While many athletes were sidelined this weekend by Colorado’s wild weather, the Durango High School track and field squads created a storm of success at the Coronado High School Cougar Classic in Colorado Springs.
Cancellations elsewhere on the front range allowed the Cougar Classic field to grow by the time competition started. The girls finished fourth of 25 teams and the boys were seventh of 27 in what Demons head coach David McMillan called “an extremely competitive meet” against some of the best teams in the state.
Durango’s Aidan Urban had the top finish for the boys squad.
Urban ran a strong 2 minute, 2.55 second 800-meter time to finish second place. Alex Hise also had an impressive day with two podium finishes. Hise ran a personal-best time of 11.09 in the 100-meter dash en route to a third-place finish and an eighth-place state ranking in Colorado High School Activities Association’s 4A classification. He also finished third in the 200 with 22.62.
Camden Garland found himself on the podium with a third-place, 11-foot-10 clear in the pole vault.
Braden Evans finished fourth in the discus finals with a personal-record throw of 134-5. Corbin Lyman took seventh with 43.00 in the 300 hurdles.
Aidan Fitzgerald got a top-10 finish with a 10th-place 4:38.45 run in the 1,600. Coltin Gallegos’ 2:09.09 was 11th in the 800 and freshman Logan Moore trimmed a massive 40 seconds off his previous best 3,200 time to finish in 10:51.27 and earn 15th place.
The girls had Bekah Moenning (2:23.11) and Emma Fitzgerald (2:24.06) finish second and third in the girls’ 800. Anna Smagacz also ran a personal best in the 800 with a 14th-place 2:35.71.
Freshman Madeleine Burns finished fourth in the 1,600 finals in 5:18.86, while Demons senior Maggie Wigton was 22nd in 5:56.06 and freshman Saylor Stottlemeyer placed 37th with 6:21.35. Teagan Garand also took home fourth place with a 1:01.27 400-meter dash time. Fort Lewis College commit Danielle Lee took 18th in the 400 in 1:05.13 and placed fifth in the pole vault finals.
Alex Poulter was sixth in the shot put with a throw of 33-4 and 18th in the discus with 85-9. The girls sprint medley relay team of Cassandra Blau, Garand, Moenning and Lana Razma finished sixth in 1:53.10 and moved up to 13th in the state. Razma also had a 4A state-qualifying, fourth-place long jump leap of 16-6 and finished sixth in the triple jump.
Demons senior Kathleen Duft was sixth in the 100-meter hurdles finals with a time of 17.18. Her time of 50.90 gave her 12th place in the 300 hurdles and teammate Kiley Ryan finished 32nd in 56.52.
Durango’s Sarah Smagacz placed 10th after a time of 13:16.29 in the 3,200 run.
“Going into the final three weeks of the season, we currently have 18 athletes qualified for state,” McMillan said. “We have a number of kids sitting on the bubble in the top 25 and are hoping to move them up into the state lists.”
Those DHS athletes will get another chance in the next meet when the team hosts the Southwestern League meet Friday and Saturday.
jfries@durangoherald.com
