Sierra Williams of Cedaredge starts to establish a lead at about 40 meters into the 3A girls 100. Photo by Alan Versaw.
When CHSAA changed the enrollment counts for this two year cycle, they changed the face of 3A track and field. Alamosa, Berthoud, and Rifle came down to 3A with the new 3A enrollment breakpoints. Two of those three schools won a state track and field title today, dethroning the defending state champions from The Classical Academy.
Neither state title, however, came without moments of drama.
For Berthoud, a lot of points were bled along the way. Courtney Mills ran into Icenia Anderson and Sierra Williams in both the 100 and 200. Williams and Anderson traded off the event titles, but Mills was unable solve the mystery of placing higher than third either time. Several Berthoud sprinters missed qualifying for finals in the 100, 200, and 400. Although two Spartans qualified for the 100 hurdles finals, their results in the final were inconsistent with their season's performances. Just about every team that makes it to state has their share of frustrations, but maybe Berthoud had a bonus portion this weekend.
In the end, however, Berthoud had just enough gas in the tank to finish the journey they began in March. Courtney Mills won the triple jump--convincingly. Cheyenne Hall added a second in the same event. The 4x100 and 4x200 relays both finished first, the former in state meet record time. Julia Leonard maintained her #2 seed in the 300 hurdles. Tanya Bezanson added a second in the shot put.
A successful as the Spartans were on the track, however, two very big baton drops were critical in determining the final team standings. Runner-up Eaton had the unenviable distinction of dropping batons in both the SMR8 and 4x400 relays. And, when the final point tally was 89 for Berthoud to 88 for Eaton, the Reds have to be wondering about where they may have accumulated the bad karma.
Greased batons notwithstanding, Eaton enjoyed a mostly very solid meet. The points came in big chunks in the shot put, discus, pole vault, and 400. Mel Herl (shot put) and Karli Jelden (pole vault) were the individual event winners for Eaton.
As so often happens, the team title was not decided until the last event of the meet, the 4x400 relay. Since Berthoud did not have an entry in finals, all Eaton needed was a third to tie for the state title or a first or second to win. Eaton carried the top 4x400 seed into the state meet and was running a fully loaded relay in finals. A 20-meter lead going into the second exchange, however, quickly became a 20-meter deficit when the baton got away from the outgoing runner. Eaton never was able to regain the lost positions.
The Classical Academy, the winner of the 4x400, finished third in the team standings with 82 points.
The boys title, too, came down to the final event. But somebody forgot to tell the folks at the pole vault that the 4x400 is supposed to close out a meet. When the boys 4x400 had finished with Rifle taking first, The Classical Academy still held a 70 - 64.5 advantage in the team standings. Meanwhile, the triple jump and pole vault were still being contested.
Rifle's Ryan Moeller got a third in the triple jump, but TCA's Collin Scheer responded with a fourth, narrowing TCA's gap to 76 - 71.5. But, the pole vault was still 30 minutes from being done.
If things had gone according to seed, TCA might have won the team title, but Brandon Kittle was having the meet of his life in the pole vault. Kittle entered the meet with a lifetime best of 11-1 in the pole vault. But, Kittle kept finding ways to clear new heights. In the end, Kittle cleared 12-6 and lost a jump-off with Bayfield's Travis Stuever for first. Keaton Deere added two more pole vault points for Rifle to account for the final margin of victory of 5.5 points.
Like Berthoud on the girls' side, Rifle battled a few frustrations where entries did not maintain the seeds they entered the meet with but, ultimately, enough of the pieces fit to solve the puzzle. Highlights for the Bears (in addition to the pole vault) included wins in the 4x200 and 4x400, plus Taylor Webb's second in the 100 hurdles.
Eaton finished a distant third with 50 team points.
Individual accomplishments of note included Middle Park's Sam Berggren sweeping the 400, 800, and 1600. Although she missed setting any new meet records, Berggren won Saturday's 1600 with two 200s, two 400s, and an 800 on her legs from the preceding 30 hours. Tiffany Kenney closed out her high school career by winning the 100 hurdles and long jump.
On the boys' side, TCA's Josh Simkins missed pulling off the distance triple by only one place in the 800. Alex Mead of Mead also picked up double titles in the 100 and 200, as did Middle Park's Sam Little in the hurdle events.