The Weekend Wrap Up: Big Results Out Of UW & Simplot

Fairview's Marlena Preigh ran the second fastest 800 in the country this weekend. 

With no "in-state" meets this week, many headed out to either the Simplot Games, or the UW High School Invitational, with the perk in both meets being able to compete in a little less altitude. 

But of course, it's February, and we're in the Rockies... 

Snow and ice and every sort of wintery hazard imaginable put a big red light on anyone driving to Idaho for the Simplot Games. The closure if I-80 halted two bus loads of Colorado tracksters, sending them back to Colorado to find other means of getting to 'The Games. 

This obviously cut the Colorado participation of Simplot drastically, but for those who did make it, they made the most of it.

We had two major highlights of the weekend, and of course, being that they were results from out-of-state, they don't show up in Colorado Rankings, but they do in National Rankings

The first has got to be Fairview senior, Marlena Preigh

Preigh very quietly ran 2:10 in the 800 at the UW Invitational several weeks ago, which is already insanely fast, but she topped that big time over the weekend. The 5A defending state champ blitzed the field at Simplot, going 2:06.80 for a personal best - indoors and outdoors, and it's a meet record. 

Adding to the gravity of the run was that Preigh just ran a meet record in a meet that celebrated its 41st running of the 'Games. That's not only beating the competition, that's beating a long history of great performances.

And did I mention that her 2:06.80 is currently the No. 2 time in the country?

The other big highlight of the weekend came out of the UW High School Invitational. Yasin Sado chopped a whopping 12 seconds off his PR in the mile. 

And what makes his performance all the more of a jaw-dropper, is that he ran 4:13.57, which is currently the No. 13 time in the country. He finished third, three seconds off the win. 

Sado's previous best indoor was a 4:32, run here in Colorado at the USATF-Colorado State Indoor Championships

Honorable Mentions

We had quite a few more big results coming out of UW was Dillon Powell's victory in the 3,000. The Air Academy senior ran 8:44.97 for the No. 15 time in the country. 

Another great run came from Andrew Bluemel, who ran 1:55.70 in the 800 for the No. 28 time in the country. That's a massive four-second PR, and his lone 800 of the indoor season so far.

And as mentioned in Daniel Russell's recap of the UW Invitational, we'll see some epic battle outdoors between Lanie Szuch and Liberty Ricca. Szuch ran 10:08 in the 3,000, which is No. 34 in the country. Ricca was three seconds back in 10:11 (Ricca also ran 5:01 in the mile).

Sydney Holiday continued to prove she'll be a force outdoors. The incoming Broomfield junior won the Simplot 200 in 24.34 for the No. 23 time in the country. She also went 7.62 in the 60, which ranks her within the Top 50 in the US.

And we caught out first glimpse of defending state 400 champion, Lily Williams, who won the 400 at Simplot in 56.46 off one week of practice.