Weekend Review: Spring Break, Part II

Loveland's Casey Riggs bested the field with a 15.35 (-2.5)  in the 110 hurdles at the Runners Roost of Fort Collins on Saturday. Photo by Alan Versaw.

 

Covering Colorado high school track and field like spandex on a cold, windy day in spring...

 

One more weekend with spring break as a factor, and then we're into the full swing of track season!

 

It was only a moderately busy weekend for Colorado high schools in terms of meets, but a very busy weekend in terms of solid marks. To find out how solid, just continue reading.

 

 

Brighton Mercury Classic

 

Wherever the Lakewood girls go this year, they've been leaving destruction in their wake. But one thing they may not have counted on at the Brighton meet was a very good 3A Middle Park squad. Between the two schools, they didn't leave much in the way of prime pickings for other schools. Middle Park ended up edging Lakewood 139-132 for the girls' meet title. Host school Brighton was next with 71. Rangeview was equally dominant on the boys' side of things.

 

They probably didn't give an athlete of the meet award, but if they had it almost certainly would have gone to Samantha Berggren who won the 100 (12.82, 0.9), the 200 (26.19, -1.2), 800 (2:18.57--just edging Rangeview's Rikki Gonzales), and 1600 (5:41.13). Try to think of the last time you saw anybody win four individual events in the same meet, let alone events spanning from 100 to 1600 meters.

 

Overland's Chaz Butler had half as nice of a day as Berggren, winning the 100 in 10.84 (+0.9) and the 200 in 22.04 (-0.6). I'm not a sprint coach, but I think I recognize that as some pretty decent speed.

 

It's kinda nice when things are warm in March, no?

 

 

Center Invitational

 

This meet wins the distinction of being the meet held in the smallest community over the weekend. In fact, I'm not sure exactly where you take your bus for the post-meet dinner at Center. I know Center doesn't have an McDonald's and I'm 99% sure it doesn't have a Subway. It does have a local cafe or two, but nothing really set up to feed a bus packed with teenagers who just finished a track meet. Alamosa is a long drive and not at all in the direction many of the schools we're heading. I'm certain this issue taxed the creativity of a few coaches.

 

Custer County's Sierra Geroux was the only female to win multiple events, taking the 100 in 13.52 (+0.0), the high jump at 4-10, and the long jump at 16-8. Needless the say, the long jump is the most impressive of those three marks. The wind reading on the 100 is interesting in that it's indicative of something that, in three years of living in the San Luis Valley, I came to believe could never happen--a dead wind in March or April. Of course, it could also mean that the wind reading was taken at the precise moment that the wind was changing direction. I'm more inclined toward believing the latter.

 

The most impressive mark on the boys' side was Kristjian Mauloff's 146-5 in the discus. Chad Palmer of Alamosa edged Josh Noriega of Salida in the 1600, but the times won't count in the rankings due to a timing system failure for that event.

 

 

Chandler Rotary Invitational

 

This meet is rapidly becoming the destination of choice for high-level Colorado athletes wanting to run someplace warmer during spring break. I had to pull several marks from this meet out of the rankings due to the fact that the presence of those marks would seriously confound reading of the rankings since the marks are not legal for qualilfying for state in Colorado. Among the marks I pulled out of the rankings were:

 

Trey Richardson, 46-9 (+0.5) in the triple jump and 20-8 (+1.6) in the long jump. His triple jump won the meet title. The triple jump mark would be a US #13 at this point in the season.

Casey Young, 39.66 in the 300 hurdles (prelims) and 14.72 in the 100 hurdles (prelims, +0.2)

Malik McKinney, 10.94 (+1.3) in the 100

Regis Jesuit Girls, 4:00.37 in the 4x400

Ana Holland, 25.14 (+0.8) in the 200 prelims and 12.38 (+1.8) in the 100 prelims

 

Congratulations to each of the Colorado athletes who traveled down to this massive meet and performed so well!

 

 

 

 

Greeley Central Invitational

 

Although the Runners Roost of Fort Collins was held nearby, this meet held its own rather nicely.

 

Mike Cernoia closed the gap on Spencer Wenck's state-leading 3200 mark in a big way. Javonte Walker-Reese won the high jump at 6-5 and doubled up to win the 110 hurdles in 15.37 (-2.3).

 

Addy Neibauer had a very nice 10-9 to win the pole vault. Amoni Ashby swept the girls' hurdle titles at 15.21 (-2.4) and 46.43. Allie Parks swept the 1600 (5:26.54) and 3200 (11:33.43) in front of the home crowd.

