Perhaps with one longer stride, one stronger pump of the arms, or even one cooperative gusting tailwind, there could have been at least one first-place award from the April 9 Abel Velasquez Invitational.
Nonetheless, with two runner-up performances and some top-10 finishes, the Ignacio boys managed to finish sixth at their home meet with 20.5 accumulated points. 3A Bayfield won the AVI championship with 148.5, easily holding off 4A Montezuma-Cortez's 107.5 and 2A Mancos' 86.
Closest to an individual victory for the hosting 2A Bobcats was junior Bryan Gram, whose 54.10-second effort in the 400 meters ended up being only three-quarters of a second slower than M-CHS junior Elisha Vaquera. Honoring Velasquez well in the discus, sophomore Natoni Cundiff launched the apparatus 111 feet, two inches and settled for second after BHS junior Sam Westbrook flung it a winning 125'5".
Fellow soph Mitchell Neil took 10th in the discus, with a 69'2" maximum, and also placed 10th in the shot (29'8") while Cundiff (33'1") ended up fifth but a full 10 feet short of M-CHS senior Victor Perez.
Sophomore Rhai Price tied for sixth in the high jump at 5'1", and also helped-with Gram, junior Colten Smithson and soph John Valdez-the 4x100m relay finish sixth in 50.76 ticks.
Valdez, Price and Neil also turned in top-20 efforts in the 100m dash, finishing 12th (13.01), 19th (13.85) and 20th (13.88) respectively.
Freshman Lakota TwoCrow tied for seventh in the pole vault (7'0") and also took 15th in the long jump (11'10") while sophomore Parker Smithson placed 14th (14'2") and Gram eighth (17'4"). Smithson also finished 20th in the 800m run, clocking 3:29.23.
Up next, Ignacio will compete at Bayfield's Pine River Invitational on Saturday, April 16, then head down to Aztec for its two-day B&B Invitational on the 22nd and 23rd inside Fred Cook Memorial Stadium.
2016 ABEL VELASQUEZ INVITE BOYS' STANDINGS: 1.BAYFIELD 148.5, 2.Montezuma-Cortez 107.5, 3.Mancos 86, 4.Durango 67.5, 5.Dolores 51, 6.IGNACIO 20.5, 7.Pagosa Springs 18, 8.Dove Creek 7.
