The recently completed Paris Olympics shuffled our running list of the best athletes in Northern Nevada history. Here is our updated top-10 list of best athletes to attend a high school in Northern Nevada.
10. Kyle Van Noy, McQueen High (2009):Van Noy was a three-sport athlete at McQueen (football; basketball; track and field), helping the Lancers win a state football title in 2008 with a 14-0 record. That’s the last local team to win the largest class state football title in Nevada. From there, he went to BYU where he became an All-American after recording226 tackles, 62 tackles for loss, 26 sacks and seven interceptions. A second-round NFL draft pick in 2014, Van Noy has played the last 10 seasons in the NFL, racking up 500 tackles, 42.5 sacks and 24 turnovers (three interceptions, 12 forced fumbles, nine fumble recoveries). He has played in three Super Bowls, winning twice as a starter for the New England Patriots in the 2016 and 2018 seasons (he also was on the Patriots’ 2017 team that lost to the Eagles in the Super Bowl).Van Noy is the only Northern Nevada high school product to win multiple Super Bowls in his career.
9. Krysta Palmer, Douglas High (2010): Palmer was born and raised in Carson City but attended Douglas. She was a standout gymnast and trampoline athlete, competing at the international level before injuries — two torn ACLs — prevented her from a potential Olympic berth (she finished second in the nation in 2009 in trampoline and won the U.S. national championship at the junior elite division). Palmer walked on to the Nevada dive team in 2012 and became one of the most decorated athletes in Wolf Pack history. She won nine Mountain West medals, including four golds, and was a two-time conference diver of the year (2015, 2016). She was honorable mention All-American as a senior, leading Nevada to its first MW title and 20th place at NCAAs while being named the Wolf Pack’s top senior female athlete. A three-time Olympic trials qualifier, Palmer earned bronze in the 3-meter dive in the Tokyo Games to become the first U.S. diver to win an individual Olympic medal since 2000.
8. Inga Thompson, Reno High (1981): One of the greatest U.S. cyclists ever, Thompson was born in Salt Lake City before moving to Reno where she was Nevada’s first three-time state cross country champion and led Reno High to a No. 1 national ranking from 1979-81. She went to college at Cal Poly and finished fourth at the NCAA Championships as a freshman. In 1984, she overheard at a local bike shop the first Women’s Tour de France would be held, so she bought a bike and won her first five cycling races, qualifying for the Olympic Trials and finishing 21st in the 1984 L.A. Games in the road race. She won 10 national championships and finished second in three world championships. She added two more Olympic appearances, placing a personal-best eighth in 1988. She finished third in the 1986 and 1989 Women’s Tour de France. After winning the 1993 national championship road race, she abruptly quit the sport. She was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2014.
7. Jake Dalton, Spanish Springs High (2009): Dalton didn’t participate in high school athletics but has one of the most distinguished careers of any local athlete and is a no-brainer for top gymnast to hail from Northern Nevada. At Oklahoma, the 5-foot-5 Dalton became the first Sooner to earn All-America honors on six events in one season, doing so in 2012. In total, Dalton was a 13-time All-American who won eight Big 12 individual championships and four NCAA individual championships (2011 in vault and floor exercise; 2012 in parallel bars and all-around). He made the U.S. Olympic team in 2012 and 2016, finishing fifth in floor exercise in 2012 and sixth in that same event in 2016. Dalton also competed in four World Championship meets, winning a team bronze in 2011, an individual silver in 2013 (floor exercise) and two bronzes in 2014 (in vault and team). He also is an eight-time champion and 15-time medalist at the U.S. Championships.
6. Luke Hobson, Reno High (2021): The youngest athlete on our list, Hobson is only 21 years old but has already put together one of the most impressiverésumés in Reno/Sparks history. The high point of his career came last month when he won two medals at the Paris Olympics to become the first individual swim medalist in Northern Nevada history after earning bronze in the 200-meter freestyle, just 0.7 seconds behind gold. He added a silver medal in the 4×200 free relay. A rising junior at Texas, Hobson also has had a stellar college career, perhaps the best of any local prep product. Hobson is a five-time NCAA champion who has won seven college medals. He’s also won sixWorld Championship medals in two appearances in that meet, including one gold.Hobson will look to add to his hardware during his senior season at Texas where he’ll work with the Longhorns’ new coach, Bob Bowman, who mentored Michael Phelps to28 Olympic medals. including 23 golds.
5. Gabby Williams, Reed High (2014): The best basketball player in Northern Nevada history, Williams is a once-a-generation all-around athlete. As a sophomore in 2012, she led Reed to a state basketball title in 2012 and was an Olympic alternate in the high jump at age 15 (she was twice theNevada Gatorade athlete of the year in track in field). Despite torn ACLs cutting short her junior and senior seasons, she was still named a 2014 McDonald’s All-American, the lone female from Northern Nevada to accomplish that. She played basketball at UConn, winning two national titles and going 148-3 in her career while being named an All-American and the national defensive player of the year. The No. 4 pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, she’s the only local to play in that league and has had even more success overseas, leading France to a bronze medal in the 2021 Tokyo Games and a silver in the 2024 Paris Games in which Les Bleus nearly upset Team USA in the title game, losing 67-66.
