Liberty, Vista Ridge Claim Bulldog Invitational Titles

Canon City's Andrea Tuck won both the triple jump and the 100 hurdles at Saturday's Pueblo Centennial Invitational. Photo by Alan Versaw.

For the second glorious March Saturday in succession, Dutch Clark Stadium hosted an invitational. For the second Saturday in a row, some big-time performances were dropped. And this despite the fact that nearly every team in attendance was at least somewhat short-handed due to spring break.

Team-wise, the biggest peformances were droppped by Liberty and Vista Ridge, two of many teams who made the trip down from Colorado Springs to take advantage of the warmth and protection from the wind that Dutch Clark Stadium affords in March.

For the Liberty girls, the answers came in the form of individual championships for Kendra Smith in the high jump (5-2), Gina Hauptman in the 800 (2:20.82), and the 4x800 meter relay team (9:52.21). Otherwise, it was simply a matter of scoring points in a lot of different events for the Lancers.

For the Vista Ridge boys, it was once again a case of the sprint and horizontal jumps delivering the goods. Brandon Cartagena and Josh Lewis went 1-2 (11.00, 11.42, +0.8) in the 100. Later, Cartagena doubled back to win the 200 (23.00, -1.2). TJ Frison won the long jump at 22-2.5 (+1.3). And, as a finishing touch, Vista Ridge took the 4x100 in 44.12 and the 4x200 in 1:31.63. That gave the Wolves a margin nobody else could overcome.

Although they did not win the meet, the Canon City girls looked the best they've looked in recent memory. Led by Andrea Tuck who won the triple jump (34-1, -1.3) and the 100 hurdles (17.18, +0.8), Christine Conley who won the long jump (16-4, 0.0) and 200 (27.11, +0.2), and a convincing win in the 4x400 to close out the day. At the very least, the Tigers should be keeping the South-Central League race honest.

While their respective teams didn't end up with titles, Krystel Martinez of Pueblo Centennial and Mike Cernoia of Pueblo West both enjoyed banner days. Martinez won the shot put (37-3) and put herself atop the state all-classification discus rankings (134-6) with her day's work.

Mike Cernoia's work spanned the first boys' event of the meet to the last. Cernoia anchored the Pueblo West 4x800 to an apparent easy win only to have the relay vanquished by a disqualification. He would come back to set the state standard in the 1600 at 4:21.94, win the 800 easily in 1:59.73, and anchor the Cyclone's 4x400 to a second-place finish in that event.

The day's most intriguing event ended up being the girls' 1600 meter run (girls 1600 meter race video). The heat sheets made the event look like a three-person showdown between Laura Yarrow and Pine Creek, Hannah Everson of Liberty, and Shelby Stableford of The Classical Academy. Inasmuch as all three run for schools in the same district, they know a lot about one another and what the others are capable of. Maybe too much.

On the first lap of the race, Pueblo South freshman Jessica Kleven went out to a huge lead--checking back once or twice to see if the field was following--while Everson, Stableford, and Yarrow deferred to one another over any possibility of making a move. Each of the three was determined not to be the sacrificial lamb in this race. At 550 meters, Stableford squeezed her way out of a box and took over the lead. The pacing began to gradually increase.

The trail pack of girls (still well behind Kleven) went through the half at about 2:48, offering little encouragement that the event was going to live up to its pre-race billing. But that's just about exactly when things got a bit more interesting.

The main pursuit pack of Stableford, Yarrow, and Everson stepped things up a notch and reeled in Kleven at about 1000 meters. Kleven fought off the pursuit around the turn but was overtaken shortly after 1100 meters. Stableford, Everson, and Yarrow finished the third lap in just under 80 seconds.

Nobody flinched. Everson closed on Stableford along the back straight, threatening to make a pass going into the turn but was unable to generate enough surge to get around. Yarrow, probably the straight-up fastest of the three, waited until the end of the turn to make her move. By the time she stepped on the accelerator, however, Stableford had opened up enough room that she would not be overtaken, even in spite of the furious pursuit from Yarrow all the way to the finish. The clock on the final lap was 70.8 seconds. Stableford would win in 5:19.05.

Meet Results, Photos, and Video