As Day 3 wrapped up at the Colorado High School Activities Association State Track and Field Championships, Bayfield High School witnessed the boys 300-meter hurdles school record fall along with three other podium visits, while Ignacio saw an athlete place on the final day at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood.
After missing out in the boys 110-meter high hurdles in the preliminaries, sophomore Carl Heide returned with a record-breaking performance in the boys 300-meter hurdles. He finished in 41.11 seconds, and the time was good enough for a fifth-place finish and a school record.
“It feels pretty good because I’m going to keep building up on the record,” said the sophomore Heide, son of Candice and BHS head coach Gary Heide. “I was pretty hyped for the race and ready to go.”
Heide’s training increased in the second half of the season as he tried to make the 300 hurdles, a more technical event for the three-sport athlete. His hard work paid off as he hit a good stride mid-race and finished solid.
Heide’s success mirrored Bayfield’s young team’s performance. The Wolverines only sent three seniors out of 22 athletes to the CHSAA 3A State Track and Field Championships with nine non-seniors placing.
“I think we’re going to be really good the next couple of years,” Heide said. “We’ll have good throwers and good sprinters and lot more pole vaulters and jumpers.”
Along with Heide, freshman Tymbree Florian’s track and field career has already started fast. Florian capped her year off with a fifth-place finish in the girls long jump with a final mark of 16 feet, 6.5 inches. Florian had previously set the BHS record for girls long jump at 17-5.75.
“She was jumping well,” coach Heide said. “To get on the podium and finish fifth as a freshman is a great accomplishment, and she’ll just step up from there.”
Junior Brian Mashak finished his season with a seventh-place finish in the boys 100-meter dash, as he sprinted in 11.56 seconds. Leading up to the state meet, Mashak had been battling a tender hamstring, which limited his action in the 100 to only two races in the last month. Mashak had an impressive showing throughout all three days at the final meet of 2016 as he hit a personal record at 11.24 seconds in the preliminaries on Friday.
“To come in and get seventh in state without much running is a great accomplishment,” coach Heide said. “He looked healthy, and now he’ll go have confidence going into next year. What this meet did was help him regain his confidence.”
Bayfield’s team of Florian, Maddie Foutz, Shaylea Freier and Amber Johnson took eighth in the girls 4x100-meter relay when the four ran in 52.31 seconds. The team’s future looks bright as well as all four will return next year.
In the team standings, Bayfield’s boys took seventh place with 20 points while the girls finished in 16th place with 17 points.
Junior Bryan Gram, who was Ignacio’s remaining athlete through the weekend, took seventh in the boys 400-meter dash when he took a time of 51.58 seconds.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
