Mancos, Dolores and Dove Creek combined for 22 All-Conference qualifiers at the San Juan Basin League track meet on Tuesday in Ignacio.
And scoring 184 points, the Mancos Blue Jays outscored second-place Telluride by 77 points to run away with the league championship.
MANCOSRo Paschal, Andrew Plunkett, Adrian Hernandez, Andrew Christensen, Jake McKie and Griff Huver led the Blue Jays in scoring and were all named All-Conference.
Paschal took first place in the 400-meter dash, 800 and 1,600 – and was second in the 3,200 – and Plunkett won the high jump, long jump and triple jump.
Hernandez finished second in the triple jump, third in the 300-meter hurdles, fifth in the 1600 and joined Cameron Fury, McKie and Hernandez to take third in the 4x4.
Christensen finished third in the 200, fourth in the 400, sixth in the 100 and was on the third-place 4x2 team with Nic Huver, Roan Russell and Scottie Sword.
Griff Huver took third place in the 100, long jump and triple jump, and was a member on the second-place 4x1 team with brother Nic, Russell and Sword; and McKie finished fourth in the 800, was on the third-place 4x4 team and joined Vincent Grego, Asa Kearns, Caleb Joder and McKie to win the 4x8.
The Mancos Lady Blue Jays finished just two points behind Dove Creek – in fifth – but Kaylee Rose, Emma Most and Nicole Hess each made All-Conference.
The Jays’ highest finishes came in relays, as Jessalyn Bay-Voit, Rose, Most and Hess came together to win the 4x8, Hess, Ashley Cole, Jessica Gutierrez and Ericka Peacock finished second in the 4x1 and Hess, Rose, Hannah Skinner and Mimi Archuleta took second in the 4x4.
Per usual, the Jays loaded up in the middle-long distance events, placing a handful of runners in the 800, 1600 and 3200.
Rose and Bay-Voit were fourth and sixth in the 800, Most, Skinner and Archuleta went five-six-seven in the 1600 and Most and Skinner finished fifth and sixth in the 3200.
Gutierrez and Faith Asnicar each scored in field events, placing fourth in the triple jump and shot put, respectively.
“We asked the athletes to sacrifice at this meet by being in events that they may not normally be in so that we can have as much representation as possible,” said head coach Brady Archer. “They did an outstanding job of working together, cheering each other on and doing the best they could in every event they competed it.”
Archer also noted that the Mancos boys and girls had 38 season-best marks at the meet.
DOLORESTelluride was the girls’ winner with 178 points, but Dolores wasn’t far off – finishing second with 115 points.
The Lady Bears were led by All-Conference qualifiers Aryelle Wright, Larissa Umberger, Sierra Schwartz, Shavargus Noyes and Cameron Elder.
Wright dusted everyone in the sprints, winning the 100, 200 and 400 – and she also placed third in the long jump.
Umberger won the long jump and was first in the 100-hurdles, where she, Noyes and Schwartz went one-two-three. Schwartz later won the 300-hurdles, and Noyes won the triple jump and took second in the high jump.
Elder took third in the 400, sixth in the 100, and joined Dannika Noyes, Schwartz and Umberger to win the 4x2.
Led by hurdlers Tristen Medina and Cael McHenry, the Dolores boys finished third in the standings with 82 points.
Medina and McHenry took first and second in the 300 hurdles, respectively, and also finished second and third in the 110’s.
Dolores also got first-place finishes from its 4x1 team (Ruben Gomez, Skieler Grooms, McHenry, Medina) and 4x2 team (Forest Pejsa, Grooms, McHenry, Medina).
Gomez added second-place finishes in both the high jump and long jump, and Grooms took second in the 200.
Medina, McHenry, Gomez and Grooms joined the five Lady Bears to total nine All-Conference qualifiers from Dolores.
“I just wanted to get as many All-Conference that we could,” said head coach Nick Kohler. “Those nine are good. We only competed with like 13 or 14, so for nine of them to get all-conference – I have zero complaints.”
DOVE CREEKThe Dove Creek Lady Bulldogs nipped the Lady Jays by two points to finish in fourth, and they wound up with three All-Conference qualifiers.
LaRissa Randolph and Madilyn Hankins scored most of their qualifying points in the hurdles, finishing second and third in the 300’s and fourth and fifth in the 100’s.
Savannah Ayers finished sixth in the 200 and was also All-Conference, and all three chipped in for relays.
Hankins, Ayers, Randolph and Kiera Baughman won the 4x1 and took third in the 4x2, and then Ayers, Maureen Bartley, Shayla Greenwood and Mariah Green finished third in the 800-meter sprint medley.
“Just because we’re such a small team, there were a couple of relays that I added to get a couple of extra points,” said head coach Jason Fury. “Without them, some kids would not have been All-Conference. So that was really fun for those kids.”
The Lady Bulldogs’ other points came from field events, as Baughman took sixth in the long jump and Mikayla Hankins finished second in the discus and fifth in the shot put.
The Dove Creek Bulldogs got most of their scoring from lone All-Conference qualifier Ricky Adams, to finish in seventh as a team.
Adams took second place in the discus and third in the shot put, and he joined Daniel Folkner, Rhett Quackenbush and Logan Myers to finish fourth in the 4x1.
Finally, running against a slew of Mancos heavyweights in the 800, freshman Folkner battled his way to a fifth-place finish.
