Courtesy photo
McKenzie Poulson won both the long jump and the triple jump at the 1A State Track Meet May 19 in Carson City.

Pahranagat Valley senior Richard Lewis and sophomore McKenzie Poulsen won the state championship in the boys and girls triple jump at the 1A track championship May 18-19 at Carson City High School.

This was Lewis’ first year in track and field competition.

For Poulsen, who also won the girls long jump, it stays right in the family as her father is the team’s coach and her brother Austin was a four-time state triple jump champion (2010-2013).

Coach Wade Poulsen said, “That’s what her goals were and she did it. She had been in the top five all season long, so she is pretty happy with it.”

The Panther boys earned 53 points for fifth place in the meet among the 17 teams entered. What helped the boys greatly was their strong showing in the relay events with a second, third, and two fourth-place finishes.

Coach Poulsen said a lot the success for the relay teams is, “because you’ve got the numbers of boys to be able to put the teams together. A lot of times you don’t have the number of runners to make up a team for a given event. We’ve got a valley full of athletes and these boys came through. Didn’t surprise me at all.”

He also spoke of triple jump champion Lewis who had not gone out for track before. “He started in the first meet at 35 feet, and improved to the end of the year up to 41 feet. Imagine if he had been on the team all four years. He would have been real successful.”

The school and 1A state record is 45 feet, set by Pahranagat’s Austin Poulsen in 2013.

With only three entrants, the Pahranagat girls earned 32 points for sixth place among 17 teams participating.

BOYS

200 meters – Reece Thornton, 24.88

300m hurdles – Izzy Riera, third place, 45.13

4×100 relay – Second place (Hunter Hollingshead, Garrett Bowen, Richard Lewis, Thornton), 47.21

4×200 relay – Fourth place (Hollingshead, Austin Mathews, Lewis, Thornton), 1:38.23

4×400 relay – Third place (Rierci, Cole Cannon, Lewis, Thornton), 3:49.59

4×800 relay – Fourth place (Logan Lee, Thornton, Cannon, Mathews), 9:56.30

Shot put – Thornton, fifth place, 38-10½

Discus – Haigen Huntsman, 102-08

Long jump – Lewis, third place, 18-10½

Triple jump – Lewis, first place, 40-11½

GIRLS

100m hurdles – McKenzie Poulsen, fourth place, 19.90

Shot put – Atlanta Mastin, 25-00½

Long jump – Poulsen, first place, 14-09½; Jacquelyn Mancinas, 13-07¾

Triple jump – Poulsen, first place, 31-05½