While the Lyons girls were cruising toward a 2A state title, it seemed that the boys were, too.
Then along came Dayspring Christian to crash the Lions' victory party, taking first place by a 62-61 score--not a bad effort by a six-person team.
Dayspring's efforts were lead by senior Dan Baer, who won the 110 and 300 meter hurdles in 14.52 and 39.72, respectively. Baer set a meet record of 14.49 in the 110 hurdles in the Friday prelims. Teammate Jared Sanderford finished second in both events, thus accounting for 36 of Dayspring's 62 points.
The remainder of Dayspring's points came via relays with first-place finishes in the 4 X 100 and 4 X 400, and a third-place finish in the 4 X 200.
Lyons had seemed on their way to a relatively easy victory until Dayspring started piling up points on Saturday. Lyons distance runners had piled up an impressive point total. Those points came mostly from Andrew Roberts and Colin Anderson. The dynamic duo had led Lyons to a 4 X 800 victory on Friday and then finished second and third in the 1600, also on Friday. On Saturday, Roberts won the 3200 and Anderson the 800. Both ran legs on the Lions' third-place 4 X 400 relay. Senior Billy Gibson added a fourth in the long jump and a third in the triple jump. In the end, however, it was not enough--by a mere point.
It could well be argued that the person and event that led to Lyons' demise was Victor Montoya of Rocky Ford. Montoya's narrow victory over Roberts and Anderson in Friday's 1600 would easily account for the difference in the overall score. To win, Montoya had to press to within two seconds of Aucencio Martinez's state meet record in that event. The finish of three athletes under 4:25 was easily the fastest ever in the 2A classification.
Norwood's Stryker Lane won titles in both throwing events, and Simla's Jake Toney motored to twin titles in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Sophomore Kyle Carper of Holyoke narrowly missed another double, winning the long jump, but coming up a foot short in the triple jump.
On the girls' side, the question of who would win seemed to be answered very quickly. The bigger question was whether or not Lyons could reach 100 points. As it turned out, they could not. While Lyons piled up points in event after event, the only events they managed to win were the first and next-to-last finals of the entire meet-- the 4 X 800 and Melissa Roberts in the 3200.
In between, it was names like Shaylee Robinette and Emma Coburn who kept the Lions off the top of the victory stand. Shaylee Robinette finished her high school career in style, once again winning her four events--the 100, 200, 400, and triple jump. Emma Coburn won the 800 and 1600, but dropped out of the 3200 in the middle of the race, barely over an hour after the 800.
Two other 2A seniors finished their illustrious high school careers this weekend. Sangre de Cristo's Brittany Brown won the discus, but was surprised in the shot put by Hayden's Holli Salazar. Although both Brown and Salazar threw over 40 feet, Salazar's heave of 41-7.75 went nearly 18 inches farther than Brown's best effort. Fowler's Lindsey Grasmick wrote the final chapter in her high school athletic career by finishing second in the 100 hurdles to Emily Hanna, then coming back to win the 300 hurdles in the afternoon.
Elsewhere, Akron ruled the weekend in relays. The Rams won the 4 X 400 and sprint medley relays and finished third in each of the other three relays. Erin Krause would win the pole vault for Akron's only other points on the weekend.