The Mickey Dunn Invitational hosted a stellar 1,600.
What do you get when you mix beautiful spring weather, Western Slope talent and a pinch of Front Range spice? A healthy re-write of the current rankings!
Dakota Ridge, Mountain Vista, Palmer Ridge and ThunderRidge all trekked over the Rockies to join in the fun at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction and the results did not disappoint.
Distance Events Shine - Boys Edition
With the benefit of a Colorado 'low' elevation venue and some of the state's top distance talent on the premises, it didn't take very long to realize that the distance events were going to produce many of the top highlights of the day.
The first big performance came in the boys 3200m relay with Dakota Ridge and Mountain Vista toeing the line and looking every bit ready for battle. Dakota Ridge challenged for the lead during the first leg but soon Mountain Vista had forged into the lead. It became obvious that a win was not going to be sufficient for the Vista Nation boys and they kept pushing the pace. The foursome of Caden Foster, Ethan Rouse, Brody Dempsey, and Carter Dillon carried the baton in a new state leading time of 7:57.74. Dakota Ridge didn't let up on their end and came through in the second fastest time so far this season.
Rested from their earlier 3200m relay win, Dillon and Foster were ready to give the 800 thing another try, much to the benefit of the rankings board. Dillon ran what appeared to be a relaxed 1:56.40 for first place honors. Foster finished second in 1:57.57 with Montrose's Evan Graff third in 1:58.03. In fact, the top 6 all broke 2:00.
Dakota Ridge's Austin Vancil put down a strong final lap to secure both a win and PR the 1600 (4:24.60). Mountain Vista's Shayan Zarrin added another 10 points to the Vista tally to win the 3200 (9:51.14) for his best Colorado performance to date.