LaTraia Scott of Coronado makes it look easy, winning the Panther 2 Panther 100 by nearly 0.4 seconds. Photo by Mark Weeks.
It's already been a busy week, and there's no shortage of action to come. Still on tap for this weekend are such notable meets as the Liberty Bell Invitational, the St. Vrain Invitational, the High Altitude Challenge, and a host of smaller meets.
What will happen at those meets is anybody's guess. What's already happened this week is a story worth retelling.
First stop in the story line is, of course, Mason Finley throwing 71-3.25 and 223-4.5 at the Gunnison Invitational. Whether inspired by Finley's showing or merely just having a great day in the throwing ring, Montrose's Josh White did some serious damage to his personal PR in the shot put by throwing 54-3 in Gunnison.
At the Panther 2 Panther Invitational, LaTraia Scott of Coronado laid down the challenge in the 5A 100 and 200. Running against negative winds in both events, Scott recorded times of 12.20 and 24.81 to easily take both events. Elsewhere in the same meet, Kara Slavoski took over leadership of the 3A prequalifier board in all three distance events by going 5:11.53 and 2:19.98 in the 1600 and 800. Kita Alvares of Cheyenne Mountain blasted a 44.51 in the 300 hurdles, the Palmer girls went 1:50.97 in the sprint medley, Andrew Schomburg of Lewis-Palmer went an even 45 in the triple jump, and Widefield's Derek McAllister swept the sprints in 11.27, 22.26 and 48.81.
If times were hot on the Harrison track on Tuesday, however, they were even hotter on the Littleton track on Monday at the Nike Littleton meet. A sampling of what I mean: Annie Kunz of Wheat Ridge 14.88 in the 100 hurdles, Natosha Rogers of Dakota Ridge 11:09.34 in the 3200, Tarique Hill of Eaglecrest 14.37 in the 110 hurdles, Evan Appel of Dakota Ridge 4:16.82 in the 1600 (see photo below by Tracy Peterson), Jordan Edwards of Heritage and Devin Mohn of Rampart 21.79 and 21.80, respectively, in the 200, Cherokee Trail 1:29.13 in the 4 X 200, Andrew Berberick of Mullen at 1:54.72 in the 800, and Mark Sparks of Smoky Hill at 56-4 and 182-11 in the shot and disc. And that leaves out a lot of very nice performances!
But, wait, we aren't done yet.
At various meets around the state, we had Kent Herman of tiny Hi-Plains High School (bonus points to anyone who knows where Hi-Plains) going 6-7 in the high jump at Yuma.
Jeremy Rankin (remember him, sprint fans?) opened his CHSAA season with a 10.70 100 at the Denver Public Schools Invitational.
Cory Engel had a very nice pair of hurdle times at 14.69 and 38.37 at the Maxine Ehrman Invitational.
At the Boulder County Championships, Ashley Miknis of Broomfield had posted the state's best girls 300 mark at 44.80 until Kita Alvares mowed it down the next day. And, if you think Cherokee Trail had a nice 4 X 200, consider that Silver Creek went 1:28.50 at the BoCo Championships. Also at BoCo, Andrew Roberts strengthened his position atop 3A prequalifers in the 1600 and 3200 with times of 4:22.53 and 9:33.66.
So, it's been an exciting week already. Stay tuned for an update of all the weekend's action on Sunday.