Here we are, back in the cockpit again. It’s time to finish our reconnaissance of the weekend track meets. Picking up where we left off…

 

FEATURE PHOTO BY MATT SCOGGINS

 

North Fork Invitational

In years gone by, you knew this one as the Hotchkiss Invitational. But Hotchkiss High School no longer exists. It has merged with Paonia High School to form North Fork High School but the results for track and field are much the same as they were—only now concentrated in one school instead of spread across two schools.

One gigantic takeaway from this meet is that Cedaredge took the girls team title out of the hands of Coal Ridge. Coal Ridge, if you can transport yourself back about nine months in time, took last year’s 3A state title and brought a very large portion of the franchise back this year. I do understand that an invitational in late March doesn’t reveal everything there is to know about team strength, but it says something worth paying attention to that Cedaredge picked off Coal Ridge at this meet. If you have been wondering if Cedaredge is for real this year, I’m not sure how much more of an answer you might have been hoping for than this.

Cedaredge has the #1 meet-day ingredient of a championship team. They will hurt you in a lot of different ways. Whether it be Kylee Terry in the sprints (who finished behind only Peyton Garrison in the 100 and 200), Megan Jenkins in the hurdles, Elizabeth Brooks in the throws, Jessica Black in middle distance (though Black evidently did not participate in this meet), or a wicked set of relays, you’re not coming unscathed out of a meet with Cedaredge.

Coal Ridge, frankly, is a good team. Peyton Garrison is about as good as it gets for small school sprinting. Mikayla Cheney has a lot of range, but figures to settle into middle distance once we get toward the end of the season. Brilee Jensen is a freshman thrower with a big future. And, the relays at Coal Ridge get the stick around the track this year as nicely as they ever have.

Aside from the Cedaredge vs. Coal Ridge show, the best performances at this meet were turned in by the horizontal jumpers. Poor Mary Scoggins of Rangely went 16-7.5 and 34-1 without getting a win for her efforts. Kacie McCollum cut off the path to victory in the LJ with a 16-10, while Alison Rajzer took the win in the TJ with a 36-6. Unfortunately, that 36-6 wasn’t wind-legal, though it was close.

Highlights were a bit more scattered on the boys’ side, but North Fork’s own Matthew Kasper kept the hurdles under NF control. His 15.70 in the 110s was better than his 43.05 in the 300s, but both were good for wins. Markem Buzzell went big for the home team as well with winning throws of 135-4 and 46-4.

Not surprisingly, North Fork’s boys took top team honors at their home meet.

Runners Roost of Fort Collins

This one figured to be big, and it was.

Ace Malone of Castle View won the 100 and 200 in 11.12 and 22.18. Those aren’t top-of-the-pile kind of times for 5A at this point, but they do give Malone reason to believe he can compete with this group. Believing you can isn’t the whole battle (contrary to what you may have heard), but it is a substantial part of the battle.

McLean Majeski of Liberty Common thickened the 3A 400-meter plot with a winning time of 50.22. It will definitely take a sub-50 to win this spring, though, for now, times are stacking up on the north side of 50 seconds. It’s only a matter of time until we see water over the dam. Teammate Brandon Bate went to 800 meters and ran a 2:00.65. And, that is now the best time in 3A by about two seconds. Liberty Common figures to leave the rest of 3A guessing for a while about how they’ll lay their cards on the table at state.

More local talent won the 1600 and 3200, with Dalton Kaines (Rocky Mountain) and Christian Groendyk (Fort Collins) taking the wins in 4:27 and 9:46, respectively.

From just outside of town, Resurrection Christian’s Tre Garcia burned up the hurdle competition with times of 15.28 and 39.55. RC came back at the end of the day with a winning 3:31 effort in the 4×400. It’s a likely guess that Garcia was a part of that, too. Regardless, it’s the top time in 3A. For those who require the reminder, RC is the defending 3A state champ.

