LAKEWOOD-With a skill set rooted in technique, rather than all-out speed, pole vaulters fared the best consistently for Ignacio at the 2014 CHSAA State Track & Field Championships.
But overall inside Jeffco Stadium, the Bobcats' brightest moments in the entire Class 2A fray came courtesy of long jumpers Wyatt Hayes, a sophomore, and Adam Herrera, a senior.
Finishing 8-9 respectively, and earning three of the boys' team points, Hayes leapt 20 feet, 1.75 inches, and Herrera's feet hit the pit 19'10.75" from the takeoff spot.
Fairplay South Park senior Chris Carpenter won the Day 1 event with a 22'6.75" max, Rye soph Trey Zupancic was second at 22'0.75" and Telluride junior John Broadhead ended up third at 21'2.75".
IHS junior Keith Joosten took 11th in the pole vault with a best of 10'11", well short of the 13'2" winner Brandon Hinkle (sophomore, Yuma) achieved and the 12'5" of runner-up Jared Clarkson (junior, Akron), while junior Tyler Riepel failed to top the starting height.
In the girls' event, Ignacio senior Jayce Stricherz and sophomore Chrystianne Valdez each cleared 7'2" for part of a six-way share of 11th. Yuma soph Monica Drury went over the bar at 8'8" to take first.
With neither Lady 'Cat earning a team point, IHS finished 44th (Peyton was 43rd with two) in the girls' standings. Paonia won the girls' title with 102 points.
With a fourth point coming via the 4x200-meter relay's ninth-place showing, Ignacio's boys ended up tied with Limon and Burlington for 35th. Parker Lutheran secured the team trophy with 80 points. Additionally for the 'Cats, senior Kelton Richmond finished 12th in the boys' shotput with a best effort of 42'1.75"-four feet, 4.25 inches behind winner Jerod Berg (senior, Swink).
Hayes finished 13th in the 400's prelims with a 52.58 sprint, senior Christian Knoll landed 15th in the 200's with a 23.49, and junior Mike Perez placed likewise in the 110-meter hurdles' heats with a 17.34.
IHS' 4x100 relay ended up 11th in that specialty's preliminaries, clocking 46.02 seconds, while LC went on to victory with a finals 43.42.
And Ignacio's 4x4 finished 13th (3:40.62) in the discipline's heats, and was on the track during the second of such-in which Lutheran [Ryan Lee, Darian Perez, Hunter Arnell, Kent Harris] ran a new meet-record 3:23.40.
The Lions' foursome then went on to re-set the standard with a first-place 3:23.30 in the final. Illustrating how fast the field really was, even the third-place time of 3:23.71 in the final broke the championships' not-so-old [meaning 2011] record of 3:24.75.
