Did you know, part II

Alli Davis eyeballs the bar at last month's state meet. Photo by Jeff McCoy.

Continuing with the concept of pulling the covers back on facts about Colorado high school track and field/cross country that you may not have known...

  • Did you know that Durango's Alli Davis is tied for the #2 ranking in that nation for freshman girls high jumpers at 5-8? Or that she ranks #2 in Colorado among freshman long jumpers? Or that she ranks #4 in Colorado among freshman 200s and 400s? Things are looking bright at Durango for the next three years.
  • Did you know that, in the speedy class of sophomore boys, Caleb Ojennes of Palmer Ridge ranks #1 in the 200 and #1 in the 400? That would include all classifications. Ojennes, by the way, ranks #3 in the nation among sophomore 400s.
  • Did you know that five of the top 10 girls 4x800 relay times in the state this season came from the Front Range League? And two more of the top ten came from Loveland 4A schools. It's tough running 4x800s from Boulder to Fort Collins.
  • Would you believe that, in the seven years Colorado Track XC has been archiving meet results, Colorado has not had a year with more than eight schools running better than 8:00 in the boys 4x800? This year's total of seven schools was exceeded only by 2009's count of eight schools.
  • Did you know that from 1987 - 2013 Akron's girls missed having a first, second, or third place team finish at state only four times? That would qualify as a dynasty. I would love to know how many pole vault points they scored over those 27 years. Must be a well-coached team...
  • Did you know that this summer Cameron Moore will join Mandy Ortiz and Jonny Stevens as the third athlete from Battle Mountain High School to represent the USA at the World Trail Running Championships in Italy. Speaking of well-coached teams...
  • Did you know that 292 Colorado girls recorded a pole vault performance in the state-sanctioned outdoor season this year in Colorado? That's up from 163 in 2008. For the boys, the 2008 count of 225 grew to 399 this year. 2011 numbers were 241 girls and 333 boys. That, folks, is sustained growth. If you thought pole vault numbers were growing, it wasn't just your imagination.
  • Did you know that Kansas, New Mexico, and Utah throw the javelin and we don't?
Who knows? Perhaps a third installment of this article may be coming soon! Depends on how much new (to me, anyway) information appears on my radar screen...