Salzano takes third

at major track event
From staff reports

RICHLAND, S.C. — Watauga’s Matthew Salzano finished third in the shot put at the highly competitive Taco Bell Track and Field Classic Saturday at Spring Valley High in South Carolina.

Salzano’s toss of 48 feet, 9-inches helped the Pioneers score six of their eight points in the meet. Watauga finished 29th overall.

Watauga’s other two points came from Chris Symonovicz, who finished sixth in the high jump with a leap of 6-feet. Symonovicz was also 34th in the long jump (19-2) and 64th in the triple jump (36-11/4).

The field events proved to be a point of success for the Pioneers. Jordan Pineda was 18th in the discus and 23rd in the shot put, while Gab Romano was 28th in the discus and 54 shot put.

Ian Boyd added a 24th place in the 400-meter hurdles and a 38th finish in the 110-hurdles. Boyd was also 30th in the pole vault.

Watauga also found some success in distance running. Jay Weaver was 25th in the 1,600-meter run, while Jordan Trivette was 29th in the event. Ben Vollmer was 32nd in the 3,200-meter run and Will Barbour was 58th.

Watauga’s 3,200 relay team was 19th. In the 800 run, Justin martin was 71st and Freddie Fluchel was 89th.

In the girls’ meet, Taylor Cook was fifth in the pole vault with a 10-0 effort. Kristina Tracey was 19th in the pole vault and 38 in the long jump.

Also scoring points for the Pioneers was Emily Pineda, who was seventh in the discus with a toss of 110-10, and her sister, Rebekah Pineda, who was eighth in the discus with a 107-11.

Rebekah Pineda was 38th in the shot put and Emily Pineda was 40th in the same event.

In running events, Kasey Jones was 12th overall in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.55 seconds. She qualified for the finals with a 15.68 in the preliminaries.

Amanda Carringer was 32nd in the 3,200 run, while Parisa Tashakkori was 64th in the 800, one spot in front of teammate Ruth Smith. Tashakkori was also 69th in the 400-meter dash.