It seems like each year Colorado sends more and more athletes to Seattle to complete at the UW High School Invitational. This year saw athletes from all of Colorado make the trip up to the Pacific Northwest to take on some of the best from all over the nation.
If you follow the Milesplit Colorado page you saw Colorado Springs Track Club take over the page and show some of the top highlights for Colorado athletes, and a few other weird moments.
Things in the morning session started off quick with Colorado Springs Track Club and Discovery Canyon's Kevin Frye advancing to the finals in the 60m hurdles. Frye would then double back in the invitational section to finish second in the 60m hurdles final.
CSTC and Palmer Ridge junior Madissyn Moore took fourth in the long jump. Mullen's Ben Baker made some waves of his own in the 60m prelims with a time of 7.12, he would double back later to shave off a few hundredths for a 7.05 in the finals.
The mile saw eight Colorado girls run sub 5:20, and arguably the race of the day came in the mile when Kokopelli Racing Team's Riley Stewart and Niwot's Taylor James went head-to-head.
For most of the race the lead pack stayed together, but as the laps clicked by the leaders began to telescope out from the pack.
At the bell lap Stewart led the race and looked to be in complete control with James hanging back in fourth. Stewart surged forward at 200 to go with Fiona Max of Mondo Track Club and Kokopelli's Madeleine Burns tight on her hip trying to respond.
As the leaders started the curve it appeared that it would be a two-person race, but James was just biding her time still a few places back from the leaders. With 100 to go the Real Training junior showed off the wheels as she effortlessly changed gears and charged forward. With 50 to go James was in complete control and there was nothing that Stewart, Max, Burns, or any other competitor could do.
4:49.75 - the time displayed on the large screen in the beautiful Dempsey Indoor Stadium.
Stewart was just half a second behind at 4:50.29. This was the fastest mile race that the UW High School Invitational had ever seen.
To put this into perspective, the top six runners from this year make up the six fastest times for girl's in the mile and the previous best is a full two seconds behind the sixth place runner from this year.
James and Stewart are also now the No. 8 and No. 9 All-Time fastest high school mile times to ever be run at the Dempsey facility led only by iconic names like Ajee' Wilson, Hannah and Haley Meier.
Additionally, James' time is a US No. 7, and Stewart's is a US No. 9
The girls mile was a feat to be seen, but the effort by Burns and Valor Christian's Lanie Szuch to race in both the invite sections of the mile and 3,000 was inspirational to watch.
Burns finished fourth in the mile with a new personal best of 4:52.40 and doubled back to finish ninth in the 3,000 with another personal best of 10:08.5.
Szuch ran a couple personal bests of her own finishing 13th in the mile at 5:11. 26 and coming back to be Colorado's top finisher in the 3,000 at 10:02.54 earning her a fifth place finish.
On the boys side Kokopelli's Erik Le Roux made his run at the same mile and 3000 double. For his efforts he finished fourth in the mile at 4:21.82 and seventh in the 3000m at 8:40.07.
Kokopelli's Gus McIntyre and Air Academy's Matthew Storer finished just ahead of LeRoux in the 3,000 with new PRs of their own at 8:39.46 and 8:40.05 respectively. The Kokopelli's Mason Norman was just behind LeRoux at 8:41.17.
With that Colorado seems to be mostly done with the indoor season until mid-March when Colorado's best head to New York to take on the nations best at New Balance Indoor Nationals.