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Incline track | Highlanders bring home multiple medals from state

Sylas Wright
swright@sierrasun.com
Incline junior Valeri Nix races to a state title in the 300-meter hurdles in Carson City on Saturday.
Sylas Wright / swright@sierrasun.com |

The Incline track and field team ended its season with a strong performance in the Division III state championships in Carson City on Friday and Saturday.

Competing with a group of nine girls and one boy, every one of the Highlanders medaled in at least one event, while the girls placed sixth out of 13 schools.

Incline’s lone boy, sophomore Matt Colby, earned 19 points by himself as he earned medals in all three of his events. The top four finishers in each event received a medal.



Junior hurdler Valeri Nix fared well as expected. She brought home four medals, led by her state title in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 48.23 seconds, which just edged Shelbi Byrnes of Calvary Chapel (48.84).

Nix also placed third in the 100 hurdles, posting a time of 17.27, was fourth in the 400 with a time of 1:02.79, and anchored the 4 x 400 relay to a fourth-place finish in 4:31.30.



That 4 x 400 team, which also included Kandace Dirga, Arantza Alcantara and Stephanie Homola, beat all Northern schools and bested its previous-best time by 12 seconds.

Senior Mia Harbaugh was part of the fourth-place 4 x 200 relay (1:59.60) along with Sami Lampe, Zaira Padilla and Dirga, as well as the sixth-place 4 x 100 relay of the same members, which set a new personal-best time of 54.24. Harbaugh also placed seventh in both the long jump (14-01) and triple jump (28-08.25).

Another senior, Kate Ballan, finished eighth in the 100 hurdles (18.74) and joined Lampe, Homola and Serena Singh on the fourth-place 4 x 800 relay team. That squad established a personal-best time of 11:46.70, which was 18 seconds faster than its previous best.

Aside from their roles in the relay races, Dirga placed sixth in the 400 (1:06.46), Homola finished eighth in the 1,600 (6:15.72) and Singh was eighth in the triple jump (28-01.50).

Colby, meanwhile, earned a second-place medal in the 300 hurdles, posting a time of 43.13. He earned a third-place medal in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.91 and a fourth-place medal in the 100 with a time of 11.76.

White Pine’s girls won the regional title with 124 points, while The Meadows was second with 114 points. The North Tahoe girls were the top team from the North and third overall with 111 points. The Lakers were followed by Yerington (89), Calvary Chapel (60), Incline (49), Andre Agassi (39), Pershing County (29), Silver Stage (22), Battle Mountain (21), Lincoln County (15), West Wendover (12) and Laughlin (11).

Yerington won the boys state championship with 106.5 points. North Tahoe’s boys were second with 85 points, followed by White Pine (70), Calvary Chapel (68), Pershing County (55), ROP (54), Laughlin (50), Silver Stage (43), Andre Agassi (43), Battle Mountain (42), The Meadows (28.5), Lincoln County (26), Incline (19) and West Wendover (3).


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