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.
Distance Events Shine - Girls Edition
Not to be outdone, the ladies had some pretty big match-ups of their own and the first of those came in the 1600.
For those unfamiliar with the cross country scene, both Battle Mountain and Mountain Vista earned berths to the Nike Cross Country Nationals and placed 3rd and 6th respectively this past fall. Add to that Eagle Valley's Joslin Blair and Telluride's Soleil Gaylord and it was no wonder that three laps into the race a pack of nine were making it any one's race. With the bell, the final push to separate began resulting in Battle Mountain's Lizzy Harding holding a slight lead coming out of the final turn. On her shoulder, Mountain Vista's Jenna Fitzsimmons had just a bit more in the tank to get her first across the line. Fitzsimmons crossed in 5:11.02 followed closely by Harding (5:12.60). Blair made her own final push, moving from 5th to 3rd down the final stretch, just edging Mountain Vista's Caroline Eck, 5:13.70 to 5:13.90. Gaylord rounded out the top five in 5:15.20 to lead the 2A rankings.
Fitzsimmons was back on the track for the 800 against another Harding. This time it was Naomi Harding. Fitzsimmons changed up tactics and rather than the sit-n-kick strategy she employed in the 1600, she went straight to the lead. Harding, with fresher legs, bided her time and made her move coming out of the final turn to win in 2:16.57. Fitzsimmons crossed second in 2:17.04.
Gaylord returned to the track later in the day to claim the 3200 title, leading wire to wire, and holding off Mountain Vista's Sarah O'Sullivan. Gaylord's 11:18.96 is the 2A leader.
Bayfield Boys Making a Mark
As of the writing of this article the boys team results we not yet posted, but if my calculations are correct, with pole vault results added in, 3A Bayfield would just edge out Mountain Vista for the team title - 84.5 to 84. Even if my math is a bit off, Bayfield's meet performance is worth taking note of.
While Mountain Vista racked up points in the distance events, Bayfield pulled points from other sources. Carl Heide led the Wolverines with a double hurdle win. Ryan Phelps put together a big PR of 155-1 for a discus win and returned in the afternoon to place second in the shot put to teammate, Wyatt Killinen (49-7.25). David Hawkins added another 5 points (46-10) to the shot put haul. Heide, Phelps and Killinen, with the assistance of Dawson French, combined to win the 400m relay.
On the girl's side, Mountain Vista, ran away in the team scoring. Adding to their distance exploits,Kara Lucyk took home double wins in the 300H and long jump and Sydney Trichler bested the triple jump field. By the end of the meet, their 118 points far outpaced runner-up Battle Mountain with 88.
Other notable performances for the day Included a PR by Durango's Alyssa McConnell to win the high jump on misses at 5-4. Palmer Ridge held off a hard charging Eagle Valley down the final stretch with a well-timed lean and a 0.10 advantage to claim the first title of the day in the 800 Sprint Medley in 1:53.88.
The Mickey Dunn Invitational hosted a stellar 1,600.