What’s next when you just posted an article about the first weekend of girls’ track and field around the state of Colorado? I’m thinking boys should be next. If you have a different thought, please feel welcome to share.
PHOTO BY ALAN VERSAW
As I press forward, though, there’s probably some information I should pass along. At this time, I have a self-imposed expectation of two articles per week. That doesn’t mean we’re stuck on two, it just means that’s where the floor is. I already have a third article in mind for next week. Unless this little project takes off beyond my wildest dreams, however, I can’t afford to make this into a full-time job.
So, with that discussion behind us, let’s launch into about what happened around the state in boys track and field last weekend into Monday.
SMALL SCHOOLS
As I mentioned with the girls’ article, a large portion of the best small-school track and field talent in Colorado was cross training last weekend—on the hardwood. We won’t see them all back this weekend, but the numbers and names will start to trickle in. Meanwhile, however, we’re dealing with a somewhat limited set of performances.
In 1A, Cheraw more or less owns the highlight reel. Marcus Reece ran a wind-legal 12.07 100 to get things rolling. But the biggest headline of the weekend has to go to Josh Snyder (and, if you’ve followed Lower Arkansas Valley track and field for a while, the Snyder surname might trigger a memory or two). Snyder ran, in order, a 4:51 1600, a 2:11 800, and an 11:20 3200. My hunch is he’s putting that down as a quality day in his training cycle. But for want of a foursome, he may have dabbled in the 4×800 as well.
Moving to 2A, there’s actually plenty to talk about, but the spellings get tricky here and there. Orion Herrle of Buena Vista was Mr. Fast for the weekend, running an 11.75 100 at CSU-Pueblo.
Peyton didn’t travel as far for their meet, going only as far as the curiously gray-turfed Garry Berry Stadium for their meet, but Landon Hadley left with a 53.46 400 for his part of living the dream.
Jackson Neppl of St. Mary’s ran what could stand as a state-qualifying 800 time with a 2:02.40 opener. Having seen that one with my own eyes, I can attest that Neppl left more than a few large-school competitors bedazzled with his effort.
Grant Gau of Lyons opened in a serious way with a 19-9 in the long jump. Stephen Wietzke of Swallows Charter laid down a few visions of 40 feet in the triple jump with a 38-8 effort to start his season.
If, however, you’re looking for an early team favorite within the 2A ranks, you need to be looking very hard at Banning Lewis Prep. Nate Early (we’ll call him Nate Late if he’s still on fire in May) went 16.38 in the 110 hurdles and 6-0 in the high jump. Both were wind-legal, but most folks don’t care much about wind-legal in the high jump. Elsewhere, the Stallions got a 41-11 shot put out of Joseph Bjegovich, a 4:44 1600 out of Jonathan Wiggins and his mullet (we’ll note that the mullet finished mostly behind Wiggins), a 46.07 4×100, and a 3:43.49 4×400. The two lattermost marks are especially noteworthy inasmuch as track and field facilities are a little on the side of spartan at BLPA, plus nobody had much opportunity to work exchanges all last week.
CLASS 3A
It was a busy weekend for the folks in 3A. Not all the known powerhouse programs got in on the act, but there are tales to be told of those who did.
We’ll start with the obvious. Mentioning Chrisly Kelly-Cannon is a mouthful. And he’s done with the 100 before anyone but an auctioneer can get all the syllables out. Can I get a little help from the JA Jaguars here? Is there an abbreviated version of the name that will work for public consumption?
For now, I’ll use CKC as a stopgap measure.
In any case, CKC went 10.84 in the 100 and 21.95 in the 200 on Monday. The wind didn’t put in an appearance for either. I’m not sure if he ran in a relay or not. To the extent that CKC runs in relays, which may be negligible, JA needs to make certain they’re taking full advantage of the expanded exchange zone any time CKC is running one of the legs.
As an aside, but outside the primary scope of this article, CKC was back to his horizontal jump specialty in another meet on Tuesday. He’s okay as a long and triple jumper, too.
