No matter how many squad members Bayfield High's Spring Break (March 27-31) kept away, the Wolverine boys' track and field team still registered 10 top-six individual performances last Saturday in Grand Junction. Even against larger schools, the Wolverines still finished close to a meet championship.
Racking up 73.5 points, BHS finished behind only 5A Highlands Ranch ThunderRidge (74) and 4A Glenwood Springs (81) at the Mickey Dunn Invitational held inside Stocker Stadium at Lincoln Park. 4A's Palisade and Durango tied for fourth place with 56 points each, and 5A GJHS ended up sixth with 51.5.
Despite having his early-season run of discus dominance halted, senior Sam Westbrook still managed to score an individual title in the shot put with a 50-foot, 2.25-inch maximum, easily besting the second-place 48'5" of TRHS' Brayden Tompkins.
Finding that competition does indeed exist in other reaches of the Centennial State, Westbrook placed fourth in the discus behind Craig-based 3A Moffat County's Keenan Hildebrandt (154'4"), GJHS' Preston Deters (145'2") and ThunderRidge's Ryan Holt (140'10").
But that didn't come as a total fluke; Holt took eighth at last season's Class 5A State Championships with a best of 142'11", while Hildebrandt placed third in 3A with his 146'11" just ahead of Westbrook's 142'8".
Bayfield junior Carl Heide prevailed again in the 110-meter hurdles, his 15.64 beating 3A Carbondale Roaring Fork's Justin Thompson (16.05), with BHS teammate Dax Snooks finishing eighth in 16.98. Heide also placed second in the 300m hurdles, his 40.65 trailing only the 40.50 of TRHS' Cody Harris.
Dawson Heide scored second-place points in the high jump with a 5'9" effort, with GJHS' Camden Dottson winning at the same height. Snooks, too, went over the bar at 5'9", taking third.
As expected, senior Brian Mashak was strong in the short sprints. He took second out of 68 finishers in the 100 meters, finishing only three-hundredths of a second (11.34 to 11.31) behind Palisade's Zaccre Kenward, and was third out of 68 in the 200 with his 23.56 (Durango's Alex Hise won in 23.41, with GSHS' Miguel Peralta second in 23.43).
Junior Ryan Phelps placed fifth in the discus (136'1") and 12th in the shot (40'8"). Sloan Mazur was sixth out of 64 in the 800 with his 2:03.18, and the 4x100 relay took fourth in 45.19 seconds.
Up next on the schedule for Bayfield is tomorrow's Abel Velasquez Invitational in Ignacio for some team members, while others will head to Pueblo.
MICKEY DUNN INVITATIONAL BOYS' STANDINGS: 1.Glenwood Springs 81, 2.Highlands Ranch ThunderRidge 74, 3.BAYFIELD 73.5, T-4.Palisade & Durango 56, 6.Grand Junction 51.5, 7.Fruita Monument 51, 8.Montrose 50, 9.Grand Junction Central 39, 10.Montezuma-Cortez 33, 11.Craig Moffat County 25, 12.Gypsum Eagle Valley 18, 13.Rifle 17, 14.Edwards Battle Mountain 16, 15.Carbondale Roaring Fork 14, 16.Basalt 6, 17.Steamboat Springs 2.
