Track & Field: Tiger girls win Fallon Invite

If the rest of the Northern 4A hadn't taken notice yet, they did on Saturday.

The Douglas girls' track & field team picked up its third overall win in as many meets at the 21-school Fallon Invitational.

Douglas finished with a team score of 95, North Valleys took second with an 86, Damonte Ranch finished third with a 67 and Hug and McQueen rounded out the top five at 64 and 59.

The Tiger boys' weren't far behind in their standings, taking fourth behind Damonte Ranch, Hug and McQueen.

"It was a pretty awesome day," Douglas boys' coach Jim Abbott said. "It was some good competition and we had some people perform really well."

To add some context, Douglas has not won an invitational in at least five years. Add to it that every Northern 4A school except for Reno, Carson and Manogue was in attendance and things are looking pretty good for the Tigers at the midpoint of the year.

Junior Jessica Gorton had a stellar day, winning the long jump with a school-record leap of 17 feet, 4.5 inches. She also took second in the 300 hurdles (50.36), fourth in the 100 hurdles (17.13) and fifth in the triple jump (33-3.5). She was the second-highest scorer in the meet.

The Tigers also got a big day out of Sarah Hartley who won the 200 (26.81), took second in the triple jump (35-1.5) and anchored the 4x400 relay team of Nicole Mehrer, Bridget Maestretti and Susie White to a first-place finish at 4:15.67.

In the last 10 yards of the relay race, Hartley was in third but split through the gap between the Damonte Ranch and Hug runners in front of her to push ahead of the win.

Taylor Biaggi took seventh in the 1,600 with one of her best times of the year at 5:44.60 and Amber Emerson dropped her time in the event as well.

Amanda Boyd dropped nearly a full minute off her previous best in the 3,200 at 12:58, which was good enough for third.

Freshman Kyra Barth continued her strong rookie campaign, taking second in the high jump at 4-10 while Camie Arend tied for sixth in the event and Bridget Maestretti tied for ninth.

Maestretti tied for seventh in the pole vault and Arend took 10th and Natasha Brown joined Gorton on the scorer's sheet in the long jump with an eighth-place finish at 15-3.

Hartley had company in the triple jump as Nicole Mehrer took third with a 34-5 and Gorton took fifth.

Jessica Waggoner finished third in the shot put with a throw of 35-07 and sixth in the discus at 99-03.

On the boys' side, Derrick Jenkins led the way, taking second in the 800 at 2:03.15 and third in the 1,600 at 4:38.47.

He also helped the 4x800 relay team of Seth White, Brad Boyd and James Leonard to a first place finish at 8:29.37, nearly 20 seconds ahead of its nearest competion.

Jordan Cruz and Curtis Hartzell continued their rise among the sprinters' ranks in the region as Cruz took seventh at 11.3 and Hartzell took eighth at 11.5.

Jake O'Farrell took fifth in the 200 at 23.45 while Cruz took seventh with a 23.76.

Hartzell turned in a third-place finish in the 400 at 52.71.

Brad Boyd contributed to a strong day for Douglas' middle-distance runners as he finished fourth in the 800 (2:07.18) and White took ninth in the 1,600 with a 4:55.07.

Scott Lococo took an eighth-place finish in the 3,200 with an 11:04.99 while White took 10th at 11:15.60.

Ryan Ake took eighth in the 300 hurdles (44.94), followed just behind by Johnny Pollack in 10th at 45.35.

The Douglas 4x400 team finished third with a time of 3:32.02 to round out the Tigers' scoring in the running events.

Mike Colyer turned in a second-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 44-0 and Luke Wartgow took fifth in the discus with a throw of 133-11 to wrap up the Tigers' scoring on the day.

Douglas will compete at the Reed Rotary Invitational this weekend where school from around the West Coast will be in attendance.