Running, jumping, throwing ... balancing?
The Bayfield High School track and field team will have to perform a balancing act today at the Intermountain League Championships in addition to its regular competition duties.
Go for the victory? Or rest its stars for state?
“Do you want to rest your 3,200-meter person? Or do you want to give him the opportunity to be all-conference?” BHS head coach Sherry Kimball said Thursday. “It’s just really hard. But the kids have really stepped up, and I think they want to try to win a league championship. They’ve bought into that, and I think that’s the direction we’re going to go.”
With their best boys in the blocks, the Wolverines have a good shot at Wolverine Country Stadium in Bayfield.
Led by fastest-man senior Keith Wickman, who broke the school’s 200-meter record earlier this year, the Wolverines will be looking to tally some points on the track in the afternoon, starting with his signature 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Wickman also will head up a couple of relay teams, including the 4x200-meter relay, which is trying to hold on to its state-qualifying time.
The top 18 athletes or teams in each event will qualify for the CHSAA Class 3A State Championships – “a moving target, so you just don’t know ’til it’s over,” Kimball said.
Wickman is ranked 15th in the 100 and 4th in the 200 heading into today’s conference championships, while the 4x200 is hanging in at 14th.
Senior throwers TJ Pazell – who broke the BHS javelin record this year and is ranked first in the state by more than 50 feet (152 feet) – and Michael Hawkins – who’s ranked third in Colorado (49 feet, 6.75 inches) and a quarter inch from setting a new school record – will look to boost the Wolverines to an early lead in the field, where events will start at 10 a.m.
“What a blessing to have three young men as talented as those three,” Kimball said.
Toss in some points from high jumper Conner Kennedy, who needs a big jump to stay in state-qualifying ranks, and the boys may have the points to break the “virtually dead even” competition between Alamosa, Bayfield and Pagosa Springs.
The BHS girls have a tougher road to run.
Pagosa Springs has dominated its IML competition so far, taking first place in the last three consecutive meets in Aztec, Bayfield and Pagosa Springs.
Still, not a foregone conclusion, Kimball said, and that’s why they run the race.
The BHS girls also will be looking for a state-qualifying run from their 4x200 team, but their real strength rests in the long run:
Eva-Lou Edwards is ranked first in the state in the 3,200 with an 11-minute, 16.96-second mark. She’s also sixth in the 1,600 in 5:25.85.
The girls also have a high-jump hopeful:
Jessie Roukema is ranked ninth in the high jump, having cleared 4-11, but she’s still chasing the 5-foot goal she set early in the year.
In front of her home crowd today at Wolverine Country Stadium would be a good time to hit that height.
“I think they realize they’re peaking at the right time, and things should hopefully go very well for them,” Kimball said of the Wolverines.
jsojourner@durangoherald.com
