Tiger boys finish fourth in Carthage Invitational, girls end up eighth

Nevada senior Mark Reed runs his leg of a relay at the Carthage Invitational Friday. Reed was on the second-place 3,200 meter team.

CARTHAGE, Mo. -- The Nevada Tiger boys and girls track teams competed in the Carthage Invitational Friday, with mixed results.

The boys tied for fourth out of nine teams, while the girls finished eighth out of 10.

The highlights for Nevada were a pair of individual second-place finishes, and three relay teams that also took second.

Nathan Gragg took second in boys high jump, clearing six feet.

The winner from Joplin cleared 6-6.

Coming out of nowhere to take second in the girls discus was Jordan Webb. Webb's throw was 97-feet, 8-inches. The winning throw was 103-2.

The girls had two relay teams place second. The 400 and 800 teams both were runners-up.

Katelyn Brier, Cassie Driskel, Brittany Pettibon and Taylor Means made up the 400 team. Their time of 53.80 seconds was less than a second behind Joplin's time (53.20).

The 800 team also consisted of Brier, Driskel, Pettibon and Means. They ran a time of 1:55.20. The winning time was 1:54.10, again by Joplin.

Needless to say, Joplin won the girls' team event handily, with 116 1/2 points. Second place was Monett with 86.

The boys 3,200 relay team of Mason Benn, Curtiss Davis, Mark Reed and Blake Sanderson was second with a time of 8:46.00.

The winning team was East Newton with a time of 8:39.00.

East Newton was second in the boys' team event with 74 points. Hosting Carthage ran away with the boys' team competition with 194 points.

Nevada's boys had 57 points (tying Monett), while the girls had 50 points.

Other individual placings for Nevada were:

Boys: Mason Benn, third, 800 meters; Mason Benn, third, 1,600; Tim Williams, third, pole vault; Mark Reed, fourth, 400; Dan Lovinger, fourth, 300 hurdles; Dan Lovinger, fifth, 110 hurdles; Jacob Cherry, fifth, triple jump; Dan Lovinger, sixth, high jump.

Girls: Amanda Wilson, fourth, shot put; Erica Becker, fourth, triple jump; Brittany Pettibon, fourth, 100; Erica Becker, fourth, 300 hurdles; Erica Becker, fifth, 100 hurdles; Molly Ferree, fifth, high jump; Amanda Wilson, fifth, discus; Cassie Driskel, sixth, pole vault; Taylor Means, sixth, 200.

The boys 800 relay team of Pat Barnett, Blake Sanderson, Thorne Penrod and Dan Lovinger was fourth.

The girls 1,600 relay team of Katelyn Brier, Katie Hughes, Vanessa Hancock and Molly Ferree was fifth.

The Nevada track team's next competition will be Friday when they travel to Paola, Kan., for an invitational meet.

Nevada participated in a ninth/tenth grade meet in Neosho Tuesday, look for those results in the Nevada Daily Mail later this week.