The high school track and field season began in earnest for both Durango and Bayfield on Saturday at the Farmington Early Bird Invitational.
The Demons had four individuals who won an event, alongside two girls relay teams. The girls took fourth with 74.5 points, while the boys finished in third with 73.
On the girls side, Cassandra Blau won the 100-meter dash in 13.19 seconds. Bekah Moenning won the 1,600 run with a time of five minutes, 44.24 seconds.
The relay winners were in the 4x200 (Blau, Taylor Wolf, Emma Fitzgerald and Moenning) in 1:51.98. The other DHS winner for the girls came from the 4x400 relay team (Blau, Fitzgerald, Danielle Lee and Moenning). Moenning received the baton 30 meters behind a Farmington runner, and chased her down around the final curve to win by six seconds.
Other notable performances from the girls came from Kayleigh Frazer, who took second in the 400 (1:07.66); Angela McManus, who took third in the 800 (2:37.86); and Tea Forrest, who finished second in the 1,600 (5:48.49). DHS fared well in the field events, as Taylor Wolf tied for second in the high jump, with a jump of 4-feet, 8-inches, while Danielle Lee also tied for second in the pole vault, with a vault of 8-feet.
On the boys side, Durango’s Alex Hise won two events, the 200-meter dash (23.95), and also won the long jump, 22 feet, 4 inches. The jump would qualify for the state meet if it was held in Colorado.
The other winner came from Aidan Fitzgerald, who won the 800 (1:58.83), while Marcus Flint was second (2:05.3), Paul Knight was fourth (2:07.58) and Luke Tichi was sixth (2:12.3).
The Demons had solid performances across the board, including in the 100, when Hise finished in second (11.5), in the 1,600, Noah Bodewest was second (4:40.17), followed by Marcus Flint in third (4:42.49). In the 4x400 relay, DHS took second (Martin Cuntz, Killian Gwinn, Fitzgerald and Maxton Warman), with a time of 3:41.17.
DHS head coach Johnny Bertand was impressed with the performance.
“All of the coaches were very pleased with how we performed especially since we have spent most of the first two weeks of practice shoveling snow,” Bertand said. “For our field event athletes this was the first time they have practiced their event all year. We have only been able to practice handoffs for relay teams once, and it was raining and snowing.”
The Bayfield track and field team also had a plethora of good performances for its first competition of the season in Farmington.
Jordan Lanning won three events to start off the season strong. She won the 200-meter dash (27.84 seconds) the 300 hurdles (48.03) and the long jump (16 feet, 3.5 inches). She was the only girls winner on the afternoon for BHS, but was certainly not the only one to have good performances.
Mikayla Barnes had two podium finishes, as she took second in the shot put (35-feet, 5-inches), and was third in the discus (94-feet, 10-inches). Melissa Roberts took 12th in the 400 (1:14.04), while the 4x100 relay team finished in seventh (58.21).
On the boys side, Josh Kaufmann won the discus (138 feet, 8 inches), while David Hawkins won the shot put (51 feet, 4.5 inches), and Kaufmann was fourth.
Zeb Shields finished in sixth in the 800 (2:15.11), while Dylan Hilliker took sixth in the 200 (24.59).
Both Bayfield and Durango will travel to the Piedra Vista Invitational on Saturday in Farmington.
bploen@durangoherald.com
