Western Slope Athletes Roar Into The Wind At Tiger


Thompson, Germain stellar in final Stocker performance

Roaring Fork's Justin Thompson and Jasper Germain have won many medals over the years at this stadium. They finished out their final senior meet before state with more stellar showings. Thompson won four events - high jump (personal best of 6-4), long jump (21-8.25), triple jump (second-best in his career, 45-2) and the 110 hurdles (first time under 15 in 14.82 - although wind aided 3.2).

Germain also cleared 6-4 in the high jump, finished second in the 110 hurdles, and finished second in both horizontal jumps with PRs of 44-4.25 in the triple and 21-2.25 in the long. It will be interesting to see how far up the state standings these two will take the Rams by themselves.

Wright get's it right 

Montezuma Cortez's Aryelle Wright appears primed for another strong state meet after three solid showings at the Tiger. She ran season bests of 12.71 in the 100, 25.58 in the 200, and 58.84 in the 400. She could make the podium in all three races next week, with her best seeding at second in the 200. 

Multiple teams loaded relay teams to improve on season-bests in an effort to move foursomes into top 18 times. One of the most successful examples from the Tiger was the Rifle Sprint Medley relay team. The Bears had yet to run a team in the event this season but put together a winning effort of 1:53.63, which seeded them ninth (as of Friday night) in 3A. The Bears were right with Montrose down the homestretch.

As a sign of the dwindling competitiveness, the Tiger Invite (down from 24 teams last year) had only one girls team was in the 4x800 - and despite the challenge of wind and running solo, the Moffat County girls improved their previous time by three seconds to 10:22,  and could survive the weekend for a state bid - they're currently No. 14.

Other notables from Tiger

Fruita Monument's Kenley Kohls won the girls high jump with a PR of 5-4 in the high jump, which moved her into the top five in 5A going into next weekend. Grand Junction's Mackenzie Younker threw a PR in the discus of 122-feet, which moved into a top-9 seeding in 5A. Telluride's Lily Graves jumped a PR of 33-4 in the triple jump to move her into the top nine in 2A. Ignacio's Aliyana White did not improve on her Class 2A-leading shot put of 39-feet, but her 37-1 was her second-best of the season and won the competition. Mancos' Caden Showalter showed that the small-school throwers could hang with the big schools as he won the shot put with a throw of 44-6. His season best of 46-00 has him ranked third in 2A heading into next week's big show. 

Wind wipes times out

The wind swirled both days at Tiger but just happened to be at the backs of the athletes on Friday. The wind was enough to disqualify finals times in four of the six wind gauged races.

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