Heather Harrower put away the 400 meter field in convincing fashion. Photo by Alan Versaw.
After a long period of wandering, the Air Force High School Indoor Open may have found a permanent place on the calendar. Gone, it would appear, are the Sunday dates that left high school coaches at home. Gone, it would appear, are the January dates that had athletes lodged a little deeper in their periods of winter hibernation. Gone, it would appear, is the head-to-head date conflict with the Simplot Games.
And, if the uptick in participation we saw on Saturday is any indicator, the new date appeals to the masses. And, not just the Colorado masses. Athletes came in from Oregon, Minnesota, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and a few other locales to put in on the line at the Cadet Field House. Most of them put it on the line pretty well.
It's hard to know where to begin with noting the noteworthy, so try to avoid inferring a ranking to the list that follows:
- Mariah Walker broke a girls shot put record and extended her PR by nearly nine inches in heaving the shot 46-11.5.
- Cerake Geberkidane ran 4:19.87 for the mile. If we were doling out NCAA altitude conversions on this one, that time would check in at about 4:09. Bailey Roth also broke the previous meet record, finishing his mile in 4:27.00.
- Jai'Shawn Thompson doubled up the 60 and 200 in 6.87 and 21.99, both indoor best marks for Thompson and both nationally-ranked marks.
- Katie Rainsberger smashed Tara Mendozza's 800 meter record (okay, not THAT record, but a Tara Mendozza record nevertheless), winning the 800 in 2:13.82.
- Ally Watt barely broke a sweat, winning the 60 in 7.54 and the 200 in 24.38.
- Morgan Moore out of Texas won the pole vault at 12-0.
- Carly Lester pushed her 60 meter hurdles PR to 8.74 in winning that event.
- Zane Vanderberg won the 400 in a nice time of 48.50, but he may have some shelf time coming due to an injury sustained later in the 200 meters.
- Zac Petrie outduled Liam Meirow in the 800--1:55.19 to 1:56.14. Both are exceptional February times for 800 meters.
- Ryan Younggreen seems to get a little sharper in the hurdles with each meet, this time he was 8.23 for 60 meters.
- And the Connors had a nice day. Connor McLean (out of Oregon) didn't stop pole vaulting until after he had cleared 16-3. Connor Turnage won the horizonal jumps at 22-11 and 48-3. All three of those marks rank as season best marks for the athletes.
- Heather Harrower, winner of 2013's state pentathlon meet, flexed a little middle distance muscle in winning the 400 at 58.58. She's run faster, but it's a nice February time on an indoor track.
So, what converged that so many outstanding performances came up on this day? Before the end of the meet, that was a topic of not a few conversations among the coaches gathered at the edges of the arena. A recurring theme in those conversations was the unintended rest the athletes stumbled into with roughly 48 hours of subzero temperatures earlier in the week.
While February isn't necessarily the time of year that you want to be taking big periods of lighter activity, the conditions of the past week more or less dictated it for athletes without a lot of indoor alternatives. So, what we saw on Saturday may have been a good deal more indicative of where these athletes really are than a typical indoor meet would show.
If you scan down the lists of athletes in the results, and this is an activity that I leave to the reader, you will find several athletes who are performing well above what their outdoor seasons from 2013 would indicate. This year, as in all years, there will be some shuffling of the order.
But, a few things are too portentious to escape mention. Chief among those is the fact that, of the top five finishers in the boys 60, three will be running for Fountain-Fort Carson High School this spring, Thompson, Tevin Donnell, and Jaysean Skrine. For good measure, all three finished in the top six of the 200.
If you haven't figured out who all will be running for Pine Creek's girls this spring, you need to acquaint yourself with a few names besides Ally Watt. Limiting ourselves to sprinters and jumpers at this meet, that would include Heide Baron and Mackenzie Howie (both under 8-flat for the 60), Madelyn Baron, Amelia Harvey, and Dakota Divich. Now, go back and check the results out with those names in mind.