DON McDERMOTT / PVT McKenzie Dean, above, and Kyle Mills, below, of Pahrump Valley combined to win five individual Nevada Class 3-A state track and field championships last weekend, at Damonte Ranch High School in Reno. Advertisement

RENO -- Throughout the two-day marathon that is the Nevada High School Track and Field Championships, Pahrump Valley's girls battled Boulder City and Spring Creek for supremacy in Class 3-A.

In the end, the eight girls representing defending champion PVHS recorded five individual championships and accumulated 91 points. Boulder City, however, used its considerable depth and fought off Spring Creek for the team title, with the Eagles outpointing the Spartans 99 1/2 to 93 in the meet, contested on the all-weather quarter-mile oval at Damonte Ranch High School in south Reno. The sun bore down on all the competitors, with temperatures soaring into the 90s, well above the average for May days in Washoe County.

McKenzie Dean, a junior long-distance specialist, won the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter runs, dominating the seven opponents in each race to win in 2:22.63, 5:31.42 and 12:32.96, respectively. Dean, trying to score more points for the team, was fifth in the 400 in 1:02.62, giving her 34 points over two days.

Tee Tee Hughes won the 100-meter hurdles in a personal-best 0:16.13 and Ashley Rencher won the shot put with a heave of 39 feet, 9 3/4 inches.

Ashley Lindgren, a freshman, was fourth in the 100 (0:12.99), second in the 400 (0:59.72), fourth in the 200 (0:26.66) and seventh in the long jump (14-6), giving her 20 points in her state meet debut.

"I think the team had a good meet ... it wasn't as good as we would have liked, but I believe that if we had one more girl, we could have finished at least one place higher," said Andy Schneider, the Trojans coach. "We had eight girls on the first day, but Stephanie (Manley, who was fifth in the triple jump at 31-7 1/2) had to return home to compete in a soccer tournament. So we didn't have her for relays on Saturday.

"Boulder City (which also won the boys championship) just had too many kids; they had a lot of events in which they had two entries," said Schneider. The Boulder City boys edged Fernley 98-87 for the title, with Pahrump Valley finishing fifth with 70. The Trojans' Kyle Mills set a state 3-A record in the triple jump at 46 feet, 2 1/2 inches, after winning the long jump at 20-7 3/4.

"Sergio (Castro) had a good meet, too," said Schneider of the sprinter who was second in the 200 at 0:23.09, second in the 400 at 0:51.18 and fifth in the 800 in 2:06.51. Darius Dolly was fourth in the 100 (0:11.68) and sixth in the 200 (0:23.65).

Alex Anderson, a sophomore and heir apparent to Mills, was second in the triple jump at 43 feet, 4 inches. Nick Stearns was fourth in the 110-meter high hurdles in 0:16.60.

Besides Dean's triple success, freshman Erika Garcia of Dayton was equally impressive, winning the 100 in 0:12.79, the 200 in 0:26.24 and the 400 in 0:58.83. Boulder City had only one champion in the girls' competition; Caiti Forrester, who switched from softball to track in her senior season, won the high jump at 5 feet.

Boulder City's boys had Matt Lundgren win the 1600 in 4:39.64 and the 3200 in 10:15.83, as well as the 4x800 relay in 8:18.25, en route to the team title. Faith Lutheran, like Boulder City and PVHS a Southern Nevada Class 3-A League team, was third with 79 points and was paced by John Cartier (first in the 400, 0:50.46), as well as its 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams in 0:44.23 and 3:31.17, respectively.

"Our kids did about as well as could be expected," said Schneider.

Trace Feemster paced Dayton's fourth-place Dust Devils by winning the 100 in 0:11.25 and the 200 in 0:22.29.

NOTES -- Pahrump Valley is moving into Class 4-A next school year ... In spring 2009, the Trojans will be competing in Sunset Region Southwest Division meets.

At state, 4-A girls from Western were second with 51 points, four behind Reno's 55 ... In boys' 4-A, Spring Valley was 12th with 22 points, well behind champion Damonte Ranch's 55 ... Spring Valley's Jordan Rincon on the 400 in 0:47.82, then battled Galena's Joseph Abbott in one of the great races in Nevada track history ... In the 800, Abbott ran one of the top times in the nation-- 1:50.78 -- to edge Rincon (1:51.14) ... Joe Bartlett of Reno Bishop Manogue won the discus with a heave of 199 feet, 8 inches, and he had a 60-8 1/4 effort to win the shot put ... Western's Tiarra Tyler won the girls 100 in 0:12.05 ... Kayla Sanchez, headed to Arizona State next fall, won the 200 in 0:24.21 and the 300 hurdles in 0:44.4 for Carson ... Western's 4x100 team ran a 0:47.17 and the 4x400 in 3:53.25 for wins ... Spring Valley had a 9:47.69 in the 4x800.