Former Colorado High School Athletes Performing Well at NCAAs

Many names that used to appear atop the finishers lists at the Colorado state track and cross country meets are now appearing at the NCAA Dvision I track meet.

It's not particularly surprising that many of these athletes appear in distance events, but they are certainly not limited to distance events.

Of the results available as of 8 PM MDT on Thursday, June 12, the most noteworthy results for a former Colorado high school athletes come from the throwing events. Russ Winger (formerly Pine Creek, now Idaho) stands in third place in the shot put after the preliminary round. Winger's best throw was 63-4.75. Better still, Jason Schutz (formerly Pagosa Springs, now Colorado State) leads in the discus after the preliminary round with a throw of 190-8.

Also from the field event venues, Griffin Matthew (formerly Niwot, now Stanford) finished 25th in the long jump with a leap of 19-7.

Ian Burrell and Brent Vaughn, who competed against each other so many times--with a few classic finishes--are seeded next to each other going into Friday's 5000 meter finals. Burrell (formerly Air Academy, now Georgia) qualified for finals with a fifth place in the second heat and a time of 14:15.11, while Vaughn (formerly Smoky Hill, now Colorado) qualified for finals with a fourth in the first heat and a time of 14:30.23. Elsewhere in middle-distance and distance events, Katie Follett (formerly Fort Collins, now Washington), ran 4:19.00 in the 1500 prelims, but failed to make finals. Follett missed finals by a scant two places.

Jeremy Dodson (formerly George Washington, now Colorado), qualified for semi-finals of the 200, but failed to make it into the finals of the event. Dodson ran 21.01 in prelims and 20.84 in semi-finals.

In relays, J. T. Scheuerman (formerly Littleton, now Baylor) is part of the Baylor 4 x 400 team that has qualified for Saturday's finals.