Colorado's Tabor Scholl, second from left, ran a PR mile (and converted 1600 PR) in the Great Southwest mile, finishing second in 4:58.61. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Late on Saturday afternoon, Colorado selection chair Jeff Bliven was beaming. The Colorado girls were well up on the field and were scoring in nearly every event. The prognosis was good for a Colorado team title.
And, that prognosis continued through the evening hours into a reality at the end of the meet. The final tally had Colorado with 169.5 points to 119 for second-place Missouri.
And, the points did come from very nearly across the entire span of events. Scoring for Colorado were:
- Alexis Groce and Shayna Yon in the 100
- Chyna Ries in the invitational 100
- Dior Hall in the 200
- Claire Green, Tabor Scholl, and Damajahnee Birch in the 800
- Tabor Scholl and Lexi Reed in the mile
- Megan Mooney in the 3200
- Dior Hall and Ashley Miller in the 100 hurdles
- Ashley Miller and Carly Lester in the 300 hurdles
- Veronic Brtek in the 2000 steeple
- A speedy 45.03 4x100 relay cobbled together on Saturday afternoon, plus at least one more team in each other relay
- Carly Paul in the high jump
- Kimberly Peterson and Andrea Willis in the pole vault
- Chyna Ries and Audra Koopman in the long jump
- Haley Showalter and Josie Natrasevschi in both the hammer throw and discus
The team of 48 girls that traveled down to Albuquerque acquitted themselves nicely. And, for many of those athletes, the season is not even close to done. Dates at Junior nationals, NBNO, and possibly some international-level competition loom ahead for many of these individuals.
For the boys, the results were not as grand as they were for the girls, but some of that would have to do with the fact that Colorado's male representation in Albuquerque was roughly half of the female delegation. Still, some nice results were recorded, to include the following placers:
- Kossi Tchenawou in the 100
- Zane Vanderberg in the 400
- Blake Yount and Zac Petrie in the 800
- scoring relays at 4x100 and 4x200
- Andrew Barlow in the pole vault
In all, Colorado's boys would post 29 points for 10th place.
Meet Results, Photos (now complete), and Videos