 

Hotchkiss Invitational

 

Natalie Anderson. Remember that name. You're going to be sorry at the state meet if you haven't done a little thinking about this Hotchkiss freshman. Anderson motored around the track eight times in 11:19.94. Classmate Jennifer Celis ran 2:23.79 in the 800. Now consider that Hotchkiss is a school of less than 300 students. How many schools ten times that large can replicate those kind of performances--at any point in the season?

 

While we're on the subject of classmates, Roaring Fork has a pair of classmates who are making a fair bit of noise as well, only these classmates are senior boys--Taylor and Zach Browning (I guess that would make them more than merely classmates). Anyhow, Z and T went 1-2 in both the 200 and 400. In the 200, it was T at 22.59 and Z at 22.66 (both +1.3). In the 400, it was Z at 49.99 and T at 50.51. And we officially don't care what the wind was in the 400, but it's apparently always at the back of the Browning brothers.

 

For those handicapping the 2A boys' race, Paonia won both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. They just might be the class of the 2A sprints this spring.

 

 

Lamar Invitational

 

There's a sophomore at Eads High School you need to be paying attention to if throws are your thing. Daniel Weirich won the shot at 53-4.75 (yes, that's a state-leading mark from one of the smallest schools in the state) and won the discus at 152-11.

 

Speaking of small schools, the opening salvo has been fired in 1A hurdles. Landry Cogburn of Walsh laid down a 15.2 (-2.7) and a 39.78 to dominate the hurdle events. Caitlyn Hubbard of Limon won the 100 hurdles (15.89, -1.4, prelims), 300 hurdles (49.37), and high jump (5-1) on the girls' side.

 

 

Mickey Dunn Invitational

 

There's almost always a gathering of western slope schools at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction on springtime Saturdays. This one kicked off the tradition for 2011.

 

What caught my eye most, though, wasn't the performance of any of the assembled large schools, it was the performance of the Telluride girls. Winning a state title in 2A girls this spring will be a tall order, but the efforts of Emy Ludwig, Rachel Hampton, Josephine Bush, and Lindsey Stindt won't go undetected. The lack of a strong relay presence is likely to be detrimental to this group, but it's still a group capable of putting a lot of points on the board at state.

 

 

Randall Hess Invitational

 

Saturday was my first-ever visit to the community of Johnstown, Colorado. It was one of the very last communities in Colorado I had not visited, and I should have visited sooner. Though rapidly accumulating the trappings of suburbia, there's still a bit of a bucolic feel to the town. A tractor discing a field across the ditch from the track added to that feel. I like the feel.

 

Apparently, Akron likes the feel, too. The Akron girls were nothing short of amazing at this meet and you can read more about that in the article linked below.

 

The biggest happening of note from this meet was Longmont's Derek Wing upping the state-leading pole vault mark to 14-7. Rachel Hinker of Lyons also had a very nice day winning the 100 in 12.62 (+0.6), and the long jump at 16-7 (+1.2).

 

 

Runners Roost of Fort Collins

 

No question about what the mark of the meet was for this one. That distinction would belong to Kaela Edwards of Littleton who completed 800 meters in 2:11.59 and, yes, that's a nation-leading mark at this point in the season. Edwards also helped Littleton out in a couple of relay wins. Littleton's girls won a state title in 2009 and this team looks just as good as the 2009 team. There would be the small matter of Loveland and a few other hungry programs to deal with, however. It should be interesting in May.

 

The feature 3200 races went to Andrew Goodman of Palmer and Shelby Stableford of The Classical Academy. Both races were heavily tactical early but the winning times of 9:37 and 11:22 are solid early-season marks.

 

Raymond Bozmans earned a few credentials in winning the 100 over Marcus Harris (10.88 to 10.93, -0.9) and winning the 200 (22.00, -0.6) in a breeze.

 

Ben Goodman of Palmer had a very nice 48.63 to heat up the state 400 rankings a little. Chris Archibald of Douglas County added to the list of wind-legal jumps over 22 feet with a 22-8 mark. Chyna Ries continues to win 100s, this time with a 12.26 (-0.9). Olivia Anderson turned a few heads with a 5:06.70 1600. Anderson is obviously no longer limiting herself to events of two laps or fewer, much to the consternation of the 5A distance elite. Karina Ernst ran an impressive 5:10.86 for second. Despite her high wind profile, Annie Kunz ran 14.77 (-2.5) to win the 100 hurdles. She came back to win the 300 hurdles in 45.00. And, vaulting in her home facility, Valentina Pauna went 11-2 to win the pole vault.

 

Very nice performances, indeed!