Other outstanding individual marks in 3A included a 50.16 400 for Brandon Bate (Liberty Common) and a 6-4 high jump for Manitou’s John Maynard. You could safely say that both are at midseason form. Almost, but not quite, on the same level, Marcus Mills of Sierra clocked a 15.80 tour of the 110 hurdles.
Florence, something of a sleeper in 3A track and field in recent years, produced a couple of nice marks in the way of a 21-7 long jump for Luguse Nuss and a 137-3 discus toss for Rylan Liddell. Are the Huskies poised to be a major player in 3A track and field? They have definitely been hampered by the fact they have 300 meters of polyurethane and 100 meters of detritus at their home facility.
Elijah Wilcox (Salida) had, officially, the top 3A 3200 of the weekend with a 9:59.87. Unofficially, however, Matthew Edwards of The Classical Academy ran 9:53 but lost his mark to failed communication between the track and the scoring booth. Things like that have been known to happen in the first event of the season.
As we survey the weekend, however, two teams stand out. One is Holy Family. The other is The Classical Academy. Though both have some event areas that could use some extra work, both showed signs of brilliance.
We’ll start with HF.
The Tigers went 1-2-4-5 in the 200 at the Coyote-Panther Invitational. Togetherness might be thing for Grayson Arnold, Pierce Kunz, Dominic Neely, and Conor Byrne. I’m going to surmise that these same four guys played significant, though perhaps not exclusive, roles in a 42.62 4×100 and a 3:35.80 4×400 (the 4×200 wasn’t too shabby, either).
In any case, we can safely assume from this point forward that HF has speed to burn. Aside from Luke Hixson in middle distances, it is—at this point—an open question as to what else they have, but there are a lot of state meet points for the taking at events of 800 meters and under. If there’s one or two more horses in the sprint stable who haven’t taken their turns yet, this team could be deadly.
TCA answered with a few nice performances of their own. Jordan Wenger leads the 3A TJ rankings after one weekend at 43-2 (though watch for Jeremiah Hoffman of Severance). Matthew Edwards kind-of-sort-of leads the 3200 rankings, Chandler Wilburn leads the 1600 rankings at 4:41, AJ Braeger holds down the #2 slot in the 400 at 50.90, and the Titans are positioned very well in both the 4×200 and 4×800.
It figures to get—and stay—interesting in 3A.
CLASS 4A
4A Boys could easily end up as the most competitive classification and gender here in Colorado this spring. There’s much that needs to happen for that to come to fruition, but the potential is definitely there. Opening weekend, however, didn’t reveal a great deal of that potential. So, folks, please sit tight at least another week or two while things develop.
What we do know from 4A this past weekend, however, can be summarized as follows…
Bennett Feldenkirchen of Mountain View didn’t break 40 in the 300 hurdles this past weekend, but that owes a lot more to rust than to lack of potential. He may be the best 300 hurdler in the state right now, and he does own the best time in the event so far at 40.41.
Roosevelt, the team of a thousand faces, boasts a very large collection of goods in the horizontal jumps. We saw this developing last year and they’re back for more this year. Pay attention to Tucker Peterson, Keaton Kaiser, Andrew Masch, Christian Masch, and maybe a few more. Their high jump isn’t bad either. Somebody is doing an oversized piece of coaching the jumps at RHS.
You may be surprised to see the name of Nate Lumaye of Air Academy at the top of the 800 rankings after week one. Lumaye earned that spot, but the event figures to get a lot more competitive in a hurry. The days of 2-something showing up anywhere near the top of those rankings are severely numbered.
Much the same could be said of Max Heins (Centaurus) and a 4:37 in the 1600. It’s a good opening time, but brace yourself for what’s coming.
Cheyenne Mountain, one of the teams that figures heavily in the future of the 800 and 1600, was busy knocking down stellar times in the 4×400 and 4×800 last weekend. Niwot? Well, they were hampered by an athlete running out of state and a failed FAT system at the St. Vrain meet.
Alec Falk of Palmer Ridge doesn’t waste many letters in the spelling of his name. He prefers to save any lengthy efforts for the rings. He didn’t have all the positions happening on schedule with his spin in the shot put, but his early season discus was purring like a highly-contented lap cat. 161-even would be your mark of record there.
