Trent Andrews didn’t have too much trouble cruising to a first-place finish.He stayed comfortable behind Ro Paschal of Mancos for about 600 meters of the 800-meter run to stay out of the dusty, gusty wind, then made his move. Andrews, a junior, beat the field by a few strides in 2 minutes, 8 seconds.
“Just now, I looked all good because I won that,” Andrews said. “But out in California ...”
Tuesday at the Durango High School track and field team’s Ron Keller Invitational, that phrase was on the tip of the varsity Demons’ tongues.
The wins were easy to come by for Durango’s top athletes, but after competing in Arcadia, Calif., against 2,500 of the nation’s top athletes, those wins all came with asterisks.
“I could’ve been 8 seconds faster, and I still would’ve been at the back (in Arcadia),” said Andrews, who was part of a Durango field that took seven of the top eight spots in Tuesday’s 800.
“It was definitely a reality check ... because, really deep down, you know out in California there are thousands of kids who are just as fast or faster.”
That humility was much needed, Andrews said. After smoking so much of Colorado’s competition in races like the Demons’ signature 4x800 relay, the team had gotten a little too big for its britches, a little too ready to rest on its laurels.
Tuesday afternoon it was easy to see why.
In the 4x800, Durango’s Joe Maloney opened the first leg by building a nearly 100-meter lead over the rest of the field. By the time Keenan Kelly finished off the final two-lap leg, the Demons were almost a half-lap ahead. They won in 9 minutes, 4 seconds; Centauri was second in 9:27.
“We just kept (Maloney’s) gap ’cause he’s a beast,” said freshman Domi Frideger.
That might work in front of the home crowd, but it didn’t work in California, where race after race brought public announcement shout-outs to the nation’s No. 1s.
“Not even close,” said Garrett Mulkey, who also competed on the travelling 4x800 team. “We were back of the pack, and we’re winning by a lot here.”
“It’s inspiring, I think, just to see what people can do, and we can even be that good,” Dominique Ward said of the California experience.
And in Arcadia, even a 15th-place finish meant more than a No. 1 in DHS Stadium.
“To say you’re that close still means something,” said Maloney, who won Section 2 of the 1,600 in California and also won Tuesday’s 400 in 52.64 seconds.
So winning wasn’t really the goal Tuesday.
“Just have fun and don’t take it too seriously,” said Hannah Hwang, who took second in the 100, a race she doesn’t usually run anymore. “Just run.”The DHS varsity athletes still swept the top place in nearly every event in which they competed, so Tuesday was an opportunity to keep practicing splits or hops in an environment with much less energy – and a lot more warm-up space – than the packed Arcadia meet.Shane Bisogno won the long jump with a 19 feet, 4 inches leap, and Austin Daigle won the triple jump by almost two feet with a 37-foot jump.In the throws, Austin Miles finally got a victory over longtime Bayfield rival Michael Hawkins. Miles threw the shot 48 feet, 7½ inches to beat Hawkins’ 46-10 and also repeated his discus victory with a 128-8.The boys 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams both took first, and Devin Lewis won the 200 by almost 2 seconds in 23.35 after Miranda Gallegos won the girls 200 in 27.96, leading a top-3 DHS sweep.River Wiess won the 300 hurdles in 45 seconds.
With the stands about half full and the infield just dotted with athletes, making the transition back to Colorado has been a bit difficult, even if it is good practice for maintaining the competitive mentality endowed by the California competition, Maloney said.
“It’s a weird transition,” he said. “I don’t want to sound too arrogant, but we’re not putting up our best races (Tuesday).”“Honestly, this doesn’t even feel like a meet. It’s way more laid back,” Ward said.Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
For the large contingent of DHS junior varsity athletes the Ron Keller meant a chance to gain some confidence and try to show off for a shot at a varsity spot.
“That’s what this meet is about, is getting those younger runners that experience,” Mulkey said.
For coaches such as David McMillan, it meant a chance to relive the glory days racing one another in the coaches’ 400-meter hobble that drew plenty of laughs from the crowd. Then for the community, which got to participate in an open 1,600 that McMillan said was the most special event of the night.
One “pretty slow” parent trailed behind all the others until the last 200 meters, when under the stadium lights, the Durango team joined him on the last straightaway. Soon, so did everyone else, until nearly 80 high school track athletes jogged with him across the finish.“We got so many compliments on the meet and the spirit of the meet,” McMillan said. “It was a celebration of the kids and track and the spirit of the Southwest.”
And for varsity runners such as Hwang, “laid back” meant a chance to do some “turnover, some shorter speed stuff,” said McMillan, the DHS head coach.
The field athletes just got more repetitions, and that’s exactly what they need, Gabi Razma said.
Razma – ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 4A in long jump and No. 4 in triple jump – won the girls triple jump with a 34-foot, 1-inch jump, just 6 inches off her best despite the thick headwind impeding the entry run toward the pit.
With a 15-5 long jump she took second to teammate Miranda Gallegos, who jumped 15-5.75.
“It’s just a good chance to get some jumps in,” Razma said.A really good chance if you’re Mackenzie Sill. After missing most of the season with an injury, Sill jumped in her first high jump competition of the year Tuesday. She and Ignacio’s Michelle Simmons dualed for the top spot, both clearing 4-10 before exiting at 5 feet, which is Sill’s lifetime personal record and 1 inch lower than the state-qualifying 5-1.
“Her 4-10 jump was huge,” DHS jump coach Steve Thyfault said. “She really came through on her first meet back.”
Simmons, whose personal record is 5-3, won with less total misses, and Sill took second.
“It was kind of stressful because of the weather,” Sill said. “Just the wind. It’s not very fun to run or jump in, to be outside in.“I wish I would’ve gotten five, but it’s a good start, I guess.”Sill wasn’t the only one having problems with the wind and dirt.
“I think my lungs are bleeding; my eyes are burning,” Frideger said after his first 4x800 on Tuesday.Hacking up grit long after his first race was over, Maloney too struggled with the atmosphere. But that wasn’t his biggest concern.With just a few meets left – the Coronado Cougar Classic at noon April 26 in Colorado Springs is next – Maloney was focused on how to transfer the lessons he and his teammates learned in Calfornia into state championship success.After holding nothing back in the 4x800, Maloney had one answer on how to do it: “The work ethic I had going into that race, and the pride I have from running there.”
jsojourner@durangoherald.com
