LAKEWOOD – Showing off supreme springs, the Intermountain League had some strong performances in the Class 3A boys high jump event at the Colorado High School Activities Association 3A state track and field championships on May 18.
Clearing the bar set 6 feet, 3 inches above Jeffco Stadium’s ground level, Bayfield freshman Tanner Neeley raised the proverbial bar high for his future self as he finished fourth.
Senior Scottie Vines of 1A De Beque tallied the best distance across all five classifications with a crowd-rocking 7-0.
Neeley’s effort earned Bayfield six team points, and the three Wolverines competing totaled 11.
Also qualifying for the season’s grand finale, Bayfield sophomore Ayden Casillas ran both the 100- and 200-meter sprints, but did not advance to the final in either.
Representing the Lady Wolverines in Class 3A, freshman Vivien Clance qualified for the 200, but stood 17th after the preliminaries with a time of 27.48 seconds. She did not make the final.
Saving his best for the third and final day of action in Class 2A, Ignacio sophomore Lincoln deKay not only improved upon his heat-race time of 16.21 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, but he also trimmed nearly 0.3 seconds off in clocking a seventh-place time of 15.97 seconds – breaking Ignacio’s former record, which was set in 1989 by three-hundredths of a second.
Freshman Cayson Burcham (2:01.43) took third place in the 800-meter run – which he led through 1 ½ laps – as the Bobcat boys earned 10 points and shared 28th place with Wiggins and Rye.
Peyton repeated as state champions after piling up 89 points, while Colorado Springs’ Banning Lewis Prep (67.25 points) took second. Bailey’s Platte Canyon (56 points) took third.
deKay couldn’t advance out of the 300-meter hurdles’ preliminaries. He clocked a 15th-place time of 43.93 seconds.
Ignacio senior Maci Barnes departed Jeffco Stadium having logged the team’s best result and earning two of the squad’s three team points, which ultimately landed Ignacio in a tie with Westcliffe-based Custer County and Fairplay South Park for 34th place.
Barnes (15-6¼) placed eighth in the long jump, but struggled in the triple jump (31-2¾) and finished 15th. She also placed 11th in the 800-meter run, clocking in at 2:27.37.
Sophomore Samantha Riddell (4-10) took ninth in the high jump. Her placing had to be determined by the number of attempts required to scale the height, as she was one of eight competitors unable to go higher.
