If Dior Hall had something left to prove following the Colorado state meet, she proved it in Albuquerque. Photo by Paul Everett (Missouri MileSplit).
You never know exactly what you're going to get with a post-season meet. The gap of two or more weeks between the state meet and the post-season meet can mean a lot of things. Usually, it means that training may not have been quite as intense or quite as regular. Usually, it means a little of the emotional edge has gone. In short, distractions clutter the weeks between state and the available post-season options.
Whatever it means in most cases, it didn't mean anything like that in Dior Hall's case. Hall blasted a wind legal (+1.4) 13.18 at the Great Southwest Classic to win the meet title and take over the national #1 ranking in the event by .16 second. It also knocked better than a half second off her season best mark. Not bad for a day's work.
Chyna Ries went 11.66 (+3.5) to take second in the elite 100 meters. Ries also went second in the long jump with a leap of 19-4.75 (+1.4).
Though short of her state mark, Danielle Williams was still in fine form, winning the triple jump at 39-10 (+1.8).
The boys 4x400 came down to a very close call between Texas and Colorado. The team of Raymond Bozmans, Kordell Deffenbaugh, Nolan Mayhew, and Boris Berian missed winning by a whisker, finishing in 3:14.43, to Texas's 3:14.00. Colorado's group of Chuck Zulanas, Kirk Webb, Colin Best, and Boris Berian had a nice first-place finish in the 4x800 with a time of 7:47.87.
Mayhew and Berian finished 2-3 in the 400, but slightly off of their state times.
Samantha Berggren posted her best 800 time since the summer following her freshman year, running 2:10.96 to finish second. Carly Paul won the high jump at 5-6, while Valentina Pauna captured the pole vault title at 11-5.75.
While Hall's mark was the buzz of the meet, there were several other outstanding marks posted by Colorado's other entries.
Taking things back to Thursday and Friday, Brittany Lewis and Tiffany Kenney posted a 4-5 finish for Colorado in the heptathlon. Lewis's 4751 points was short of a personal record, but has to be somewhat encouraging after battling some injuries this spring. Kenney's 4616 sets a new personal best total in the two-day event.
From this point forward, the Colorado action will be focused almost exclusively on USATF-Colorado sponsored age group meets. A small handful of Colorado athletes will in involved in the Golden West and New Balance Nationals meets. Eleanor Fulton will be running at next weekend's adidas Girls' Dream Mile at Ichan Stadium in New York.