Audra Koopman had things more or less to herself on Saturday morning. Colorado Track XC file photo by Alan Versaw.
While this appears to be a weekend that a large portion of the indoor set took off, there was still plenty going on. We've already discussed the CSM Twilight and the Duke City All-Comers. That leaves the Tony Wells Memorial as the topic of this article.
As evidence that a large portion of the indoor regulars were resting this weekend, Exhibit A is the fact the Audra Koopman was the lone 15/16 girl under eight seconds for the 60 meter dash. And that includes both prelims and finals. It had to feel a little strange for Koopman to be running with nobody visible on her right or on her left. Her prelims time of 7.78 stood as her better mark at the end of the day.
For that matter, Koopman was the only girl of any age under eight seconds on the day.
Koopman was proportionately even farther ahead of the 200m field, winning by a margin of over two seconds, and the lone runner under 28 seconds. Just to round things out, Koopman also dominated the long jump.
Carly Lester picked up on Koopman's cue, and blew away the fields in the 17-19 200 and 60 hurdles. Lester didn't take on a third event.
Maybe most interesting in the 17-19 girls results was the 1:01.35 winner in the 400 for Jordyn Colter. 61+ seconds isn't a blazing time, but keep in mind we're still early and a 400 at Balch means four tight turns.
Truth be told, highlights were few and far between for the girls.
And, they weren't much more frequent for the boys.
Marcus Howard dominated the 15/16 60 in 7.25 and doubled his fun with a winning 8.70 in the 60 hurdles. Nathan Gish made a sweep of the 17-19 60 and 200 with times of 7.16 and 23.69. Miles Hatton took a 4:25 to the tape in the 17-19 1500. Isaiah Brown's 8.55 was solid as a winner in the 17-19 hurdles.
Moving a step down the age ladder, Arria Minor continued her domination of the 13-14 sprints, winning the 60 in 8.16 and the 200 in 26.93. Anna Hall posted the fastest girls 400 on the entire day with a 1:01.17.