Speedy on the basketball court as well as the soccer pitch, New Mexico's Elana Kresl still couldn't muster enough for a long-distance win at her team's home meet last weekend in Aztec.
The reason?
Bayfield's Jessica Cusick. First across the finish line in both the 800-meter and 1,600-meter runs, the Wolverine senior's 2:24.12 and 5:35.71 respectively bettered the Tiger junior's 2:28.49 and 5:37.14. Cusick also scored 14 team points towards BHS' eventual total of 36 at the two-day event.
Developing distance runner Bridget Goddard also scored in the 800 with her fourth-place 2:36.27, and more points came in the form of senior Jessie Roukema's first in the high jump (5'2") and Katie Hawkins' second in the pole vault (8'9").
Joining Morgan Allred, Amber Johnson and Amy Roach, Roukema also ran a leg for Bayfield's fourth-place 4x100-meter relay (52.72 seconds). The 4x200 (Emily Bauer, Courtney Bayles, Jade Sanders, Maddi Foutz) took fifth with a 1:54.90, and Allred was sixth in the pole vault (7'9").
Foutz finished seventh in the open 200 with a 28.02 effort in the finals, and Bauer and Tori Tate went 7-8 in the long jump at 15'2.25" and 14'8.5" respectively. Roukema was 10th in the 100m preliminaries (13.86), and Hawkins was 10th in the discus with a 92-foot, one-inch throw.
BHS boys results
New owner of BHS' boys' discus record (154'4", set at the team's Pine River Invitational on April 18), senior Aubry Brown took second at the Aztec meet with a maximum which would have approached Aaron Velasquez's 150'8" standard from 2012. His second-best 149'7" trailed only the 151-footer of Bloomfield's Gabriel Aguirre, but Brown conquered all in his other specialty: the shot put.
Entered into the mix with a seeding distance of 46'9.75", Brown heaved the heavy sphere 50 feet, two inches to easily beat Kirtland's Isaac Decker's second-place 46'2". Fellow Wolverine senior Blane Barnes, meanwhile, was fifth (42'11") and mutual classmate Zane Westbrook also scored Bayfield a point by placing sixth (41'2"), giving BHS ten team points all told with the apparatus.
Sprinter Brian Mashak chipped in to what would end up a 66-point haul with a 1-2 result of sorts. His 11.35 in the 100m finals was 0.52 faster than his seventh-best showing in the prelims, and quick enough to edge Bloomfield's Gabriel Chief at the line by one-hundredth of a tick.
His 23.03 run in the 200 was also an improvement upon his heat-race 23.26, but not fast enough to catch 5A Farmington, New Mexico's Avery Rasher (22.54). Top-seeded long-jumper Conner Kennedy improved upon his seeding distance by an awesome nine inches and captured first place with a 20'11.5" best. The senior also took fourth in the high jump at 5'8".
Senior pole vault specialist Michael Voss cleared the bar set 13 feet, three inches above ground, but had to settle for second as AHS' Lindsey Larabee topped out at 13'6".
Alex Knight was third in the 800, clocking 2:06.90, and the 4x200 relay (Brady Fields, Gabe Kaufmann, Conner Kennedy, Mashak) placed likewise with its 1:33.19. One of several busy individuals, Fields also helped-with Cash Snooks, Ethan Tate and Carl Heide-the 4x400 take fourth in 3:44.91, and was himself fourth in the 300m hurdles (42.14) and fifth in the 110m hurdles (16.52).
Kaufmann's 53.25 in the 400m finals placed him fifth, though it was 0.42 better than his prelim run, and the 4x1 (Samuel Kundrik, Kaufmann, Kennedy, Mashak) also ran fifth with a group effort of 44.68 seconds. Carl Heide was sixth in the 110 hurdles (16.85), and the 1,600m medley relay of Jaden Vitagliano, Josh Westbrook, Dawson Heide and Benjamin Clarke took seventh in 4:21.37.
Up next for Bayfield will be tomorrow's Terry Alley Invitational in Pagosa Springs, starting at 9:00 a.m.
WITHIN RANGE: Brown's winning work in the shot was only three inches from equaling Michael Hawkins' school-record 50'5", achieved in 2013.
