It didn’t take long this week to remember something I learned at my last track-and-field-writing gig. That is, if you’re going to do a summary of all the meets, it helps both the reader and the writer to break things up into pieces.

So, I’m doing that here. I would have written the summaries that follow anyway, but treating them below spreads the overall workload around. And, it helps keep fresh content on the site. What follows is a brief summary of all Tuesday through Thursday meet action for which I’ve seen results. And, meet directors, you are more than welcome to send results directly to me. I think all of you have my email address.

Before diving into meets individually, let me begin by saying that midweek meets tend to be, but are not exclusively, the province of JV-level competition. Saying this at the front end removes the necessity of saying it individually about every meet. I’m dialed in for highlights in the summaries that follow and most JV-level performances will not check in as highlights.

Peak to Peak #1

This meet was comprised of Denver metro area 3A programs. I could have said “north Denver metro area 3A programs,” except that Lutheran showed up. That required the drawing of a larger circle.

Jefferson Academy brought their jumpers, most notably Sierra Haberman and Chrisly Kelly-Cannon (CKC). Though both won their specialty events, neither one put on a show for the ages. Maybe it was not enough meet adrenaline. Maybe it was weather (it was a bit windy). Maybe it was something else. In any case, expect bigger things from these two as the season goes on.

Allison Pippert’s 5:27 1600 warrants a mention. Jessica Schaffer at 50.87 in the 300 hurdles portends bigger things to come. Mason Kelley and Cole DiGiacomo below 17 into a stiff wind in the 110 hurdles raises an eyebrow or two. If you have a unibrow, it’s probably only good for one. Jacob Schauer running 2:11 for the 800 all by himself in the wind seems a noteworthy effort.

Kourtney Rathke, heretofore known mostly for her pole vault, has expanded her horizons a bit. Rathke went 16-5 in the long jump and 35-10 in the triple jump. Neither was wind-legal, but that just gives her something to shoot for when the winds calm down a bit.

Thornton Early Bird

Folklore has it that the Early Bird gets the Worm. I don’t understand what that means with respect to track and field, but I throw that out there in case someone else does get it. 

Of some note here, University—a 3A program—won the boys title at this meet. They did that on the strength of efforts like a 1-2 in the 1600 from Owen Bonnell and Luke Haas. Freshmen Nicolas Rothe and Brevon Doss won the pole vault and triple jump, respectively. In so doing, they didn’t post marks that will get them to state, but it was a nice showing for a pair of freshmen, regardless.

My mark-of-the-meet meter found a 10:12 4×800 by Legacy’s girls and stayed there. Not bad for an 11-flat seed time, folks.

Platte Valley JV Meet

This meet advertises JV right there in the meet title. Nevertheless, even though this one wasn’t a state qualifier, it’s still worth a scan of the results for any gems that may show up.

Eaton’s Trenton Salberg won the 100 in 12.17, the 200 in 24.74, and the long jump in 18-11. I’m left wavering between possibilities. Either Eaton is stacked in the sprints and long jump or Mr. Salberg has seen his tour of duty in JV meets and will be seen in varsity meets going forward. It could be both; the options are not exclusive.

It’s not as easy to spot ringers in the girls’ results, but there is a suggestion or two that Dayspring Christian brought a very good share of their varsity girls to the meet. The most telling piece of evidence might be the 1-2 in the 200 from Angela Friedman and Elizabeth Casey. Put those two girls on a 4×200!

BHS, CHS, FHS, MHS Quad

There was some clever meet naming going on at this one. They could have saved a few characters, though, by calling it the BVSD – BHS Quad. I wasn’t sure, though, if the BHS was Broomfield or Boulder until I dug into the results.

Clearly, though, few—if any—of the athletes got bogged down in the meet nomenclature. In fact, this meet turned of several of the fastest times of the season-to-date. Notably, Monarch dominated the sprints—Kieran Singh doing the work in the boys and Julia Pattison in the girls. Pattison hit for the cycle, winning the 100, 200, and 400—each in statewide season-best times. Well, okay, that cleared some murkiness from the air.

Centaurus sent two under two minutes in the 800 with Kyle Berg and Max Heins doing the dirty work. Boulder’s Gavin Geer was pretty quick in the 1600, quick enough to lose the chase pack.

Monarch’s Levi Hoenninger might possibly have posted a state-qualifying mark in the long jump with a wind-legal 21-6.5. 

Charlotte Elliston of Fairview and Mia Munoz of Monarch had a nice little showdown in the long jump before Elliston took the win with a mark of a little over 17. Olivia Kosanovich started big in the pole vault with an 11-0 clearance. 

5A Jeffco Non-Qual

The Jeffco Non-Qual meets are almost, but not quite, JV meets. Most of the participation is at the JV level, but there’s always a coach or two throwing varsity athletes in for a little extra work. And, it’s run just like a varsity meet except there’s not a wind gauge to be found.

One of the coaches throwing varsity-level athletes in for some extra work would be the Chatfield coach. The Charger girls went 1-2-3-4 in the 100. The same four girls (DiPaola, Hobart, Strom, and Shepard) won the 4×100 in 50.53. Both were pretty convincing, too. Arvada West did something similar with a 1-2-3 in the 400, equally convincing. 

Moving back to the subject of Chatfield, Hayden Marx won the 100 at 11.23 and the long jump at 20-3.5. I’m not inclined to read either as a JV-level mark, even without wind readings. Chatfield was, indeed, seizing some extra opportunity at this meet. But, Marx is scarcely the most telling proof of that claim. That honor would belong to Camden Law, who won the 800 with a 1:57.31. Had this been a rankings meet, Law would be sitting atop the statewide leader board right now. As it is, all he gets is an asterisk.

Photos

You already noticed there’s not a cover photo with this article. I’m as bummed about that as you are. I’m all about taking submissions for cover photos. And, my need for that will be kind of large over the next couple of weeks as I won’t be able to attend meets either of the next two Saturdays. 

So, if you know my email address and have a nice image that works in a horizontal format, please accept my invitation to send that image my way. Please do not crop, just send the original image. I’ll do the cropping on this end so that it’s cropped specifically for our needs here at Colorado Preps. I will credit photos, but this is, unfortunately, not your gateway to a paid position as a meet photographer.

Catching Up with Past Oversights

In my round-the-state boys article last week, I neglected to mention one very notable 2A effort. It’s time to fix that oversight. Tyler Ball of Lyons won the St. Vrain District meet 3200 with a blazing time of 9:48.20. Unfortunately, that effort came after the FAT system gave up the ghost. So, we’ll belatedly recognize Mr. Ball as having the top 3200 time in the state until Land Lambert of Durango ran faster (in Bayfield, no less!) on Friday. It’s still the best 2A time, and may be for a while—it just won’t get Mr. Ball to state.