Montezuma-Cortez, Dolores, Mancos and Dove Creek high schools all traveled to Ignacio last Saturday for the Abel Velasquez Invitational track meet.
But with M-CHS’ prom scheduled for the same evening, the Panthers had a number of upperclassmen that stayed back in Cortez.
However, given the opportunity to compete, younger Panthers stepped up and yielded positive results, as both M-CHS’ boys and girls finished in second place in the team standings, behind Bayfield.
M-CHSWeslie Kirks led the Lady Panthers with two first-place finishes.
The senior won both the triple jump (30-11.25) and the 100-meter hurdles (17.22), and sophomore Ashley Wood followed in the 100-hurdles with a third-place finish (18.19) and took fourth in the 300-hurdles (57.71).
In the sprints, Anna Bullock finished fourth in the 100-meter dash (13.93) and sixth in the 200 (29.55), and Morgan Short (1:05.17) and Trinity McCain (1:07.97) finished third and fifth respectively in the 400.
Stretching the distance, junior Emma Thissen finished second place in the 1,600 (6:19.45) and fourth in the 800 (2:55.81), Ayanna Silas wound up in fifth in the 1,600 (7:12.91) and sixth in the 800 (3:03.11), and sophomore Lynda LaPaz finished second in the 3,200 (18:08.22).
The Lady Panthers also came home with a first place finish in the 800-meter sprint relay (Kirks, Wood, McCain, Short, 2:01.26), second in the 4x4 (Thissen, McCain, Wood, Short, 5:33.85) and third in the 4x2 (Bullock, Kailey Case, Keandra Elliott, Jilleeann Warinner, 2:08.66).
In other field events, Short finished second in the long jump (15-06.25), Tayla Topaha was second in the discus (108-01) and fourth in the shot put (29-07.25) and Kristine Candelaria finished six the shot (27-05.25).
The boys’ team also finished in second place in the meet, led by a strong showing in field events.
Senior Victor Perez won the shot put (43-01) and finished fourth in the discus (106-00), juniors Coby Baer (20-08.25) and Elisha Vaquera (19-04.5) were second and fifth in the long jump and junior Austin Wagner took second in the triple jump (37-02.50).
Baer and Wagner also placed in the 100-meter dash, finishing second and fourth respectively. In the hurdles, Blair Rice finished fourth in the 110’s (18.11) and Skyler Yarbrough was third in the 300’s (45.22).
The Panthers had two runners finish in the top three in the 400, with Vaquera winning the event in 53.35 and Josh Ramos finishing in third (54.84). And then Juan Arballo finished third in the 1,600 with a time of 5:24.12.
As for relays, the Panthers’ 4x1 team of Baer, Ramos, Vaquera and Wagner took first (46.06), the same group took second in the 4x2 (1:36.41) and the 4x8 relay team of Arballo, Jesus Ruiz, Obed Simental and Trey Yarbrough finished third (9:30.62).
DoloresThe Dolores Lady Bears finished third in the team standings, and sophomore Cameron Elder and freshman Aryelle Wright led the way with first-place finishes.
Elder won the high jump with a leap of 4-06, and Wright won both the 100 (13.43) and 400 (1:03.51) and finished second in the 200 (28.59). Teammate Josie Bernholtz finished just a second behind Wright in the 400 to take second (1:04.76)
The Bears had four point-getters in the hurdle events.
Larissa Umberger (18.19), Sierra Schwartz (18.45) and Shavargus Noyes (19.18) finished second, fourth and fifth in the 100-hurdles, and Schwartz took second in the 300’s (54.15).
In other field events, Umberger took third in the long jump (15-01) and Dannika Noyes was sixth (13-05.5), and Shavargus Noyes was fourth in both the high jump (4-03) and triple jump (27-02).
Finally, the Lady Bears’ 4x1 team of Elder, Schwartz, Umberger and Shavargus Noyes, and the 4x2 team of Bernholtz, Elder, Schwartz and Umberger finished in second place.
The Dolores boys also placed in relay races, finishing third in the 4x1 (Skieler Grooms, Tristan Holgate, Tristen Medina, Forest Pejsa, 47.74) and fourth in the 4x2 (Grooms, Ruben Gomez, Austin Hackney, Cael McHenry, 1:40.18).
Gomez and Medina each had first-place finishes in individual events, as the Bears finished fifth as a team.
Gomez won the long jump with a leap of 19-05, and Grooms finished fifth (17-08). Medina took home first in the 300-hurdles (43.17) and second in the 110’s (17.31), while McHenry finished third in the 110’s (18.06) and fifth in the 300’s (48.23).
Other top-six finishers were Phillip Hufman, Tristan Holgate, Trevor Robinson and Forest Pejsa.
Hufman’s 5:34.90–mile was good for fifth place, Holgate took sixth in the 100 (12.31) and Robinson (99-09) and Pejsa (96-03) finished fifth and sixth in the discus.
MANCOS The Mancos Blue Jays finished third in the team standings with 86 points, and they did most of their damage in three events.
In the 3,200 – Ro Paschal (10:49.03), Simon Kearns (10:49.04) and Jake McKie (11:27.44) finished one-two-three for 24 team points.
Paschal (2:01.11) and Adrian Hernandez (2:09.43) finished first and second in the 800, and Caleb Yoder was fifth (2:15.33) for 20 more points.
And in the triple jump, Andrew Plunkett finished first (40-05) and Griff Huver (36-07) and Hernandez (35-08) were third and fourth for another 20 points.
Other points came from Plunkett’s fourth-place finish in the long jump (17-11.75), Yoder (5:20.15) and Teslin Stecher (5:27.11) finished second and fourth respectively in the 1,600 and the 4x1 team (Andrew Christensen, Griff Huver, Nic Huver, Scottie Sword, 49.05) and 4x2 team (Christensen, Sword, Griff Huver, Cameron Fury, 1:43.85) finished fourth and fifth.
The Lady Blue Jays finished in eighth place, led by Kaylee Rose’s second-place finish in the 800 (2:45.79).
In the 1,600: Emma Most finished fourth (6:32.88), Mimi Archuleta was sixth (7:14.85) and Hannah Skinner came in seventh (7:15.39). And Jessica Gutierrez triple-jumped 25-05.50 to finish fifth.
The 4x8 team of Most, Kaylee Rose, Nichole Hess and Hannah Skinner took second place (12:01.38), and Gutierrez, Ashley Cole, Ericka Peacock, and Morgan Rose finished sixth in the 4x1 (60.81) to round out the Jays’ scoring.
Dove CreekThe Lady Bulldogs finished in sixth as a team with 28 points.
They had third-place finishes in both the 4x8 (LaRissa Randolph, Savannah Ayers, Madilyn Hankins, Maureen Bartley, 12:36.54) and 4x1 (Randolph, Hankins, Ayers, Kiera Baughman, 57.80) and Randolph brought home the highest finish by winning the 300-hurdles (53.86).
Then in the 100-hurdles, Hankins finished sixth (19.39), Ayers took sixth in the 400 (1:11.27) and Mikayla Hankins finished fourth in the discus (77-11) and eighth in the shot (26-00).
The Dove Creek boys mustered just seven points as a team, and they all came from senior Ricky Adams.
Adams finished third in the discus (110-06) and sixth in the shot put (32-11) as the Bulldogs’ only scorer.
Rhett Quackenbush finished 12th in both shot (25-00) and disc (61-00), Daniel Folkner placed 11th in the 800 (2:23.49), Logan Myers finished 16th in the 400 (1:06.17) and Austin Green was 16th in the shot (18-0).