Week in Review: Spring Break, Part I

 

Week in Review

 

It is the particular pleasure of spring sports to deal with spring break just about the same time that the competitive season gets going. Basketball has three weekends of games before winter break arrives. For track and field, it's one weekend of meets and then, suddenly, kids are everywhere--Arizona, the slopes, driver's ed training, you name it.

 

Still, track and field goes on, but it's sometimes a little difficult to tell what you're seeing. And that observation would apply nicely to the results of the last weekend.

 

5 Star Championships

 

If Camren McWee's performances haven't caught your eye yet, you have a very slow eye. Right now, he's well over 22 feet in the long jump and hovering at 6-6 in the high jump (note that the SB following the performances below indicates "Season Best"). And Autumn Gardner's 5-5 in the girls' high jump plants her flag high among the 5A leaders in that event as well. It's pretty safe to say both of these two could take the rest of the season off and show up at the state meet without having to pay to get in.

 

Arvada City Meet

 

In an e-mail of results I received, this one was entitled the "Pomona Invitational." And that may be a more accurate meet title, given that Longmont and Lyons would represent some pretty significant annexations for the City of Arvada. Given that Longmont (boys) and Lyons (girls) won the meet titles, however, Arvada may want to seriously entertain any proposals to annex these two communities.

 

While the meet registered no MileSplit national-level marks, the 1600 between Melissa Roberts (5:23.80) and Alaina Anderson (5:24.10) looks like it was a dandy. Anderson lost that one but came back to win the 3200.

 

Camren McWee came back to earth a little in this one, winning the high jump at only 6-2 but going over 22 again in a wind-legal long jump.

 

Aurora All-City Track Meet

 

Next time they have an Aurora All-City track meet, here's hoping that Regis Jesuit is part of the meet as well. As it was, things were a little thin in a few events.

 

Though thin in spots, there was still some serious quality. Marcus Harris and Zainab Sanni should be on everyone's watch list of 5A sprint talent. Rikki Gonzales is up to old tricks, posting very nice times in the 800 and 1600. And Rangeview's 3:24 4x400 suggests the Raiders are a bit ahead of the curve at this point in the season in that event.

 

Brush Invitational

 

Remarkably, they held a rankings meet on the eastern plains and timing system issues took down more marks than the wind. There are at least a couple of girls whose names should soon be appearing in 100 meter rankings who lost the opportunity last Saturday.

 

The Brush girls celebrated their home meet by going 1-2-3 in the 3200. Johnny Ornelas of Sedgwick County debuted his season by winning the 300 hurdles and losing the pole vault on a tie-breaker. CJ Kukus of Brush had similarly mixed results in the jumps--winning the long and high and missing the triple by a half-inch. Both should be heard from at the state meet.

 

Holy Family won both team titles. The Holy Family girls have won several meets in recent years, but it's a bit of a newer phenomenon for the boys.

 

Delta Panther Invite

 

This year, they got this one done before 5 PM. Given that last year ran well into darkness, they're feeling good about that. Winds messed seriously with what could have been a couple of very good sprint times. We'll have to wait another week (at least) to see what the brothers Browning, Sierra Williams, and a few others really have in the tank. We did see enough, however, to know that Paonia's boys' sprint group is going to create some problems for other 2A programs this spring.

 

It's a small tank, but Natalie Anderson of Hotchkiss apparently has some high-octane fuel, taking down Brandi Krieg in winning the 1600 with a 5:21. Given the wind that was reported for other events, you have to salute that kind of mark on opening weekend. Jennifer Celis of Hotchkiss also posted a very nice 800 meter time (this time, however, they did declare Brandi Krieg the winner). Remember that very young cross country team for Hotchkiss last fall? They're back--a half a year older now.

 

For those of you keeping track from cross country season, Alfredo Lebron beat Chris Zirkle in the 1600. That reverses a season-long trend in cross country.

 

Denver Public Schools Meet

 

Somebody had better attach a parachute to Chyna Ries before she starts running away out of control. Her 100s have been the class of the state to this point in the season, and the long jump isn't bad, either.

 

Kami Mendez's hurdles seem to be coming along fine. One wonders where Dior Hall is, but no panic yet as this is spring break season.

 

And, though DPS hasn't exactly been the hotbed of nice distance times in the last couple of years (Sydney Scott excepted), the 3200 posted by Jamilah Rashid of Lincoln should raise a few eyebrows.

 

El Paso County Small Schools #1

 

This was a weekday, non-rankings kind of meet that normally doesn't register on the weekly review, but two days into long jumping, Anthony Erps of Florence found himself in 20-foot territory. That just might add an event to his resume for this spring. He already just may be the best hurdler in the 3A classification.