4. David Wise, Wooster High (2008): Wise played baseball and football as Wooster freshman with his baseball coach Ron Malcolm calling him “a good little second baseman” and his football coach calling him “a good little defensive back.” The good little athlete eventually sprouted to 6 feet and became the best halfpipe skier ever. One of the few elite Olympic ski athletes to attend a public school rather than a ski academy, Wise won gold in the ski halfpipe in the 2014 Sochi Games and repeated in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He added a silver medal in the 2022 Beijing Games and also owns a 2013 World Championship gold medal and seven X Games medals, including four golds (2012-14, 2018), two silvers (2013, 2019) and a bronze (2022). In the 2018 Olympics, he became the first athlete to land double corks in all four directions, scoring a 97.20-point run on his third and final run for gold. He was named the ESPY’s top male action sports figure that year.
3. Matt Williams, Carson High (1983): The best baseball player in Northern Nevada history, Williams was born in Bishop and earned the nickname “Carson Crusher” while playing for the Senators with two other future big-leaguers (Charlie Kerfeld, Bob Ayrault), marking the only local high school team with three major-league players on the same roster. He was an All-American at UNLV and No. 3 pick of the 1986 draft (the highest ever for a local player in any sport). A third baseman in the big leagues, Williams had a 17-year MLB career with five All-Star berths. He crushed 378 home runs and drove in 1,218 runs with a .268 average, hitting a career-high 43 homers in the strike-shortened 1994 season. A four-time Silver Slugger and four-time Gold Glover had four top-six finishes in the MVP vote. Williams also went 179-145 as the Washington Nationals’ manager over two seasons, winning NL manager of the year in 2014. He’s currently the third-base coach for the Giants.
2. Patty Sheehan, Wooster High (1974):Sheehan was born in Middlebury, Vt., before moving to Reno in her youth. She was one of the top junior skiers in the country as a teenager before excelling in golf. Sheehan was a three-time Nevada girls golf state champion with Wooster winning the team state title in all four of her years. After her prep days, Sheehan won three straight Nevada State Amateur titles (1975-78) and was runner-up at the 1979 U.S. Women’s Amateur before winning the 1980 AIAW national title (that was the precursor to the NCAA in women’s sports) at San Jose State. LPGA rookie of the year in 1981, Sheehan won six major championships and 35 LPGA Tour events, earning 1983 LPGA Player of the Year honors. She was inducted into the College Golf Hall of Fame in 1990 and the World Golf Hall of Fame 1993 (she’s also in the National High School Hall of Fame). Sheehan was honored as one of eight Sports Illustrated Sportspeople of the Year in 1987.
1. Greg LeMond, Wooster High (1979): Born inLakewood, Calif., and raised in the Washoe Valley, LeMond is the only American to win and keep the Tour de France title (fellow U.S. riders Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis had their titles stripped for doping). LeMond is considered the greatest “clean” U.S. cyclist ever having won the Tour de France in 1986, 1989 and 1990, which ties him for the sixth most in the race’s history. He was the first non-European professional cyclist to win the Tour de France in 1986 and his eight-second win in 1989 remains the narrowest in event history. He won the Road Race World Championship twice (1983, 1989), becoming the first American male cyclist to win that event. He was the youngest cyclist to make Team USA’s Olympics squad, doing so at age 18 in 1980, but he didn’t get to compete in the Moscow Games due to a U.S. boycott. LeMond was SI’s 1989 Sportsman of the Year and a 1996 inductee into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1996.
Also considered: Brianne McGowan (Wooster, 2003); Lane Spina (Wooster, 1980); Austin Corbett (Reed, 2013); Brian Retterer (Sparks, 1990); Coleen Rienstra Sommer (Sparks, 1978); Maddie Bowman (South Tahoe, 2012); Shaun Palmer (South Tahoe, attended but dropped out); Becky Holliday (Reed, 1998); Perris Benegas (Reed, 2013); Ryan Bader (McQueen, 2001); Chris Carr (McQueen, 2001); Luke Babbitt (Galena, 2008); Shawn Estes (Douglas, 1991); Matt Buyten (Douglas, 1998); Brandon Aiyuk (McQueen, 2016)
Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66bc0f04a0014a76ad431f9c8f14f7a4&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnevadasportsnet.com%2Fnews%2Freporters%2Fthe-10-best-athletes-to-attend-northern-nevada-high-schools&c=7246553126388746623&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-08-13 01:58:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
