The Mancos Blue Jays opened the meet on Thursday with a state title, after Adrian Hernandez, Simon Kearns, Jake McKie and Ro Paschal upset the field to win the 4x800 meter relay in 8:19.01.
On Friday, Paschal and Hernandez both ran new personal bests in the 800-meter dash, with Paschal tallying more points with a third place finish (1:58.96) and Hernandez coming in 14th (2:04.97).
Then in the mile, Paschal earned more hardware, finishing in fourth (4:33.15), while Hernandez took 14th (4:49.31) and Kearns finished 18th (5:01.95).
Kearns also ran the 3,200, finishing in 12th with a time of 10:26.19, and the 4x4 team of Hernandez, Caleb Yoder, Andrew Christensen and Paschal ran a 3:43.40 in prelims but did not make finals, finishing 16th.
Andrew Plunkett leapt a season-best 19-10 in the long jump on Thursday to tie for ninth – although he finished 10th after comparing second jumps – but he had trouble on Friday in the triple jump.
Head coach Brady Archer said that he was just unable to hit his marks – and he appeared to tweak his knee after one attempt – finishing 17th with a best jump of 37-7.5.
Plunkett bounced back on Saturday with a career-best jump of six feet in the high jump to tie for fourth place and earn a spot on the podium.
“I’m just proud of these guys,” Archer said of his team’s overall performance. “It’s a tough three days here and we travel a long way. It’s a grind, but I thought they did a really nice job.”
Dolores
Dolores freshman Aryelle Wright was the only scorer for the Lady Bears, finishing with 10 points.
Wright took the podium after each of her races, finishing ninth in the 100 (13.44), sixth in the 200 (26.81) and fifth in the 400 with a career best time of 59.48.
“That kind of goes with what she is,” said head coach Nick Kohler. “I think she’s going to be a specialty 200 and 400 runner. It was a good experience for a freshman.”
Larissa Umberger and Sierra Schwartz qualified in hurdle events, as Umberger finished 13th in the 100-meter hurdles (17.42) and Schwartz was 18th in the 300’s (52.28).
And then in relays, Umberger, Schwartz, Cameron Elder and Dannika Noyes finished 18th in the 4x1 (54.42), Schwartz, Elder, Josie Bernholtz and Shavargus Noyes took 16th in the 4x2 (1:54.46) and Schwartz, Umberger, Elder and Bernholtz finished 15th in the 800-meter sprint medley (1:59.18).
The Dolores boys also qualified in the 4x1, and Forest Pejsa, Skieler Grooms, Tristen Medina and Cael McHenry finished in 12th (46.53).
Then, McHenry and Medina both ran in the 110-meter hurdles and 300-hurdles.
McHenry finished 15th in the 110’s (17.51) and 16th in the 300’s (44.90), but after qualifying for both as a freshman, Kohler expects he’ll have plenty more opportunities to get on the podium in the years to come.
Medina entered the state meet seeded 11th in both hurdle events, but he ran a 17.25 to finish seventh in the 110’s and claimed fourth place with a time of 42.41 in the 300’s.
“He hit several hurdles but still finished strong,” Kohler said after Medina’s 300-meter hurdle race. “He ran a good race and was rewarded for it. He’s just a hard runner, and the further the distance the better with him.”
Dove Creek
The Dove Creek Lady Bulldogs outperformed their seeding in every event in the Class 1A meet.
On Friday, the Bulldogs’ 4x8 team of LaRissa Randolph, Madilyn Hankins, Kiera Baughman and Savannah Ayers – which was originally seeded 12th – ran a season-best time of 11:23.15 to place 10th.
And then on Saturday, Randolph ran her best-ever time in the 100-hurdles to jump from her eighth-seeded spot to claim sixth place (18.33), and the same group that ran the 4x8 finished the 4x4 in 4:37.87 to take sixth.
“They performed very well,” said head coach Jason Fury. “LaRissa dropped something like .42 in the hurdles and our 4x8 dropped 24 seconds from their best time coming in and moved up two spots.”
“I think we’re just building right now, especially on the girls’ side,” he continued. “And hopefully we’ll have some freshman come in and add more to it – it’s exciting.”
Montezuma-Cortez
The Montezuma-Cortez Lady Panthers did not score at the state meet, but they did finish with a season-best performance from their 4x1 team of Weslie Kirks, Morgan Short, Anna Bullock and Amy Campbell.
The squad was seeded 18th, but after running the race in 50.68, they finished in 14th. The group also finished 14th in the 4x2 (1:46.83).
Kirks qualified in the 100-meter hurdles, but was disqualified for a false start, and then Campbell came within a hair of making the finals in the 100, finishing 10th with a time of 12.82.
Finally, senior Tayla Topaha finished 14th in the discus with a toss of 110-6.
“It’s hard for some of our kids because the venue is so big and the competition is so tough at the 4A level,” said head coach Paul Koops. “But I was really proud of the way they ran and the way they threw and they improved on their performances on the year.”
