Capping her senior season and decorated multi-sport high-school career with a fourth trip to the Class 2A State Track-and-Field Championships in the pole vault, Ignacio’s Chrystianne Valdez made sure to go out standing as close to the podium’s peak as possible.

Able to clear the bar set eight feet, two inches high on day two of the May 19-21 gathering inside Lakewood’s Jeffco Stadium, Valdez ended up taking sixth place and scoring all four of the Lady Bobcats’ team points as IHS ultimately shared 30th place with Rangely and Denver Christian.

Paonia easily won the title with 139 points, with Wray (76) settling for second and Cedaredge (62) third.

Also qualifying for the pole vault competition, Ignacio junior Lea Monroe was unfortunately unable to record a successful attempt, and finished behind Julesburg-Ovid Revere Sedgwick County junior Kelly Ingersoll and freshman Paige Graham, who both cleared 7’2” and tied for 16th.

First place in the specialty went to Edwards Vail Christian senior Taylor Alexander, whose 11’9” maximum authoritatively erased the Championships’ record of 11’1”, set by Akron’s Kathy Hall in 2004 (when she blew away her 2003 meet-winning 10’0”), from the book.

Additionally, IHS junior Azala Perez finished 17th out of 18 qualifiers in the 100-meter dash with a preliminary-round time of 13.69 seconds, but wasn’t far from cracking the top-15; Oak Creek Soroco junior Morgan George was 16th with her second-heat 13.56, and Iliff Caliche freshman Cristen Houghton 15th with a 13.55 achieved in the same race. Junior teammate Kayla Zink paced all with a 12.51, recorded in Heat #1 against Perez and others.

She went on to lay down a slower 12.74 in the finals, but it was still fast enough to better Ault Highland junior Isabelle Himmel’s 12.986 and Calhan sophomore Brittany Fuchs’ 12.987.

 

CLASS 2A GIRLS’ STANDINGS (40 scoring teams in all)

1.Paonia 139, 2.Wray 76, 3.Cedaredge 62, 4.Telluride 57, 5.Lyons 45.5, 6.Iliff Caliche 43, 7.Yuma 41, 8.Ault Highland 40, 9.Wiggins 39, 10.Hotchkiss 34….

T-25.Ordway Crowley County/Center 9, 27.Crested Butte 8, 28.Fairplay South Park 6, 29.Simla 5, T-30.Denver Christian/IGNACIO/Rangely 4, 33.Kremmling West Grand 3.5, 34.Julesburg-Ovid Revere Sedgwick County 3, T-35.Loveland Resurrection Christian/Akron 2, T-37.Sargent/Rocky Ford/Nederland/Limon 1.