Fountain-Fort Carson Mounts First Defense of State Title
Fountain-Fort Carson looked much like you would have expected a defending state champion--sans the mega Js of Jason Farrell, Jalen Lyon, and Jequan Hogan--to look on the first outing of the season. The Trojans were at points sharp and at points a little rusty, but they left nothing to speculation about whether or not they'll be a team to be reckoned with this spring.
Highlight performances for the Trojan boys included a solid 8:20.95 win in the 4x800, a 20-0 (-3.9) long jump from freshman Alexisius Jones, a 47-3 shot put from Iosua Maika, and a come-from-behind 1:58.62 triumph in the 800 from James Thomas.
Discovery Canyon quietly posted the second-place point total in the boys division. The Thunder got their only event title from Nick Shampoe with a 4:33.77 1600, but scoring performances were scattered liberally throughout the remainder of the events. Of particular encouragement in the land of Thunder may have been Seth Clawson's 22.97 (-3.4) for second in the 200.
Pueblo East got double winners from Kain Medrano and Luc Andrada, but highlights for the Eagles were otherwise thinly distributed.
The Classical Academy chased Fountain-Fort Carson to the finish of the 4x800 for a big 3A mark of 8:22.34.
Vista Ridge, though clearly missing the contributions of key pieces like Micah Hilts and Kobe Christiansen, still managed to land a few blows, winning the 4x100 and 4x200 in impressive early-season times, taking a 400 win with Aidan Pena running 51.93 under peak wind conditions, and Raymon Harper walking away with the high jump title at 6-4.
Elizabeth came away with a nice set of three event titles, to include David Fine in the 3200, James Finken in the 300 hurdles, and Mason Anthony in the 110 hurdles.