Bayfield High School's large and young track and field team made some impressive times, throws and jumps last weekend at the 3A state meet in Lakewood.
While there were no state champs, the athletes gained valuable experience for next year on the biggest high school track stage in Colorado, Jefferson County Stadium. Only a few seniors graduated last week for Bayfield.
"I was very happy with how everyone did," said Josh Walton, the team's long distance and long jump coach. "We had lots of PRs (personal records) at state, which is where you want to have PRs. That was good." The top 18 athletes in 3A schools are invited to state, the top nine receive medals on a podium inside the track.
Walton said Carl Heide in hurdles stood out on the boys' side, and Tymbree Florian's fifth place long jump, "for a freshman, is pretty awesome," he said.
Heide took fifth place in the 300 intermediate hurdles, running a 41.37 in the preliminaries and 41.11 in the finals, a new school record.
Florian jumped 16 feet, 6.5 inches, also a new school record.
Also placing at state was Sam Westbrook, in fourth place in both shot put at 47 feet 8.5 inches and discus with 142 feet 8 inches.
Closely behind him in the discus was Ryan Phelps in fifth with a throw of 138 feet 5 inches.
Two BHS girls placed in the pole vault. Maddie Foutz took fourth place with a vault of 9 feet 7 inches, while senior Katie Hawkins was sixth with 9 feet 1 inch. The other top finalists for the girls' team was the girls' 4x100 relay team of Florian, Foutz, Amber Johnson and Shaylea Freier. They took eighth with a time of 52.31 in the finals, but had a preliminary time of 51.86.
On the boys' side, Brian Mashak placed seventh in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.56 seconds in finals and an impressive 11.24 in the preliminary race.
Outside of the podium, but still competing against the state's best, were the boys 4x800 relay team of Brandon Stuever, Sloan Mazur, Alex Knight and Cody Speece with a season-best time of 8:34.15 for 11th place. Heide also took 10th in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 15.91 seconds.
In other boys' relay action, the 4x400 team of Speece, Heide, Gus Roberts and Ethan Tate took 12th with a time of 3:35.14.
The 4x200 team took 17th place, with Roberts, Heide, Josh Westbrook and David Hawkins running 1:36.82.
For the girls' relays, the same team of Foutz, Johnson, Isis Gonzales and Bridget Goddard took 14th place in the 4x200 with a time of 1:49.69, then took 15th in the 4x400 with a time of 4:23.76.
Finally for the girls, the busy Johnson took 16th in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles with a time of 50.61.
The three boys' vaulters for BHS placed as well, with Chad Winkler taking 13th with a vault of 10 feet six inches.
Cash Snooks and Colton Fine tied for 15th place, clearing 10 feet.
Overall, the boys took 12th place, scoring 25 points in 3A, and the girls took 17th with 17 points.
