Mackenzie Fidelak anchored Niwot's 4x200 to a 4A state meet record on Friday. Photo by Alan Versaw.
All week long, it looked like a tight race for the 4A Girls crown. In a season-long chase, it appeared that Mountain View had finally achieved parity with their rivals to the south, and a couple other teams had drawn close enough to warrant a second glance.
But, the reality of the weekend was that nobody was close to Niwot. Where other teams leaked points like rusty buckets, Niwot could very nearly do no wrong. In the end, it was a very convincing 85-59.5 margin of victory over Mountain View and a bigger margin, of course, over other teams.
Nowhere was Niwot more proficient than in the hurdle events. In an event with all sorts of possibilities for things to go badly, Niwot got a 1-2 from Alexis Carroll and Mackenzie Fidelak in the 100 hurdles (they finished so close that the computer had to go to thousandths of a second to declare a winner) and another 1-2 from Kela Fetters (photo, below, by Alan Versaw) and Mackenzie Fidelak in the 300 hurdles. 36 points just like that can knock the stuffing out of the resistance.
Fidelak appended another seven points to the cause with a 56.26 in the 400. Interestingly, Fidelak's third in the 400, coupled with a fifth from Rachel Sharpe, provided Niwot's only points in a straight-up running event not involving the use of batons.
Where batons were required, however, Niwot simply excelled. Niwot's 4x200 squad of Fetters, Lauren Sharpe, Rachel Sharpe, and Fidelak rocked a state meet record of 1:41.13 for their win. The 4x400 chased a record-setting Thompson Valley team to second in 3:54.94. The Niwot SMR8 pulled a third, and Niwot earned a single point from their 4x800.
Gabrielle Casey added four points in the pole vault and Alexis Carroll seven more in the long jump with a stunning mark of 18-0.5. The latter mark, however, won't go down as an official PR, however, due to a little-too-helpful assist from the breeze out of the south.
Mountain View never could mount the kind of consistency needed to keep pace with a Niwot machine that kept finding new points at every turn. Riley Cooney and Lauren Offerman found tough sledding in the loaded distance events and came away with only 33 points between them (including the 4x800). Of course, only with a duo like Cooney and Offerman would you ever even dream of 33 points in distance events.
Joscelyn Wind earned a second in the high jump, but the triple jump field--which exceeded all expectations--left Wind in 12th. Teammate Sammi Watson managed an eighth for two points.
Otherwise, it was mostly relays putting points on the board for Mountain View.
Individual competition was dominated by a short list of two names. Lewis-Palmer's Nicole Montgomery took wins in the 100 (12.16, -0.9), 200 (24.14, 3.3), and 400 (52.95, a new state meet record for 4A). Montgomery's anchor leg would also seal an SMR8 title for L-P.
Taking over at longer distances, Air Academy's Katie Rainsberger scorched the 800 field at 2:08.87, dominated the 1600 at 4:52.38, claimed the 3200 at 10:49.47 and very much aided and abetted Air Academy to the 4x800 crown.
Still more great marks came from Andrea Willis in the pole vault (12-6), Haley Showalter in the shot put (47-0.5) and discus (158-5), Maya Evans in the long jump (19-9.25) and Anne Lauder in the triple jump (37-9).
