When Loveland's 4x200 team crossed the finish line, the clock was still just short of 100 ticks--1:39.90. Photos by Jeff and Karen McCoy.
The St. Vrain Invitational is a great meet every year. Great talent. Great organization. Great facility (and "great" in this case would mean functional, not fancy). Even when things don't go as well as you hoped for your team, it's difficult to leave this meet disappointed.
And it is for certain that if the Loveland girls left this meet disappointed, their expectations lie on a plane completely unfamiliar to most of us.
Loveland has a habit of sweeping the relays wherever they go. But, it's one thing to sweep the relays at a meet of six or eight teams. It is quite another to sweep the relays at the St. Vrain Invitational. They did that by going 9:45.05 (4x800), 1:39.90 (4x200), 1:46.86 (SMR8), 48.35 (4x100), and 3:53.57 (4x400). Apart from something on the order of 40 state points that those relays represent, Paul Quere's crew also got individual event titles from Kailie Hartman in the 3200 (11:18.55) and Maggie Anderson in the 300H (44.64). While she didn't win any individual events--she was too busy anchoring relays for that--we all learned that Stephanie Hutsell has few peers when it comes to shutting the door.
The white singlets and red shorts are hard to miss--and all the harder when they keep ending up at the front of the field.
But, they don't keep a team score at this meet. So, technically, Loveland didn't win the meet.
And Loveland wasn't the only story. Cherokee Trail's Amoni Ashby deviated a little from her usual slate of events to edge MaryBeth Sant and Rachel Hinker in the 100. Hinker's 12.13 in the 100 and 24.89 in the 200 were both wind-legal marks and both established new 2A all-time bests. Sam Berggren dogged Karina Ernst for 600 meters in the 800 before unleashing a wicked finishing sprint that took her to a 2:11.63 winning time. Ernst finished second in a very nice 2:12.94. All this after Berggren won the 400 in 55.69. Quincey Pedersen and Nola Basey each went 5-5.5 in the high jump to climb to the top of the 3A and 2A rankings, respectively.
The boys' highlights were perhaps not quite as pronounced, but they were present nonetheless. Nolan Mayhew broke through the 48-second barrier in the 400, winning in 47.91. Casey Riggs won the 110 hurdles in 14.70. Jake Fox powered away from everybody to win the 800 in 1:55.76. Sam Little repeated his triumph at Dakota Ridge two weeks ago by winning the 300 hurdles in 39.01. Carzell Vickers, strictly a sprinter until this season, won the triple jump at 45-11, signaling he is ready to mix it up with the top talent in the state in that event in two more weeks.
While Faith Christian's Derek McCartney did not win the discus at 151-8 (that honor went to Longmont's Miles Bergner at 152-2), his toss was good enough to put him atop the 3A rankings in that event. For a team with few numbers, Faith Christian definitely scores well in high-end talent. Teammate Evan Fortney posted a couple of very good 3200 and 1600 times on the evening. And you have to wonder what this team could have achieved without the injury to sprinter Evan Marshall.
And, as a footnote here, Mountain Vista freshman Andrew Walton ran 9:58.50 in the 3200. When you start thinking of cross country teams to watch for next fall, make sure Mountain Vista is on your short list.
Meet Results, Photos, and Video