Jonathan Wright and Stuart Shrum of Grand Junction come off the turn en route to a 1-2 finish in the 200 at the Sand Creek Invitational. Photo by Alan Versaw.
There was a lot of donning and doffing of the spandex at this meet.
When teams arrived at the meet, they were greeted with light to moderate breezes, overcast conditions, and temperatures in the 30s. By late afternoon, however, the clouds had broken and winds diminished for some very pleasant springtime conditions until the sun slipped behind the mountains during the 3200s.
In between were several nicely contested events.
While several of the teams present were still battling depleted rosters from spring break, many of the events featured closely-fought battles for the titles.
Perhaps the best contests of the day came on the track in the 800 meter events. In the girls 800, freshman Gina Hauptman of Liberty--who made something of a name for herself in the early part of the cross country season--battled with, and eventually prevailed over, Beth Luckel of Vista Ridge and Meredith Sloan of The Classical Academy in a time of 2:21.75.
In the boys' 200, Sand Creek's own Marc Hensley won with a time of 2:06.16. For most of the second lap, however, Hensley and Liberty's Caleb Moseley kept things interesting with surges and lead changes until Hensley took over with a strong surge down the finish straight.
The girls' shot put also featured some stiff competition, with no less than five girls throwing at least 34-0. In the end, though, Kiah Hicksof Falcon emerged on top with a throw of 39-4. Hicks doubled her fun with a very impressive toss of 137-9 in the discus.
In fact, the throwing events more or less belonged to Falcon. Paul Rotering swept the boys' throws with marks of 50-10.5 and 140-9.
Grand Junction got a sweep of the boys short sprints with a wind-aided 11.26 from Stuart Shrum in the 100 and a 22.77 from Jonathan Wright in the 200.
Kadeshia Rose of Mesa Ridge, however, did one better by sweeping all three girls sprints in times of 12.49 (wind aided), 26.47, and 1:00.85.
Turned back in a bid for a prequalifying mark in the 4x800 early in the meet, Josh Simkins came back in the 3200 to run a blistering 10:09.71 in the 3200, earning a trip to state in the process. Teammate Kaitlin Hanenburg was equally dominant in the girls 3200, winning in 11:16.16.
The Classical Academy ran away with both team titles, posting 205 points in the girls' division and 130 points in the boys' division.