At least the Durango High School track team doesn’t have to worry about sitting boys and girls on opposite sides of the bus.
The Demons are taking a minibus and a minivan to the CHSAA Class 4A state championship track meet starting Thursday, and the girls squad is nearly twice as large.
Fourteen DHS athletes qualified for the state meet led by nine girls.
“Which is kind of odd. All season we’ve had kind of a bigger group of guys,” DHS head coach David McMillan said. “Some upper-level athletes haven’t had quite the year they did last year, but it’s a strong girls team, it’s awesome.”
The Demons qualified three girls relays, the 4x400-meter, 4x800-meter and 800-meter sprint medley.
DHS is ranked seventh in the 4x400 but only is seeded two seconds behind the second-ranked team in the sprint medley.
“We have an extremely good team this year, and I think we could podium (in the sprint medley),” said DHS senior Shannon Maloney, daughter of Melissa and Murdoch Maloney.
Maloney is the only Demon running in all three relays.
Abby Scott, Emily Fogel and Sarah Smagacz make up the rest of the 4x800-team, while Alli Davis, Teagan Garand and Miranda Gallegos join Maloney on the 4x400 squad.
Davis, Gallegos, Garand and Maloney will run the sprint medley.
“We practice handoffs twice a week, three times a week,” said Gallegos, daughter of David and Vickie Gallegos.
Maloney has qualified for the state meet before, unlike roughly half of the Demons’ girls team.
The youth will look to athletes such as Maloney for advice on how to handle the experience.
“We went to a couple big meets this year, and I think that was important to adjust them,” Maloney said. “There’s not really a way to tell someone what it’s going to be like. You have to experience it and hope for the best.”
All of Durango’s individual girls competitors are in field events.
Davis and Gallegos, a University of Hawaii-Manoa commit, are in the long jump as the eighth and fifth seeds, respectively.
Jessica Lee qualified in the pole vault, and freshman Breann Hawmann will throw the shot put.
Durango’s boys team may be small, five strong, but they still carry the weight of heavy expectations.
Senior Justin Marcum’s school record pole vault of 15 feet at the Ron Keller Invitational stood as the classification’s best to give him the top seed.
Palmer Ridge’s Kyle Rex is his closest competitor six inches lower.
Marcum also will jump against his teammate Gabe Gilleland, the No. 15 seed and only Demon competing in multiple individual events.
“It helps a ton (jumping against Marcum). He makes me better because I can watch him,” said Gilleland, son of John and Michelle Gilleland.
Gilleland has cleared 6-03 this season in the high jump, right around his standing height.
On the track, the Demons will have David Moenning competing in the 800-meter run and Gordon Gianniny and Benjamin Lachelt in the 3,200-meter run.
The 3,200 will have a little bit of DHS cross country flair with Gianniny and Lachelt using the Demons’ pack style.
“We’re going to run together and try to group together as a team,” said Lachelt, son of Gwen Lachelt and Trisha Rickey.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
Hillcrest OKs twilight XC race
Goodby challenge, hello classic.
After announcing that this years Southwest XC Challenge would be the final hosted by Bayfield and Durango High Schools, the teams found a new home for their 2015 meet.
The board at Hillcrest Golf Club on Tuesday night approved the first annual Southwestern Cross Country Classic, which will take place Friday, Sept. 11.
Instead of the morning time slot its predecessor occupied, the classic will run at night.
“It’s a new format running under the lights,” DHS head coach David McMillan said.
The race will include a citizen’s 5K at 8 p.m. followed by the boys varsity race at 9 p.m.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
