Having completed the weekend review of the boys yesterday, it’s time to do the same with the girls today. So, let’s jump into the middle of things.

Brighton Mercury

Not many schools were squarely on top of their game at this meet, but Jefferson Academy did get some nice results out of the day. Jessica Schaffer won both hurdle events—look for her at state—and Sierra Haberman won the high jump at 5-3. That’s a much more typical height for her than the 5-0 that won a meet earlier in the week.

The mark of the meet, though, was turned in by Riverdale Ridge’s Brooke Franke (I’m guessing both e’s are silent) going downtown with a toss of 130-6 in the discus. Lots of folks never see downtown Brighton—it’s easy to bypass—but Franke’s discus landed there somewhere. Guaranteed that toss will stand as a state qualifier in the unlikely event Franke doesn’t better it at some point in the season.

Rifle Invitational

Fasten your seat belts for a trip over the Continental Divide, and remember to keep your speed under control dropping into Silverthorne and Vail. We’ll stay over here for a while, since the Western Slope is a pleasant place to stop and visit—a little removed from the madding crowds along the Front Range.

For the girls, it was the Coal Ridge show. If you were expecting something different, you may not be terribly familiar with I-70 corridor track and field. Peyton Garrison won the 100 in 12.71, the 200 in 25.53, and probably figured on at least one of three winning Coal Ridge relays. Meanwhile, teammate Mikayla Cheney won the 400 in 60.79. Natalie Smythe had a 34-0 in the triple jump, but it wasn’t wind-legal, so that’s not her mark of record for state qualifying. The Titans should be very much in the hunt for a repeat state title this spring, but they’ll need a presence that reaches beyond sprints and jumps to pull it off.

The real news here, however, may have been the small-school showings. Addison Pratt, a Plateau Valley freshman, won the long jump in 17-2.75. Mary Scoggins of Rangely was second in 17-2.5. Alison Rajzer of Hayden won the triple jump in 35-6.25. If anyone would like to help me with the pronunciation of that surname, there’s a good chance I’ll have occasion to use that instruction while announcing the live stream of the state meet later this spring.

Oh, and there was a scintillating 1600 in which Tristian Spence of Central GJ edged Ella Hagen of Summit, 5:08 to 5:09. I already know how to pronounce both of those names.

I kind of wish I had been there.

Bayfield Invitational

We’re still on the far side of the mountains from the Front Range, but now we’re at 7000 feet of elevation to boot.

In spite of the charming location, though, the meet yielded a short list of girls’ highlights. It would have been even shorter if Durango’s Sydney Flores had not shown up. Flores won the discus at 103-11 and the shot put at 34-9. Her shot is ahead of her discus at this point in the season. It would only have been surprising if things were the other way around.

Also of note, Bailey Asbell of Sargent High School—which doubles as maybe the least-identifiable school location in all of Colorado (psst… it’s about 10 miles north of Monte Vista)—won three events. The cumulative effort was more noteworthy than the individual marks, but she won the 100 hurdles in 18.80, the 300 hurdles in 54.15, and the long jump at 14-7.5. Everything there was wind-legal.

For the rest of the girls, it was mostly an exercise in getting some reps in that should yield nicer results down the road.

Delta Invitational

Since we were already on the Western Slope, I figured we’d stay there for one more meet. It’s now Saturday, and I dreamed we spent the night at a swanky hotel in Telluride.

It was a relatively busy weekend out west with three solid-sized meets in action.

Jessica Black of Cedaredge made some 2A noise, winning the 800 in 2:27 after she ran 5:28 for the 1600. That doesn’t quite put her atop the leader board in either event, but it does get her in the 2A hunt. That’s all you need at this point in the season. And, tell me again, why doesn’t Cedaredge have cross country? It’s a waste of gorgeous fall weather to not be out running cross country.

Elizabeth Brooks had another twofer for Cedaredge with winning throws in the shot put (34-9) and discus (113-10).

All told, it was a nice start to the season for the Bruins.

North Fork’s girls blasted a couple of very nice 800-meter relays—1:50.63 in the 4×200 and 1:54.83 in the SMR8. That’s a 3A wake-up call there. For reference, North Fork is the merged result of what were formerly Hotchkiss and Paonia High Schools. The color scheme is black-and-red, so that should help the recognition factor a little.

The North Fork mascot is the Miners. If you’re really on top of the mascot game, you can—at the drop of a hat—name three more Colorado high schools with Miners mascots. If you’re a master of Colorado history you can specify what they mined in each of those locations.

I’m not sure if either Kacie McCollum (16-3 LJ) or Lottie Hollembeak (33-0.25 TJ), or both, ran on the aforementioned North Fork relays but North Fork picked up a couple of nice wins on those efforts as well.