Xavier Freeman of Pueblo East leads the early shot put derby at 48-8. It figures only to get better from here.
Finally, we’ll discuss the 200 and Garry Berry Stadium. After the first weekend of action, Dallen Booker of Widefield leads the 4A 200 rankings at 22.42. None of what follows should be taken as a dig at Booker. Booker is clearly fast—he won the Palmer Terror Invitational 200, after all. And he won by a substantial margin. Period. All that is settled fact.
But, there has to be a reason that Garry Berry keeps turning up wickedly fast 200 times. There is a long history of sprinters turning up their best 200 times at Garry Berry Stadium (a stadium not known for exceptional times in other events).
In the scheme of things track and field, the track at Garry Berry is shaped like a bun-length hot dog. The straights are long and the turns short and tight. A long straight bodes well for a blazing 200, but a tight turn does not. Moreover, if there’s any wind at GB, it barrels directly down the straight. Consequently, sprinters aren’t likely to get any boost from winds that hide from the wind gauge. The track at GB is a little on the side of hard, which should help 200 runners (and should help 100 runners as well, but it doesn’t—at least not perceptibly so).
I’m not accusing here, but I do think it’s worth measuring the distances in each lane of the 200 at Garry Berry. It would explain a lot if those distances came up a tad short.
CLASS 5A
You always start the track and field season in 5A Boys thinking about Fountain-Ft. Carson. You’re a fool if you don’t. You should think about some other teams as well, but FFC is reliably outstanding.
This year, your reason-in-particular to think about FFC seems to be Lawrence Walker. Walker won the 200 and 400 at the CSU-Pueblo Early Bird, and his 200 time leads the 5A rankings. Jaylen Lee showed very well in the long and triple jump. As beginnings go, it wasn’t the most auspicious in school history, but you should always be glancing over your shoulder where FFC is concerned.
All that to say Grandview shouldn’t be making the mistake of thinking they have FFC locked into their rear-view mirror. Given their performances of last weekend, the Wolves could be forgiven for doing so, but it would still be a bad plan.
Grandview’s case is easy to make, even after one week of action. Evan Johnson and David Maldonado chewed up the 100 and 200 at the Centennial League Opener. Malique Singleton did in the 110 and 300 hurdles what Malique Singleton has a reputation for doing. Winning is effective that way. In something of a novelty, Mateo Munoz leads the state rankings in both the high jump and pole vault after one week. And, Mr. Moosah Alsaffar leads the entire state after one week of the shot put. The 4×100 (42.27) and 4×200 (1:31.64) were passable as well.
There could be other teams that emerge in the 5A title hunt alongside the Wolves, but Grandview has made a compelling case early. For now, the psychology of it all takes a place in Grandview’s corner. We’ll see if it remains there.
Before leaving 5A, however, we should take note of some exceptional individual performances. The most expectional of the exceptions belongs to Brandon Hills of Vista Ridge. The guy has wheels, and springs, too. Hills ran, wind-legal, 11.02 and 22.83 and jumped, also wind-legal, 22-8. He established his place on the scene last year. So, there’s nothing surprising about these marks, but they do stand as a reminder that Hills will be a factor this spring.
Cherokee Trail’s Hunter Strand dropped a 4:27 1600 to take an early lead in the statewide rankings in that event.
And… that’s a wrap for this week. Next week’s articles won’t look exactly like this week’s. But, I wanted to take a more expansive view this week. In part, if I do a decent job of wrapping my head around all that’s happening as the season begins, it’s a good deal easier to write intelligently as the season develops. If you enjoy what you’re reading, please keep coming back.
For the time being, I’ll send out notifications of each new article through my own Twitter account. After a while, though, that will simmer down to more manageable levels. Truth be told, I don’t enjoy social media. The count of likes is a cruel master to serve, and my life is abundantly happier when I don’t pay attention to that sort of thing. That said, I believe Colorado Preps will continue to push out notifications of new articles.
