The Ignacio and Bayfield High School track and field teams had some strong performances at the Montrose Invitational on Saturday, with athletes from both schools winning titles.
Fast as sophomore Cayson Burcham has been, he showed in Ignacio’s last regular-season track and field appearance that fast can get even faster when state championships seeding is on the line.
Clocking a sizzling, school-record time of one minute, 57.52 seconds Saturday, Burcham not only placed first in the Montrose Invitational’s 800-meter run but did so by nearly six seconds ahead of second-place Bryce Flanagan, a Grand Junction senior. Coming in fourth was IHS teammate Trace Crane; the junior legged out a 2:07.70 as the event ended up being the Bobcats’ most fruitful – and a major source of the gents’ 48.5 team points.
All told, Ignacio placed seventh in the 22-team standings behind Basalt (52.5), Bayfield (66.5), Montezuma-Cortez (72), Hotchkiss North Fork (74), the hosting Red Hawks (75) and champion Palisade (84).
Junior Zane Pontine fared well in the pole vault, winning the specialty with a best clearance of 11 feet, nine inches, and Josh Kerrigan took seventh with his 8’9” best. With a measured tail wind exceeding CHSAA’s limit, excluding his effort from State seeding consideration, junior Lincoln deKay nevertheless laid down a 15.72 in the 110-meter hurdles and placed second behind only Basalt senior Jared Tennenbaum’s wind-boosted (the two ran in the same fourth heat) 14.93.
IHS junior James Martin clocked a 4:48.68 in the 1,600 and placed fifth behind PHS junior Hyrum DeFord’s winning 4:34.16. He also joined deKay, Crane and Pontine in comprising IHS’ 4x400 relay, which took fifth in 3:40.90. Burcham, Crane, sophomore Thunder Windy Boy and junior Dillon Brann made up the Bobcats’ fifth-place (8:24.99) 4x800.
Additional top-10s came from Brann in the 300m hurdles (eighth, 44.48), junior Norman Hackett in the triple jump (eighth, 35-0.5), junior Evan Perkins in the discus (ninth, 110-03) and the deKay-Crane-Burcham-Brann 4x200 (ninth, 1:35.83).
Ignacio’s girls, meanwhile, were led by sophomore Kelly Sirios’ seventh-place 1:08.08 in the 400m dash, her wind-aided ninth-place 28.94 in the 200, and an eighth-place 1:59.41 clocked by the 4x200 quartet of juniors Juliann Avila and Kristen Neil, plus Sirios and freshman Alleah Neil.
The 2025 Class 2A State Championships will be hosted Thursday through Saturday at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood. Representing Ignacio will be Burcham (400, 800), deKay (110H, 300H), Pontine (pole vault) and the boys 4x800.
Wolverine sprinters shine, make final push for state
Ayden Casillas got a quick reminder of how fast 11.16 seconds is.
Filtered into the ninth and last heat of the boys 100-meter dash Saturday at the Montrose Invitational, Casillas – whose 11.16 at the previous day’s Monte Vista Last Chance broke Bayfield’s school-record, set by Dakota Decker back in 2008, by 0.01 – clocked a solid 11.24 and beat Telluride’s Thomas Mahoney across the finish line by less than a hundredth of a tick.
Both the Wolverine junior and Miner sophomore, however, were defeated by MHS junior Deklan Woodden, who clocked a first-place 11.16.
Casillas made amends by winning the 200 – and also breaking BHS’ record, Keith Wickman’s 22.56 back in 2013 – in 22.36 seconds, one-tenth ahead of second-place Woodden, while sophomore Tanner Neeley wowed the crowd by winning both the high (6-06) and triple (40-01) jumps, and placing fourth in the long (20-1.5) jump.
Junior Kyle Russell earned third in the pole vault (10-03) and the boys 4x100 relay – Casillas, freshman Colton Casillas, senior Ace Taylor, sophomore James Sandoval – did likewise in a time of 44.51 seconds. Colton Casillas earned Bayfield’s other top-five result by finishing fifth in the 200 (23.60).
On the girls side of the Invitational, sophomore Vivien Clance won the 200 meters in 26.45 seconds and placed third in the 100 (12.98). Junior Leslie Gongora took fourth in the pole vault (6-09) and junior Delilah Zink fifth in the shot put (32-09) – helping the Wolverines total 38 points and place seventh. Montrose won with 96, Palisade settled for second with 78 and Cedaredge took third with 64.5.
BHS’ 4x400 relay (Clance, freshman Mykah Meshew, freshman Rachel Nava, junior Wrenalee Moore) clocked a fifth-place 4:31.31.
The 2025 Class 3A State Championships will be hosted Thursday through Saturday at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood. Representing Bayfield will be Ayden Casillas (100, 200), the boys 4x100 relay, Neeley (HJ), junior Zach Hufnagel (PV), Clance (girls 100, 200, HJ) and Zink (girls SP).