Cedaredge did eventually win the meet, and both Cedaredge and North Fork showed something for 2A and 3A to think about. Delta County remains a serious hotspot for small-school track and field.

Before leaving this meet, however, let’s talk a little about Lisa Sutherland of Nucla (that’s NEW-cla, not NUCK-la). Sutherland won the 300 hurdles in 48.91. She was second in the 100 hurdles in 17.97. And she was second in the 100-meter dash at 13.73. All wind-legal. All that marks Ms. Sutherland as a certified force in 1A track and field. If it wasn’t for Alivia Weathers, she might already be a prohibitive favorite to win the 300 hurdles. For the record, the pair finished 1-2 in both 1A state hurdle races last June.

Having not lived on the Western Slope for 30 years now, I don’t possess an up-to-date visual of the current state of track and field facilities in Nucla, but it would not be unreasonable to think the Delta meet was the first time this season Sutherland faced a full flight of hurdles (either 100 or 300) on a synthetic track. It may well have been the first time she faced a full flight of hurdles, period, this season. A shout out is very definitely in order.

While we’re in the vicinity of Nucla, we’ll note that Tara Glover of Dove Creek assumed preeminence in the 1A Girls shot put rankings with a 31-3.5. That throw was also good enough for second place in the meet.

Murray Kula Invitational

Take a moment here to stand up and replenish your supply of food and drink. You might be starving and parched before this part of the article is over.

It was tight at the top of the girls 100 with five girls under 13 seconds in the 100. Jessica Rockwell of Fossil Ridge led the big parade with 76 trombones, er, a 12.81. Odone Omofoma, Skylar Hawk, Katie Wrona, and Audrey Biggerstaff were all also under 13 seconds. Of note, three of those five are 3A-or-smaller competitors.

Kimora Northrup took a detour from her usual hurdle routine to run a 25.80 200 for the win and a 58.40 400 for another win. The winds weren’t especially cooperative, or those times might have been better. Between now and May 15, Niwot gets to figure out how to best put Northrup’s talents to use at state. By the way, Northrup didn’t totally let go of the hurdles for this meet. She won the 100s in 15.05, giving her the two best 100-meter hurdle times in the entire state this spring. And, everything was wind-legal.

Jaycee Williams (Berthoud) edged out her neighbor Cadence Lapp (Loveland) in the 800, 2:14 to 2:15. It’s not like either started running yesterday, but those are unusually fast March times.

Niwot went 1-2-3 in the 1600. Most notable of those results was that freshman Bella Nelson took top honors with a 5:07. Into the land of plenty falls another freshman phenom. Altogether, eight girls finished under 5:30.

Niwot went 1-2 in the 3200 with Olivia Alessandrini winning in 11:06. I won’t let Niwot’s success, however, allow me to lose sight of the fact that freshman Tatum Berg of Fossil Ridge ran third with an 11:33.

Allyson Weichel of Eaton did her part to break up Niwot’s first-place party with a 47.75 in the 300 hurdles.

Brooke Naughton of Fort Collins won the high jump at 5-8. She’s bounced a few high jump firsts before. And, she won the long jump at 17-8.25. That’s a bit more unusual, though not wholly unexpected.

Kylee Kielian (and there’s a familiar surname out of Roosevelt HS lore!) reminded a few folks that jumps are a thing at Roosevelt, too, with a 35-10 winner in the triple jump.

Lilly Nichols (12-6) edged out Katie Wrona (12-0) in the pole vault. Nichols matriculates at Broomfield HS. And those are the #1 and #3 pole vault marks in the state so far this season.

Loveland’s Kajsa Borman very nearly scored a throws double. She won the discus with an impressive 137-1 but got edged out at the shot put by Fort Collins’ Laura Davis with a 38-5.5. If Loveland had been content to visit a lesser meet on Saturday, Borman could easily have earned the double.

In relays, Fossil Ridge posted a statewide season-best with a 49.87 in the 4×100. Niwot put up season-bests in the 4×400 (4:04.03) and 4×800 (9:34.28). None of those three relay times figure to last long, but they are all top of their respective piles, queens of the mountain—if you prefer, for the time being.

Harrison Panther Invitational

Among the girls, Nadhia Campos put on a show, winning the 800 in 2:22 and the 1600 in 5:12. The 3A distance events figure to be wickedly competitive this spring. As the saying goes, you can run, but you can’t hide.

Janise Everett of Mesa Ridge won the 100 for the second week in a row, but had to fight off a stiff challenge from Palmer Ridge’s Audrey Barhydt to get it done.

Lily Meskers features a low wind profile, but the wind was still not helping her times. She won the 200 and 400, no small feat, but those times would have been better without the wind.

