relay team (Guajardo, Devin Farnsworth, Matt Johnson and Ben Johnson), second, 3:44.8; Joe Ilk, fourth in shot put, 41-5; and Beebe, fourth in 3,200 meters, 11:05 and third in triple jump, 37-5;

Battle Mountain won the girls team title, while Incline took home the first-place boys trophy.


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