Dayton jumper heads to Albuquerque

Bridgette Galles didn't have very many worries in regard to losing high jump competitions during the just concluded track and field season. Instead, the Dayton High School senior actually welcomed opportunities to face stronger competition because she rarely saw any serious challenges from either 4A or 3A jumpers during the final month of the season and had little difficulty defending her 3A state championship in the event three weeks ago.

There will be no lack of competition Saturday night at the 29th Great Southwest Classic in Albuquerque, N.M., where Galles will represent Nevada against an elite field in which three jumpers have cleared 6-feet and six have gone better than 5-10. That's a considerable jump up for Galles, who went a season-best 5-6 to win at the Northern 3A Regionals and then 5-4 to win her second straight 3A state title, but she's looking forward to the challenge.

"I'm looking forward to it," Galles said. "My next goal is 5-7 and this is going to be a good chance for me to try and get that."

Galles has the potential to raise the bar, if you were to ask the Dayton coaching staff.

"She's a better jumper when she has somebody jumping against her," said Rob Turner, who coaches the Dust Devils' jumpers. "Five-7? I think she's got at least that in her."

"We've got video of her jumping at 5-5 and there's a lot of air between her and the bar," Dayton head coach Mike Paul added.

Among the entries in this meet are Epley Bullock (Allen, Texas) and Inika McPherson (Port Arthur Memorial, Texas), who both cleared 6-feet to place second and third respectively at their 5A state meet on May 15, as well as Lauren Stewart, a junior from Brentwood, Tenn., who has also gone 6-0.

Regardless of the outcome, Galles certainly enjoyed a successful senior year at Dayton. A three-sport star who also played volleyball and basketball, Galles was a state meet qualifier in each of her four years at Dayton, capped off by a performance in which she won state meet gold medals in both the high jump and 100-meter hurdles (16.13 seconds), she placed third in the 300-meter low hurdles (48.31) and ran a leg for Dayton's second-place 4x400 relay team.

"She had a pretty phenomenal season," Paul said. "She kept getting better and better each year she was here."

Just compare her state meet marks from years past. As a junior in 2003, Galles won the high jump at 5-1, placed second in the 100 hurdles (17.10) and fourth in the 300 lows (50.88). As a sophomore in 2002, she placed third in the high jump at 5-1.

Galles was contacted by both Nevada and Fresno State, but plans to enroll in the fall at Northern Arizona, where she wants to try and make the track and field program as a walk-on and to study to become a dental hygenist.

She will be part of a contingent of Carson Country athletes competing Saturday that includes Carson High juniors Tilor Smith (long jump/triple jump), Matt Moore (300 hurdles/triple jump) and Amanda Benson (heptathlon today and Friday), along with Galena's Daniel Geib in the 1,600 and 3,200, Mandy Dickman in the pole vault and Alyssa Abbott in the 800.

Notes: Among the featured performers will be White Pine senior Zack Lloyd, who is ranked No. 1 in the nation in the shot put with his best throw if 66-7-1/4. He will be challenged by a thrower from Florida who has surpassed 65 feet and another from Texas who has thrown 63. One of the featured athletes will be Xavier Carter of Palmbay High School (Melbourne, Fla.), who won the 100 (10.5), 200 (20.72) and 400 (45.44) at the Florida 3A state meet. He was a four-time state champion in the 400 and has signed with LSU to play football and run track.