The Durango Demons threw away their top seed.
The top qualifiers for the 4x400-meter relay finals, the Durango High School girls team went from first-place favorite to no-time-recorded after it was disqualified Saturday for a thrown baton at the CHSAA Class 4A Track and Field State Championships in Lakewood.
To say the least, it wasn’t the finish that Miranda Gallegos, Hannah Hwang, Shannon Maloney and Dominique Ward were looking for after taking first in preliminaries Friday with a 3-minute, 58.62-second mark.
Niwot, the second-fastest qualifier, won Saturday in 3 minutes, 56.09 seconds.
The boys 4x400 team – Shane Bisogno, Devin Lewis, Joe Maloney and David Moening – repeated its Friday qualifying feat, taking seventh in finals Saturday in 3:24.82. Winner Vista Ridge set a state meet record by six-hundredths of a second in 3:17.81.
Maloney added one more podium finish to his senior-year take which included 800-meter gold. He finished fourth in the 1,600 in 4:22.38, about four seconds off the top time. Maloney broke his own 800 school record Friday – it lasted a week – to win an individual state title.
Lewis took eighth in the 200 finals in 22.32 seconds, more than a second off Zac McCoy of Cañon City, who set a meet record by five-hundredths of a second in 21.05.
The Demons’ pole vaulters wrapped up the 2013 DHS season with a personal record and a podium. Sophomore Justin Marcum cleared 14 feet to take fourth place, just 6 inches behind Tanner Starr’s 14-6. Teammate Mckenzie Marciante tied for 15th with a 9-foot jump.
hearldsports@durangoherald.com