Rocky Mountain dominated the long jump with both Hunter Hitz and Griffin Elshof over 22 feet. Temesgen Fanning of Frontier Academy served notice of a new compelling presence in the triple jump at 44-6.5.

How good were the throws? Eleven guys over 130 feet in the discus and eight guys over 45 feet in the shot put good. That’s a lot of good, actually. I can’t list all the names, but we will take special notice of Ibrahim Mohamed (Wiggins), Austin Appiah (Rangeview), and Laith Mohamed (Wiggins) going over 150 feet in the discus. The former Mohamed also went to the far side of 50 feet in the shot put. The folks who mark the throws got more than the usual complement of exercise on Saturday.

Katie Wrona and Jessica Rockwell both dipped under 13 seconds in the 100, but Wrona dipped further under 13 seconds. A Wrona vs. Garrison showdown in the 100 later this spring sounds like a pretty good show.

Eaton’s Allyson Weichel continued her dominance of the 300 hurdles, but also extended her repertoire to winning the 200. The time was 26.72. That time doesn’t stand out as immediately spectacular, but it’s always a dangerous thing when an athlete suddenly gets the idea she can become really good at an event. I don’t know that’s what happened on Saturday, but there’s good reason to believe it might have been.

Ella Hagen (Summit) and Isabel Allori (Liberty Common) staged a showdown in the 1600 that went Hagen’s way. Both ran under 5:10, though, so both get credit for outstanding efforts.

Fossil Ridge’s 1:44 4×200 was the best relay effort of the day. The Sabercats also picked up a very nice 36-6.5 (-2.2) from Lily Patrick in the TJ.

Isabella Coscetti made the long trip up from Manitou Springs to claim the pole vault title at 12-6. She didn’t ditch all her other events for the weekend, but the pole vault mark (and place) took center stage.

Grizzly Invitational

Not all that far from the Runners Roost of Fort Collins, several more schools were gathered in Greeley for the Grizzly Invitational.

We’ll start with girls’ highlights from Greeley.

Eboselulu Omofoma (and I’d love some help with the pronunciation of both names sometime before I start announcing the state meet live stream in May) had a major day of it. Omofoma won the 100 hurdles in 15.68, the high jump at 5-4, and the long jump at 16-3.25. Making a small assumption here, her sister Odone finished second in the shot put at 34-4.25. That was the only event for Odone on Saturday, suggesting that she might possibly have been nursing a minor injury.

Savanna Amack for homestanding Northridge also picked up multiple wins, taking the triple jump at 36-4.5 and the 300 hurdles at 51.72.

Will you bear with me for a moment here while I insert some commentary about the girls’ triple jump in Colorado? The event has gotten markedly better in the last few years, and perhaps especially so since COVID—for whatever reason(s). There are way more girls going over 35 feet today than I can ever remember from years gone by.

Nice winning throws at the rings were turned in by Mead’s Marlee Morris (114-1) and Weld Central’s Dilynn Stoner (36-3.25). You can probably figure out on your own which was shot put and which was discus.

Switching over to the boys, Joe Ciccio of Lutheran won the 100 and 200, but he had better times on Thursday. Trey Ciccio was 15.52 in the 110 hurdles, and this time it was wind-legal. The Lutheran duo of Casey Luttrell and Keaton Reiman swept the throws for the Lions. Nik Blume does an outstanding job coaching the throws at Lutheran, and it consistently shows in the results. This is but one example of many.

2A Calhan picked up a nice win in the long jump with senior Zach Peterson going 20-5, wind-legal.

That’s what I have for you now. Results from Chandler Rotary are taking their sweet time to publish. I assume there’s some sort of story behind what is now a monumental delay, but I’m not privy to that story. So, like the rest of you, I sit and twiddle my thumbs in expectation. I’ll push out an article once they do come through. I have bits and pieces of results that folks have sent along to me, but nothing close yet to a complete picture.