"Pole Vault High" finally came out to play last Saturday in Ignacio, as part of an overall weekend not soon to be forgotten by Bayfield boys' track and field.
Competing at the Bobcats' Abel Velasquez Invitational, Wolverine juniors Colton Fine and Chad Winkler each cleared the bar set at 10 feet, seven inches above ground, tying for first place and earning nine team points each. Freshman John Foutz bagged BHS another three with his share of fourth place via an 8'7" best.
Helping Bayfield amass 97 points and place second, freshman Dylan Hilliker won the 100-meter dash in 11.81 seconds, 0.06 faster than 3A Montezuma-Cortez senior Austin Wagner. Junior Wyatt Killinen placed third in 11.97, and classmate Jaden Vitagliano was fourth in 12.01, giving the Wolverines 20 team points just from the vault event.
The 4x100 relay of Hilliker, sophomore David Hawkins, Killinen and Vitagliano also prevailed, with its 45.81 effort nipping second-place M-CHS by only four-hundredths of a second.
Hilliker also capped an excellent day of sprinting by winning the 200 in 24.26, 0.16 faster than M-CHS senior Elisha Vaquera. BHS sophomore Reed Merchant was seventh in 26.07, but rose to fourth at double the distance by clocking 56.95.
The 4x200, comprised of freshman Dawson French, Foutz, freshman Josh Kaufmann and Merchant, finished second behind Montezuma-Cortez in 1:43.80 (M-CHS ran 1:37.27). Hilliker was fourth in the long jump at 18'8" and Vitagliano was a close fifth at 18'7.5". Junior Ben Clarke took ninth in the 800 meters, running a 2:24.78.
Seems like someone's missing from all this, right?
You are correct; several squad members traveled instead to the April 7-8 John Tate Challenge Cup in Pueblo, and did Bayfield more than proud.
Registering five event wins inside Dutch Clark Stadium, BHS piled up an amazing 123 points to win the meet's Division II title by 39 over 3A Gunnison. 3A Colorado Springs Sierra was a distant third out of the division's 19 teams.
First and third, respectively, in the 110-meter hurdles' preliminaries, Wolverine juniors Carl Heide and Dax Snooks finished first and third in the discipline's final, clocking 15.64 - a new meet record by 0.05 - and 16.21. Heide then broke the meet record by 0.49 seconds in the 300 hurdles with a 40.80 in the third preliminary, then shattered that short-lived achievement with a 40.19 in the final, beating 2A Hoehne's Jacob Yates by more than a second.
Conquering the 800 was junior Sloan Mazur, whose 2:01.55 paced a field of 36 - including 2A Rocky Ford junior Cody Danley, second in 2:01.81, as well as BHS senior Cody Speece, sixth in 2:09.54.
Senior Alex Knight also scored in long-distance competition, finishing sixth (5:03.14) in the 1,600.
Junior Dawson Heide placed first in the high jump with a 5'10" best, Snooks also scored team points with his fifth-place 5'6", and the 4x400 relay won with a 3:39.14 effort.
In the 100 meters, BHS senior Brian Mashak was second in 11.61 seconds as Sierra's Dante Thomas lowered the JTCC record by six-hundredths with his 11.16. Mashak also placed third in the 200, his final-round 23.28 trailing Thomas' meet-record 22.62 and Manitou Springs' Bryce Coop's 22.91 (also breaking the old record).
In the 400, senior Gus Roberts finished second with a 52.66, while MSHS' Jared Keul won in 50.95. The 4x800 was second in 8:41.52, though 16.49 seconds behind Gunnison, and the 4x100 earned fourth in 46.66 seconds.
Senior Sam Westbrook was second in the shot put with a 51-foot, three-inch heave, and junior Ryan Phelps came in third at 45'3.5". Only 2A Fowler senior Garett Gribble's 51'10.5" was better, as both he and Westbrook broke the 2012 meet record of 50 feet, 10.5 inches.
And in the discus, Westbrook placed third, his 143'3" best behind Gunnison senior Josh Stephens' 145'8" and Ordway Crowley County sophomore Lane Walter's 153'8". Phelps was seventh with a 136'3" maximum.
Back at IHS, Bayfield didn't miss too much of a beat in the big throwers' absence as Killinen captured first in the shot with a 43-foot, 2.5-inch best. Hawkins was fourth at 39'5.5" and junior Cade Killough took sixth at 37'5.5", giving the Wolverines 15 total team points.
BHS' best discus result in Ignacio, however, was Kaufmann's fifth-place 105'7". Killough was right behind at 104'3" as Bayfield, set to host the Pine River Invitational on Saturday, still managed three team points.
RECORD BREAKERS: Westbrook's 51'3" in Pueblo established a new BHS best in the shot, eclipsing Michael Hawkins' 50'5" from 2013, and Heide's Pueblo-winning work in the 300m hurdles was nearly one second faster than Justin Talbot's 41.16 recorded back in 1992.
Also, Heide's run in the 110m hurdles in Pueblo was only 0.14 from equaling Tyler Young's 1997 15.50.
JOHN TATE CHALLENGE CUP, BOYS' DIVISION II STANDINGS: 1.BAYFIELD 123, 2.Gunnison 84, 3.Colorado Springs Sierra 70, 4.Manitou Springs 66, 5.Colorado Springs Vanguard 56, 6.Hoehne 48, 7.Pueblo Central 37, 8.Simla 36, T-9.Ordway Crowley County & Rocky Ford 27, 11.Calhan 25, T-12.Fowler & Florence 20, 14.La Junta 16, 15.Colorado Springs St. Mary's 13, 16.Rye 8, 17.Woodland Park 6, 18.Swallows Charter Academy 2, 19.Swink 1.
JOHN TATE CHALLENGE CUP, BOYS' DIVISION I STANDINGS (15 teams): 1.Widefield 121, 2.Pueblo South 93, 3.Durango 76, 4.Canon City 71.5, 5.Colorado Springs Coronado 71.. 15.Colorado Springs Doherty 0.5.
