Shannon Maloney ran into the Durango High School track and field record books Friday.
Maloney took second place in the 800-meter run finals in 2 minutes, 17.40 seconds, which is a new school record. She finished 1.32 seconds behind Palmer Ridge’s Alison Deitsch during the Broomfield Shootout meet Friday at Elizabeth Kennedy Stadium in Broomfield.
“I think she could’ve won the race. She tends to hang back in the middle section of races, but she had the best kick of the day,” DHS head coach David McMillan said. “If she would’ve had another 20 or 30 meters, I think she catches (Deitsch), who is a top distance kid in the state right now.”
Maloney’s time places her sixth in the state in all classifications, and it should qualify her for the state meet.
Maloney also helped the girls 800-meter sprint medley team take second place in 1:54.74. McMillan said Alli Davis and Maloney ran exceptional legs to help the team to the second-place finish.
“That time was a second and a half or two seconds out of qualifying for state. They ran well,” he said.
The girls 4x400 meter relay team placed fourth in 4:10.10. That time was good for sixth in the state in all classifications, and, if last year’s times are any indication, it should be good to qualify the team for state.
Helping score more point on the girls side was Davis, who took fourth in the high jump at 4 feet, 10 inches, and Gabi Razma, who placed third in the triple jump at 34-05.50.
“They could have taken top-five in the long jump, but they had just run the 4x400 so they didn’t even jump,” McMillan said. “We had our kids in a couple of events specifically to do a couple of things this weekend. We didn’t stack events to finish in the top-five in points like we could’ve. We had specific objectives and achieved many of those.”
The DHS girls finished 10th out of 24 teams in the meet with 31 points. George Washington won the meet with 79 points, and Fossil Ridge was second with 73.
The DHS boys took 16th out of 25 schools with 13 points. Cherokee Trail won the meet with 111.50 points, and Fossil Ridge was runner-up with 90.50 points.
The boys team was led by the 4x200 meter, 4x400 meter and 4x800 meter relay teams. The 4x800 team was third in 8:25.57; the 4x200 team was fifth in 1:36.11, and the 4x400 team was sixth in 3:33.06.
“Those teams ran solidly throughout. The 4x800 team was probably four seconds out of a state qualifying time,” McMillan said. “We ran our B-squad in the 4x400, and that time was really good.”
McMillan was happy with an 11th place finish by Joe Crawford in the 800-meter run.
“He ran a really strong race into a head wind and fought off a tough Broomfield kid a lot of the race,” McMillan said. “We now have eight guys in the top 40 in state in that event. We have had very solid performances from the middle distance group.”
DHS turns its focus to the Bayfield meet April 5, where McMillan said the team’s objective will be posting qualifying results in the jumping events.
“We probably aren’t going to run all of our top kids in that event. We will pick and choose what we run there,” he said. “It is a great place to jump and pole vault, so we are going there to focus on getting Davis, Razma and Miranda Gallegos qualified along with the vaulters.”
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
