Lewis-Palmer's Morgan Griffin had a big day at the Cherry Creek/Grandview Invitational, winning three individual events. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Surprise! The weather turned ugly again for the weekend. Just not as ugly as the last couple of weekends.
While several of the states top competitors were working under lighter loads this weekend, many others were racing full throttle.
After several weekends of spectacular throws, the throwing events in particular were kind of subdued this last weekend. Fort Lupton's Reece James, however, did move up a couple of notches in the 4A shot put rankings with a heave of 51-6.5 at the Spartan Classic make-up in Berthoud.
The big jumps of weekends past were also scarce this weekend, but special mention goes to Josh Valdez of Fruita-Monument for his 22-10.5 at the Tiger Invitational and to Lewis-Palmer's Andrew Schomburg who validated an earlier nice mark in the triple with a 44-1.25 at the Cherry Creek/Grandview Invitational. On the girls' side, Moffat County's Erin Urbanoski posted a very nice 18-4 at Grand Juction's Tiger Invitational. That leap, incidentally, puts her alone atop all classifications in the long jump.
In the sprint events, Durango's Gus Barnes virtually punched his ticket to state with an 11.10 100, also at the Tiger Invitational. Senior LaTraia Scott and freshman GinAsia Hamilton traded wins in the 100 and 200 at Canon City's Blossom Invitational on Friday.
Lewis-Palmer sprinter/pole vaulter Morgan Griffin had a very nice weekend, winning three events at the Cherry Creek/Grandview Invite--the 200 in 25.74, the 400 in 57.31 and the pole vault at 10-9.
Stealing a little thunder from Griffin's three-fer, however, was the four-fer posted by Ashley Atkin of Fleming High School at the unofficial 1A state championships in Limon. Atkin's busy day included winning the 100 in13.73, the 200 in 28.43, the 400 in 1:02.10, and the 800 in 2:30.76. If Atkin didn't win athlete of the meet honors, somebody needs to go recheck the ballots. If you've ever been in Limon in the spring, it will come as no surprise to learn the wind was blowing.
And, on a cool weekend, it's probably not too surprising that the distance runners may have had the best weekend of all.
Evan Appel's 9:07.82 has already been covered in a separate article, so we move on here t others...
Also having a great run, and a personal best, was Lindsey Sowards of Alamosa. Sowards ran 11:13.35 to win the 3200 at Canon City's Blossom Invite. Laura Tremblay of Thompson Valley did even four seconds better, winning at Berthoud's Spartan Classic with a time of 11:09.52.
At this point, the only allowable meets remaining for 4A and 5A schools are league meets, and several are on tap for this week. For 2A and 3A, a few make-up meets loom early in the week and then regional qualifying contests follow on Thursday through Saturday. By this time next week, we'll know who is headed to Lakewood for the state championship meet on May 14 - 16.