The Bayfield High School track and field team produced one of its best performances of the year on Saturday when it had six league champions at the High Altitude Challenge at Alamosa High School, which also doubled as the Class 3A Intermountain League Championships.
The Wolverines finished in fifth on the boys side with 50 points, while the girls finished with 74 and took third. Alamosa won the boys team title with 204 points, Montezuma-Cortez was second with 91.5, Pagosa Springs was third with 89.5. On the girls side, Alamosa won with 180 points, while Cortez was second with 131.
“It went really, really well,” said BHS head coach Josh Walton. “We had some great performances today and it really is big for our momentum. To have six champions was awesome and we are looking forward to keeping this momentum going.”
Bayfield senior Jordan Lanning won three out of four events she competed in, including the 100-meter hurdles, 300-hurdles, high jump and took second in long jump. Lanning set a personal record in the 100-hurdles with a time of 14.62 seconds, nearly a second faster than second-place’s Mary Streeter of Alamosa (15.53). Lanning also ran a 46.22 in the 300 hurdles and was nearly six-seconds faster than her second-place opponent. In the high jump, she had a 5-foot, 6-inch jump and in the long jump, she had a 17-07.
“Her 100-hurdles was great to see,” Walton said. “She jumped and ran well in all of her events, but she had to deal with wind, and, so, she didn’t set personal records in her other events, but she still did really well.”
There were two other winners on the girls side, as Hannah Whitmer won the pole vault (8-06) and Mikayla Barnes won the discus (107-07).
On the boys side, senior David Hawkins set his personal record and a new school record in the shot put with a throw of 53-11, while Josh Kaufmann won the discus with a throw of 134-06, 18 feet further than his second-place opponent, Evan Raymond of Pagosa Springs, whose toss went 112-11.
BHS had won winner in the track events, as sophomore Zeb Shields took the 800-meter in 2:12.63.
Bayfield will travel to the Pueblo Twilight on Saturday at Dutch Clark Stadium.
The Durango High School track and field teams made big statements on Saturday at the prestigious Liberty Bell Invitational on Saturday in Littleton when the Demons had two top-10 team finishes and were among the highest finishers in Class 4A.
The boys took fifth with 39 points, while the girls were seventh with 42.50. The boys were the highest finishing team from 4A and the girls were the second-highest finishers. Pine Creek won the boys team title with 66 points, Denver East was second with 49 and Highlands Ranch was third with 45. Battle Mountain piled up 70 points en route to the girls team title, Ralston Valley was second with 53 and Loveland and Pine Creek tied for third with 50.
“There were a lot of 5A schools there, so to have that high of a finish with all of those schools was really nice,” said DHS head coach Johnny Bertrand. “We broke some longtime records and it was just so great to see. Awesome performances all-around.”
Two distance runners smashed school records, as Aidan Fitzgerald won the 3,200 in 9:21.75, which broke the old school record by nearly 14 seconds of 9:35.90, which was set by Alex Accetta in 1987. Noah Bodewes was just one second off of the old record and finished in second in 9:36.50.
Madeleine Burns won her only event she competed in and broke the all-time school record in the 3,200 with a 10:50.78, which broke Laura Thweatt’s record from 2007, which was 11:03.87.
“Our long-distance runners have really been working hard, and a lot of the credit goes to coach Rusty Stover for getting them ready to compete,” Bertrand said. “We were trying to qualify kids for state, not necessarily try to win the meet, but we scored a lot of points so it was great to see.”
Durango will compete in the 5A/4A Southwestern League Championships next Saturday in Grand Junction at Stocker Stadium.
The Bobcats put together another strong performance at the Aztec Invitational on Saturday in New Mexico.
Team scores were not made available, but there were a number of good times for both the boys and girls teams.
Elco Garcia was the highest finisher for IHS as he ran a 10:20.43 in the 3,200 and took second. In the boys 800, Jonas Nanaeto was second in 2:02.18, and finally, the other placer on the boys side came from Jason Hampton-Foutz, who finished in fourth in the pole vault with a vault of 10-06.
Ignacio had a number of top finishes on the girls side. Lexy Young was third in the 200 (28.45) and was fourth in the 400 (1:04.86). In long-distance events, Charlize Valdez was fourth in the 1,600 (5:53.90) and the 3,200 (13:15.02).
Ignacio will host the Class 2A San Juan Basin League Championships on Tuesday.
bploen@durangoherald.com