Mesa Ridge was outstanding in the 4×100 and 4×200, as was Canon City—once again—in the 4×400.

In what was arguably the best triple jump showdown of the short season-to-date, Jada Miller of Fountain-Fort Carson bested Manitou’s Isabella Coscetti in the triple jump by half an inch, 36-2 to 36-1.5. Miller has a brutal road ahead of her in 5A. Coscetti is—at least for the time being—your 3A favorite in the event.

Palmer Ridge got a solid 1-2 in the long jump from Ashley Glass and Paige Hyden. There aren’t many weak areas where Palmer Ridge is concerned. They bring a complete team to the stadium when they compete, even when it’s with a split squad as on Saturday.

Larry Pickering Invitational

There is probably no more testosterone-laced venue in Colorado than Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo.

I’ll let that comment soak in for a while.

It begins with the can’t-miss graphic of Mr. Dutch Clark himself painted—in a simple leather football helmet from long before there were face masks—on the south side of the press box, but it doesn’t end there.

Even so—or maybe partly because of it—lots of female athletes turn up some very nice performances at Dutch Clark.

As a case in point, we’ll take Regan Thorne of Palmer Ridge who ran 15.07 to win the 100 hurdles by nearly two seconds. It’s possible Thorne went down hoping for a showdown against Leyah Martinez in the 100s but didn’t get it. In any case, she ran a sizzling flight of hurdles. She also came back later in the day and won the 300s in 46.78.

In those same races, Kaitlyn Pearson of Swallows Charter was busy setting 2A standards at 17.57 and 47.85. In truth, Pearson’s 100H mark is only a 2A #3, but the 300H mark stands as a classification best.

It was a round numbers kind of day at the horizontal jumps. Hannah Turpin of St. Mary’s won the long at 17-even and Olivia Allison of Widefield won the triple at 35-even.

Pine Creek unleashed a couple of snarling relays, winning the 4×100 in 51.08. That came after winning the 4×200 in 1:47.94. Quietly, Pine Creek is assembling a much better team than they’re getting credit for. Keep an eye on this group.

ThunderRidge Invitational

If you read the boys’ summary yesterday, you already know about the incongruity of ThunderRidge hosting a meet at the Stutler Bowl. It’s still incongruous today as we talk about the girls’ results, but it’s very nice that the CCSD folks were willing to make it happen. It was a great meet.

Sophia McHenry didn’t knock down either of Julia Pattison’s top times in the 100 or 200, but she did run excellent times of 12.57 and 25.49. Wind-legal, of course. The 12.57, in fact, was into a -2.3.

Kel McDavid uncorked a 58.73 400. Addisons Price and Laughlin ran 2:18 and 2:19 in the 800 to turn the middle distances into a celebration of all things Cherry Creek. The Bruins came back for an encore performance in the 4×400, winning in 4:07.86.

Maggie McCleskey of Centaurus ran 5:13 to win the 1600. Unfortunately, McCleskey competes in the overloaded 4A classification, which is to say that 5:13 is only a beginning.

Ariel Bailey of Mountain Vista won the high jump at 5-3. I heartily endorse that name and event combination.

Chaparral’s Mia Speights won another shot put round, but, at 36-11.5, this week’s effort was just a bit dialed back from last week’s. Records aren’t broken every week. If the breaking were automatic, there wouldn’t be anything to celebrate when the records are broken.

Rangeview Raider Invitational

Somebody unleashed Symone Adams. Adams responded with a 12.42 100 and 25.41 200. Unfortunately, the latter was not wind legal, though we have not seen the last of Adams for this season. Denver East’s Elizabeth Johnson had a very nice set of times for seconds in those same events. There was no shortage of quality at the top of the sprints at this meet.

Vista Peak’s Kendall McCoy blitzed the hurdle events with a 15.31 and a 48.47. The 100H mark is a fair piece ahead of the 300H mark for McCoy, but both are nice marks for this point in the season.

Eaglecrest offered up a nice pair of short sprint relays, going 50.13 in the 4×100 and 1:45.27 in the 4×200.

Kaeli Powe, the CT freshman, proved last week was no fluke by winning the long jump at 17-9.5 and the triple jump at 37-2. The triple jump has her atop the 5A leader board.

Vista Peak’s Mikenzie Jones, after a long, two-year absence from track and field, came back with a 35-4 to win the shot put. Put a sticky note on her profile page, you’re likely to hear more from her this season.

All that brings us to the end of the weekend. Will there be anything else about track and field appearing on the site this weekend? Of course there will, but you’ll have to drop back by to find out what we have. Until then, many happy laps and many happy reps of practice!