 

Frederick Warrior Pow Wow

 

Valerie Allman didn't exactly repeat her 132-foot throw from last week, but she backed it up well enough to prove it was no fluke. For good measure, Allman won the shot put as well.

 

Samantha Berggren made her season debut by winning the 200, 400, and 800. We're going to miss that kind of reliability next year. What may have gotten missed in Berggren's debut, though, was that Rebecca Hermann of Nederland posted a 2:25 800. That puts her in a very good place among the 2A rankings.

 

The times weren't out-of-this-world spectacular, but Erie did manage a noteworthy sweep of all five girls' relays. Make a mental note of that. Speaking of sweeps, Skyline's Deandra Elcock won the 100, 100 hurdles, and long jump.

 

By anyone's standards, that's a lot of sweeping going on in the girls' events.

 

And, as a matter of fact, the boys had a couple sweeps of their own--Trey Harrison of Skyline (100/200) and Austin Gunnarson of Silver Creek (400/800). There were a couple of near misses as well.

 

So, maybe they should rename this meet the Frederick Warrior Sweeps?

 

Harrison Panther Invitational

 

Jordan Rand runs the 100, too. And she runs it well enough to finish second to Patrice Harris in a fairly big-deal kind of meet. I don't know that this means we'll see her in the 5A 100 at state, but it could portend a very nice 4x100 for Doherty. As a sidebar, Patrice Harris went on to win the 200 later in the day, making it a nice show for the Wasson speedster.

 

Sydney Harris of St. Mary's took down the bigger school competition in the 800 and 1600, but arguably had bigger performances the week prior in Pueblo.

 

Shenique Washington gave the home team something to cheer about by winning the shot and discus.

 

Palmer made something of a statement by winning every boys event from the 100 through the 1600. That would be the work of Dominic Rufran, Ben Goodman, and Andrew Goodman. Not mid-season marks yet, but still impressive. Reggie Allison added two titles in the horizontal jumps for the Terrors.

 

Peyton's Nick Baca broke up thePalmer  party in the 3200.

 

JaVonte Walker-Reese and Hunter Warwick had a nice showdown in the 300 hurdles with this round going to Walker-Reese. Stay tuned.

 

LPS Spring Break Duals

 

Okay, it's a new idea--duals as a rankings meet. We'll see how the idea catches on, but the inaugural event had a few nice performances.

 

Show stoppers included a 55.73 by Taryn Phipps in the 400, a 14.69 (-0.6) by Annie Kunz in the 100 hurdles, a 44.74 by Stephanie Gerber in the 300 hurdles, a 1:44.46 by the Heritage girls in the 4x200, a 3:56.81 by the Littleton girls in the 4x400, a 9:45.58 by the Littleton girls in the 4x800, a 1:47.46 by the Littleton girls in the SMR8, a 5-7 by Annie Kunz in the high jump, a 1:58.18 by Connor Winter in the 800, a 15.00 (-0.3) and a 39.14 for Alex Jordan in the hurdle events, a 42.49 by the Fountain-Fort Carson boys in the 4x100 with a 1:28.47 in the 4x200. There were more, but you get the idea. With this many show stoppers, it's difficult to believe they ever got the meet finished. Somebody check the track at Arapahoe HS and see if they're still out there.

 

Montrose Early Invitational

 

You read earlier that it was windy in Delta on Saturday. If you know anything about Colorado geography, you can pretty well figure what it was like in Montrose on Saturday. I suppose, however, that Montrose has a few more big trees and therefore a little more to knock the wind down within the city limits.

 

Highlights, however, were a bit thinner at the Montrose meet. Suffice it to say that the boys' throws program at Grand Junction HS is alive and well. Keep checking back on their season's progress.

 

 

Pueblo Centennial Bulldog Invitational

 

Lots of big marks for the second weekend in a row at Dutch Clark. None were bigger than the performances posted by Mike Cernoia of Pueblo West in setting a state-best mark for the season in the 1600 after anchoring a (DQd) 4x800 relay team to an apparent easy victory. Later, Cernoia would go sub-2 to win the 800, and then anchor the 4x400. Let's hope Cernoia's track wear rating is good for four events x 10 weeks.

 

Krystel Martinez of Pueblo Centennial also posted a state-best mark for the season in the discus. Gina Hauptman of Liberty blazed a very nice 800 in just over 2:20.

 

Add Vista Ridge's Brandon Cartagena to the weekend's long list of double event winners. Cartagena doubled the boys 100 and 200 at the Pueblo Centennial Invitational.

 

More meet insider information in the article linked below.