Two Jeffco schools went to Elizabeth for their season openers and came back with some hardware to show for it.
Special to Colorado Track XC by John Lancett
Great weather is certainly something that is not common for the early bird meets each year in Colorado. The Elizabeth invitational is no exception. Last seasons snow brought an early end to the meet. 2010 is a new year however and sunshine was the main ingredient in making this year's meet a complete success. With 11 teams in attendance, the meet ran very smoothly and quickly ending more than an hour ahead of schedule.
Dominating the boys' side of things, 5A Bear Creek scored 173 total team points, running away from second place Castle View who scored 125 points as a team. There were many notable performances in the boy’s events. Thomas Jefferson’s Jared Lewis took the 100 meters by running a time of 11.18, edging out Castle View’s Zane Evans in one of the closest finishes of the day. Thomas Jefferson was also the king of the sprint relays turning in a very impressive win in the 4x100 with a time of 43.67, defeating 2nd place Bear Creek by almost 2 seconds. In the boyss distance events, the day belonged to Christopher Ganem of Castle View. He posted wins in both the 800 and the 3200 as well as helping the 4x400 team to a strong 2nd place finish.
In the boys field events, Bear Creek’s Jake Utley had a strong showing winning the Shot Put and taking 4th in the Discus. One of the most impressive field performances of the day came from Skyline’s Michael Seaman, he won the triple jump with a great early season mark of 44-10.5.
The girls' team competition was a much more hotly contested, with the first place team, Lakewood, scoring 151 team points to take the title. They were followed closely by Castle View and Elizabeth, with the home team taking third overall.
Notable girls performances include a lightning quick 100-meter time by Skyline’s Deandra Elcock, of 12.92. The 1600-meter race also provided some great excitement with three out of the top five places going to Castle View. The home team Elizabeth showed impressive work in the girls sprints by having Hannah Lee and Kelsi Chuven go first and second respectively in the 200 meters. Elizabeth also dominated both of the sprint relays winning by large margins in both events. Congratulations to all that attended and thanks to Elizabeth for hosting a great first weekend meet.