Migrating south for what's left of the extended Four Corners winter, Bayfield Track & Field's girls got going at last Saturday's Piedra Vista Panther Invitational in Farmington, finishing a respectable ninth out of 18 teams to begin the 2016 season.
The Wolverines scored 19 points inside FHS' Hutchison Stadium, with the majority of those earned via two runners' runner-up results. Clocking 1 minute, 6.71 seconds in the 400-meter dash and taking second out of its 42 entrants was junior Isis Gonzales. With a 2:38.12 in the 800 meters, junior Bridget Goddard was second out of 20 competitors.
Junior Emily Bauer scored for the squad with her fifth-place, 14'9.25" long jump, and freshman Mikayla Barnes did likewise in the shot with her fifth-place 29'3.25" heave, while sophomore Tiarra Christensen took eighth (28'11"). One of the busiest athletes for BHS was Amber Johnson, who captured fifth in the triple jump (29'10.5") and 10th in the 100 (14.25s), as well as 16th in the 100m hurdles (20.53) and 25th in the long jump (13'0.75").
In the relays, Bayfield fared fairly well, with the 4x200 taking fifth (2:03.54), the 4x100 sixth (59.89) and the 1,600 medley 10th (6:05.83). Christensen took 11th in the discus (72'11") with Barnes (18th, 70'7"), senior Katie Hawkins (19th, 69'11") and Michaela Espinosa (20th, 69'9") all landing in the discipline's top-20.
With a 29-foot, 5.5-inch best, senior Tori Tate placed seventh in the triple jump with junior Jade Sanders 12th at 27'11", and Tate's 13'9" in the long jump held up for 12th. Hannah Whitmer and Jessica George tied for 11th in the high jump at 4'4", and Whitmer took 25th in the 200 (32.64s).
5A PVHS topped the team standings with 129.5 points, more than doubling second-place-and reigning NMAA state champions of the classification-Aztec (60.5), and almost tripling third-place 4A Durango (49). 5A FHS came in fourth with 32 points, with 4A Bloomfield (N.M.; 29), 4A Montezuma-Cortez (28), 4A Kirtland (N.M.) Central (27.5), 3A Farmington Navajo Prep (27) and 4A Shiprock (N.M.; 16) rounding out the top 10.
Up next will be today's Center Viking Invitational out in the San Luis Valley.
