Maybe it was the familiar feel of the altitude. Maybe it was something else.
Regardless, Colorado's contingent enjoyed a marvelously productive weekend in Albuquerque. With Junior Olympic nationals in Wichita, Kansas, at the end of this month, expect Colorado to be well-represented there as well.
The regional titles began pouring in on Friday. Taylor Gerard and Heather Bates took the intermediate girls and young women's steeple titles, respectively, while Jackson Sayler won in the intermediate boys. Colorado also claimed two multi event titles with William Henson winning the young men's decathlon and Alexa Chacon winning the intermediate girls heptathlon.
The trickle on Friday, however, became a flood on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, Maddie Ivy and Birdie Hutton claimed 3000 meter titles. Ryne Chavez easily won the young men's 400 hurdles. Devan Foster and Daniel Book gave Zoom Track Club a sweep of the intermediate 800 titles, while Sam Berggren ran away from the young women's 800 field. Jakoby Baker led a 1-2-3 sweep for Colorado in the young men's 110 hurdles.
In Saturday field events, Lindsey Kroboth won the intermediate girls high jump. Chyna Ries won the intermediate girls long jump with a nice leap of 19-9.5. Unfortunately, no wind readings were recorded for long or triple jumps this weekend, so those marks will not post to the Colorado Track XC database. Daniel Weirich pulled off a sweep of the young men's shot and discus, while Christina Fasci won the intermediate girls' shot put.
In a couple of additonal notes on Saturday field events, Valerie Allman's throw in the intermediate girls' discus easily bested the field but was recorded as an exhibition mark. And, although I inadvertantly skipped over her name when doing a list of some of Colorado's top entries going into the meet, Elisa Isakson had a very nice 11-5.75 to finish second in the young women's pole vault. I apologize for that omission.
Sunday's events included finals for those events that did not contest finals on Saturday. It was yet another big day for the Colorado entries.
Devan Foster got her second meet title by winning the 1500. Kelley Robinson added another 1500 title in the young women's division. Lorne Jenkins and Talia Marquez won the intermediate 400 hurdles races. Katie Weber added another 400 meter hurdles title for the young women. Amoni Ashby took the young women's 100, as did Kami Mendez in the 100 hurdles. Dior Hall went 24.27 (+0.6) to win the intermediate girls' 200. Hall did not compete in the 100 hurdles at this meet.
In field events, Danielle Williams had more competition than the seed marks would have indicated, but still managed to come out on top of the young women's triple jump competition. Tony Carodine went 48-3.5, but finished second in the young men's triple jump. Once again, wind readings were not recorded.
And, in a surprising development because Colorado has no state-sanctioned javelin competition, Christian Fasci won the intermediate girls' javelin with a throw of 88-1.
I would be remiss not to take note of a budding rivalry in the youth girls 3000 and 1500. I've mentioned Tabor Scholl more than once on this site, but she was edged in both the 3000 and 1500 by Jordyn Colter of Zoom Track Club. Either of their 1500 times (4:43.40, 4:44.29) would have won the intermediate girls' and young women's divisions. Ditto for their times in the 3000, 10:29.99 and 10:39.63. Tabor Scholl did not head home without a title, however, as she won the youth girls' 800. We'll soon be welcoming these competitors to the high school ranks.