Mesa Ridge's Kadeshia Rose returns with the top girls 100 meter ranking from 2010, but that doesn't mean she can coast to a title. Photo by Alan Versaw.
As back-to-back "Top Events" article might suggest, it should be a fabulous spring for watching sprint action at high school track meets.
The girls give up little, if anything, to the boys in 100 meter excitement. And the wealth of girls sprinters is spread a little more evenly across the classifications than it is in the boys. Every classification has at least one girl represented in the top 15 rankings from last spring.
And "every classification would include 1A. The sprint phenom in 1A would be Otis's Alexis Seifert. A solid contender in the 2A ranks last spring, Seifert enters the inaugural season of 1A track as the prohibitive favorite to run away with the 100 meter title. Ashley Atkin could make it close, but has about a 0.2 second deficit on Seifert to make up. The two should see a lot of each other this spring before the state meet.
At the 2A level, Rachel Hinker of Lyons (newly moved down from 3A) figures as the biggest favorite of them all. Hinker's personal best last spring of 12.59 is nearly 0.4 seconds ahead of the next best time from last spring. In a 100-meter sprint, 0.4 seconds feels a lot like an eternity.
In terms of competition, things start getting a lot more interesting at the 3A level, but it could be a two-person race. Icenia Anderson of James Irwin and Sierra Williams of Cedaredge have both been honing their skills on the indoor circuit this spring. Both have serious speed. Anderson figures as the favorite between the two coming in, but the two likely won't see each other until state. And the absence of head-to-head competition leading up to state could leave a lot of folks guessing and wondering. Anderson is likely to have the advantage of better competition during the invitational season, but sometimes better competition can lead to an enhanced risk of injury. Trade-offs creep up in the most inconvenient places.
Things get absolutely wild at the 4A level. Kadeshia Rose of Mesa Ridge (personal best of 12.04) has to be figured as the favorite to repeat as the state champion, but it may not be as easy as last year.
Harrison's Charron Johnson (12.21) is back. Johnson and Rose should meet several times during the season, making that rivalry a familiar one.
Christine Scott of Mullen, though arguably better at 200 meters, is another capable of making life interesting at the top.
Most interesting of all, however, may be the entry of Marybeth Sant (12.22). Sant did not compete as a freshman last year during the CHSAA season. This year she figures to wear the blue-on-blue of Valor Christian. That makes her the wild card in the deck of 4A 100 meter entries. She has the kind of speed to press Rose and the rest of the field.
Jolie Dubois, Porche Parnell, and Patrice Harris are also returning state placers. It hardly seems possible, but 4A just might be stronger this year than last.
5A lacks the depth of top-tier sprint talent found in the 4A ranks, but still should be very competitive. Regis Jesuit's Ana Holland (12.19) enters the season as the top seed. GinAsia Hamilton (12.31) of Fountain-Fort Carson enters as the second seed. Hamilton is a solid sprinter, but thus far has been a good deal more successful at 200 and 400 meters than at 100 meters. Still, she's fast enough to contend for the 5A title and is not to be overlooked.
Kami Mendez, Tiana Porter, Amoni Ashby, Chelsea Fenderson, and Sierra Vaden fill out the ranks of the remaining likely contenders. Realistically, however, each of these four figures to be a step or two behind Holland and Hamilton. None, however, is so far back that it's inconceivable that they could make a leap to the top echelon of 5A sprinters.
So, if the boys don't scorch the track this spring, figure the girls will get it done in their place.