Despite diminished personnel, the Bayfield girls' track-and-field squad still managed to hold its own against much larger teams at last Saturday's Mickey Dunn Invitational in Grand Junction.
With Spring Break proving as formidable a foe as schools like first-place 5A Highlands Ranch ThunderRidge, 4A Edwards Battle Mountain (second, 66) and 4A Durango (third, 64), the Wolverines who went to Stocker Stadium at Lincoln Park turned in enough solid work for an eighth-place 44 points.
Leading the way was senior Amber Johnson, who ran four top-six sprints with a best result of third in the 300-meter hurdles. Her 48.71-second race trailed only 4A Gypsum Eagle Valley's Charise Crabb (46.26) and 5A Grand Junction's Megan King (46.63) as six of the specialty's top seven times went up in the sixth and last heat.
Johnson also finished fourth in the 100m dash (13.39), fifth in the 200 (27.49) and sixth in the 100m hurdles (17.76). Placing fourth in 16.85 ticks was teammate Jordan Lanning, whose best showing was a second in the high jump. Only GJHS' Tia Wright, who cleared 5'3", bettered Lanning's 5'1".
Lanning also took fifth in the triple jump with a 33'5" best.
Throwers Mikayla Barnes and Tiarra Christensen both cracked the top 10 in the shot put, with Barnes heaving the sphere an even 32 feet to earn third, and Christensen 29 feet, six inches to save seventh. Christensen also took eighth in the discus (93'3") and Barnes 11th (89'4") as only Craig-based 3A Moffat County's Morgan Nelson (102'8") and 2A Telluride/Norwood's Stephanie Ragsdale (100'3") peaked at over 100 feet downrange.
Up next on the schedule for Bayfield is Saturday's Abel Velasquez Invitational in Ignacio, with some athletes travelling to Pueblo.
MICKEY DUNN INVITATIONAL GIRLS' STANDINGS: 1.Highlands Ranch ThunderRidge 131, 2.Edwards Battle Mountain 66, 3.Durango 64, 4.Telluride/Norwood 62, 5.Gypsum Eagle Valley 53, 6.Montrose 52.5, 7.Grand Junction 47, 8.BAYFIELD 44, 9.Fruita Monument 32, 10.Craig Moffat County 26, T-11.Steamboat Springs & Glenwood Springs 22, 13.Rifle 16, 14.Palisade 15, 15.Basalt 14.5, 16.Montezuma-Cortez 12, 17.Kremmling West Grand 10, 18.Hayden 5, T-19.Grand Junction Central & Carbondale Roaring Fork 4.
