Although most of the schools attending the Florence Husky Invitational were either beginning or ending their spring breaks, it is still track season and the athletes who came to the meet came ready to perform.
On the boys' side of the ledger, Canon City's strength in relays and across a broad spectrum of individual events prevailed. The girls' side of the ledger was dominated by the teams in maroon--The Classical Academy and Alamosa--with TCA prevailing by a final tally of 138 to 109.
Canon City not only managed to sweep three of the four boys' relays, but also added titles in the triple jump (James Baker) and the 300 hurdles (Tyler Smith) on their way to a total of 105.6 team points. Second-place Alamosa managed 83 points on the strength of first place finishes by Tate McDaniel in the high jump, Brian Ford in the shot put and discus, and a winning 4 X 800 relay. The day's only other winner of multiple events was Simla's Jake Toney in the 100 and 200. Trevor Waliszewski of TCA and Edwin Cruz of Del Norte did trade off first and second places in the 1600 and 3200, however.
In girls' events, schools from southern Colorado are rapidly becoming aware of what happens when Alamosa puts two or three DeSouchets on a relay team--Alamosa wins. The diminutive set of sisters, Aimee, Nikki, and Jenny, were instrumental in the Mean Moose winning both the 4 X 400 and 4 X 800 by large margins. Kendra Marquez also contributed heavily to Alamosa's point total with a winning long jump of 15-4, a second place in the 100, and a leg in their winning 800 medley relay.
The surprise of the day, however, came in the girls' 100-meter dash finals. In a final with several girls who had competed in the 100 meters at last year's state track meet, Brittany Crippen (above) was the fastest the group. And so it is that The Vanguard School is suddenly on the map of Colorado track and field.
When all was said and done, however, the day belonged to The Classical Academy girls. The Titans scored points in all but three events, winning the 200 (Samantha Reid), the 400 (Kelsey Brown), the 1600 and 3200 (Kaitlin Hanenburg), and the 4 X 200 relay.