Weather helps athletes at track meet

As is usually the case during a meet held in March, the weather was the topic of conversation at the six-way track and field meet hosted by Carson High on Saturday.

But instead of the usual cold, blustery weather that traditionally accompanies early-season meets in Carson, the athletes were treated to summer-like weather which helped produce good times and marks for just the second week of the track season.

"It was a nice day for a meet - to have this kind of warm weather so early in the season is a plus," said Carson coach Todd Ackerman on the day when the only complaints heard were in regard to sunburns. "There were some good times, but also some times I thought would've been better."

Competing against Carson were Wooster, McQueen, Lowry Sparks and Dayton. The Carson boys team finished third with 98 points, behind Wooster (139) and McQueen (121.5). The Senator girls were fourth with 76 points; McQueen was first with 112.5 points.

Dayton, the only 3A team in the field, finished sixth in both the boys and girls team scores, but several Dust Devils turned in "4A caliber" performances against the larger schools.

"Competing against 4A schools ups our performance," said Dayton assistant coach Phil Brady. "Our team performs better against the 4A schools."

Dust Devils among the top three in their individual events included Travis Thompson in the 800 meters (3rd, 2 minutes, 8.64 seconds), Jeanette Macall in the high jump (2nd, 4-feet-10 inches), Brandon Essman in the 400 (3rd, 56.53), and the 4x100-meter relay team (3rd, 54.40).

The Senators didn't have the depth to contend for the team titles, but there were plenty of individual winners for Carson.

Amy Sanchez kept busy throughout the meet for Carson, as she won the triple jump (31-1) and long jump (14-11) and placed second in the 400 meters (64.30) and 100-meter dash (13.25). Both of her second-place finishes came to Wooster's Stacey Carr, the state runner-up in both the 100 and 200 in '99. Carr also won the 200-meter dash in 27.37 to become the only individual three-event winner in the girls meet.

"I had never run a 400 before, but I thought I'd give it a try," said an out-of-breath Sanchez, the Senators' record holder in the 100-meter dash.

Sanchez said she still had a ways to go before returning to the form that allowed her to clock a 12.2-second 100 meter sprint in 1998.

"I want to improve my time (in the 100) by quite a bit," Sanchez said. "Right now I'm running a 13.2, so I have a lot to improve on. I'm hoping to qualify and place in state, that's my goal for the year."

Another Carson double-event winner was freshman Shanna Sparks, who won both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in 5:26.05 and 11:40.21, respectively. With some further research pending, Ackerman believes those marks are Senator freshman class records.

The Carson boys scored many of their points in the field, where the Senators enjoyed some surprising success. Chandler Menteer won the discus with a toss of 150 feet and Matt Daraldo took first in the pole vault with a leap of 11-0.

Anchored by Jamie Calvo, the Carson 4x100 relay team took first in 45.49, just ahead of Sparks.

Doug Brooks was first in the 100-meter dash in 11.53. He was also third in the triple jump with a best of 37-5.

Jordan Payette won his heat of the 200, but his time of 24.10 gave him third place in the event.

Josh Carter was second in the shot (48-5) and third in the discus (144-0).

Lowry's Bret Ferrier, the zone champion in cross country, won both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs. He pulled Carson's Daryl Nourse to a personal record of 10:33.88 in the 3,200.

The Carson track and field teams will compete at Fallon next Saturday.