Natoni Cundiff had noted prior to leaving for Grand Junction Central’s Warrior Invitational, held Saturday, March 24, that competition at the previous weekend’s Bloomfield, N.M., Bobcat Invitational hadn’t been as strong – save for 3A Bayfield’s Ryan Phelps – as he’d hoped.
But even if resistance in the Grand Valley had intensified to a satisfactory degree, the Ignacio senior thrower made it into a non-issue. Earning the Bobcats ten team points in one of his two specialties, Cundiff launched the discus a winning 140 feet, 3 inches inside Ralph Stocker Stadium at Lincoln Park, with 4A Palisade teammates Ricardo Valenzuela (134’4”) and Danny Tate (126’7”) his nearest challengers.
Tate managed to win the shot put with a 42’1” best, but Cundiff was close behind with a peak effort of 40’0.5” – still 4.5 inches farther than third-place Carl Cox of PHS, and good for another eight IHS points.
Again showing well in the long-distance runs, Elco Garcia, Jr., nabbed five points in the 1,600 meters with a fourth-place 5:04.51, and earned four more points for the ’Cats in the 3,200 as he clocked 11:05.97 and finished fifth behind the winning 10:16.48 laid down by GJC’s Tyman Smart.
Central’s David Cardenas had won the 1,600 in 4:40.11, meaning the pair accounted for 20 of the meet-hosting men’s fourth-place 73. When all was said and done, Ignacio had accumulated 35 points to rank sixth in the standings, with 5A Grand Junction’s 163 topping the table.
Jonas Nanaeto took ninth in the high jump, clearing the bar at five feet, two inches, but missed scoring a team point by two inches (GJHS’ Dante Gonzalez managed 5’4” and placed eighth). He more than made up for that misfortune, however, by scoring four points in the 800 meters with his fifth-place 2:14.54 and gaining five in the 400 via a fourth-place 55.13 jaunt.
Mitchell Neil finished 13th in the shot with his 33’7.25” effort, and took 20th in the discus at 76’1”.
Following Spring Break (March 26-30), Ignacio will resume the season hosting the 2018 Abel Velasquez Invitational on Saturday, April 7, beginning at 9 a.m.
2018 G.J. CENTRAL WARRIOR INVITE BOYS’ TEAM STANDINGS
- Grand Junction 163
- Fruita Monument 137
- Palisade 126
- G.J. Central 73
- Basalt 40
- IGNACIO 35,
- Pueblo County 32
- Telluride 18