The Bayfield High School track and field teams continue to improve early in the season as the local weather and competition heated up with the Wolverine-hosted Bayfield Invitational last Friday.
Eleven local schools competed at Bayfield High School, with Durango High School dominating team rankings. However, there were plenty of impressive performances from the Wolverines as they finished third in the boys standings and fourth in the girls standings in their second meet of the season.
“We had a few teams come from the valley, and then the rest of them were most of the locals in our area, from Durango to Dove Creek,” Bayfield track and field head coach Joshua Walton said. “It was a good meet. We had a little bit of wind in the afternoon, but otherwise, most of our results were pretty good throughout the day. It's where kids got some state qualifying times.”
The Durango boys finished first with 223.50 points, and Pagosa Springs was second with 147. Bayfield finished third with 96.50, Montezuma-Cortez was fourth with 47.50 and Ignacio was fifth with 46. The Durango girls finished first with 216 points, followed by Montezuma-Cortez in second with 110.50. Pagosa Spring finished third with 89, Bayfield was fourth with 71.50 and Centauri was fifth with 35.
On the Bayfield girls squad, Walton was very impressed with junior Vivien Clance, who finished second in the girls 100-meter race in 13.11 seconds, only behind Durango senior Juliana McKown’s time of 13.07. Clance then won the 200 in 27.39, beating McKown by a tenth of a second. Clance impressed even more in the 400, winning in 1:02.12. Durango senior Evie Morris finished second in 1:02.39.
Clance also finished second in high jump at 4-feet-10-inches. Montezuma-Cortez’s Tessa Jackson won with a 5-foot jump.
Walton is excited to see Clance start at her best this year, already beating her personal record from last year in the 100. She’s ranked very highly in the state in 3A, and he’s excited to see her progress throughout the year.
“She's been super dedicated this year,” Walton said about Clance. “She ended up not doing basketball this year, so she's trained more since we had a pretty relaxed winter this year. We had a lot of kids out on the track in January and February, whereas most winters we have three feet of snow on the track, so makes it harder to actually do stuff.”
Another strong Bayfield girls athlete is junior Abigail Robertson, who finished sixth in the 800 in 2:47.84 and fifth in the 1600 in 6:20.02. Walton was happy to see her control her pace and not exert too much energy to try and track down Durango’s top two runners in the 1600, Lacy Ruggiero and Olivia Glover.
Senior Delilah Zink also had a strong performance for the Wolverines, winning the girls shot put with a throw of 30-10.00. Walton thinks Zink joining the wrestling team in the winter should really help her speed, shot and discus as she finishes her fourth year competing for the Wolverines
On the boys side, senior Ayden Casillas showed off his speed once again by winning the 100 and the 200. Casillas won the 100 in 11.35 over Durango senior Seb Tripp, who finished second in 11.38. Casillas won the 200 in 22.85.
“Ayden is a super-hard worker,” Walton said. “He would love the opportunity to run in college. He's looking at Colorado Mesa, but he has to improve some of his times this year in order for them to really consider him to run there. So he's working really hard in practice and trying to get to those marks to where they're interested in him.”
For Durango, Tripp did his best in the 400, winning in 52.03 over his teammate, junior George Preston, who finished in 52.07. Demons junior Jackson Fisher took the win in the boys 800 in 2:06.91. Durango sophomore Caden Voss won the boys 3200 in 10:19.60.
Junior Rashad Reece won the boys 110 and 300 hurdles for the Demons, beating Ignacio’s Lincoln deKay in both events. The Durango boys 4x400 and 4x800 teams didn’t have a lot of competition and they won both events.
Durango senior Oliver Clark took care of business in boys discus, winning with a throw of 132-2.00.
Elsewhere for the Durango girls, Ruggiero won the 1600 in 2:27.99 and the junior also won the 3200 in 5:28.77. Senior Ayumi Lambert won the 3200 in 12:27.15. Senior Evie Morris won the 100 hurdles in 17.20, and senior Aileen McManus won the 300 hurdles in 50.82. The Durango 4x100 relay team also won.
The Durango girls also had success in the field events with McManus winning the triple jump with a jump of 34-9.75 and sophomore Abigail Gordon wining the girls pole vault with a vault of 7-0.00.
The Wolverines will host the Pine River Invitational on March 28.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
