Nanaeto scores well in the 800 and 1,600
Realistically speaking, there was little chance any team attending the 2019 Ron Keller Invitational on Saturday, April 20, could have competed with hosting Durango – particularly when remembering that the motivated 4A Demons’ home meet last year, set to be held on a Tuesday, had been canceled.
And as expected, DHS prevailed with a winning 182 points. 3A Montezuma-Cortez (101) ended up a distant second and 3A Pagosa Springs (71) was even further behind in third. Ignacio, meanwhile, took tenth with 19.5 points, most coming via the legs of junior Jonas Nanaeto.
His time of 2 minutes, 5.88 seconds in the 800-meter run produced a team-high third place, and trailed just behind the Durango duo of Aidan Fitzgerald (1:56.61) and Luke Tichi (2:04.15). Nanaeto also placed seventh in the 1,600 meters with a 4:48.87 clocking, and grabbed the Bobcats 11 team points in the two races.
Freshman Tyler Barnes clocked 13.31 seconds in the 100-meter dash but was off the leaders’ pace; 1A Dove Creek’s Chorbin Cressler snatched up the last available team point with his eighth-place 12.20. Barnes and junior Jason Hampton-Foutz were later separated by just two hundredths of a tick in the 200 (27.58 and 27.60, respectively), but each still needed to slice off over 2.5 seconds to approach the leaders; Walker Cressler, this time, earned DCHS one point with an eighth-place 24.93.
IHS’ Nathyn Stollsteimer took tenth in the 400, clocking 1:01.25. He also ran 2:25.64 for twice the distance, and even joined Barnes, Hampton-Foutz plus Damien Escalara on a 4×400 relay which placed eighth (4:17.42) but scored three team points – rather than one – after times of two of DHS’ three entered crews were discounted.
Hampton-Foutz tied 2A Del Norte’s Issac Peerman for fourth in the pole vault, with each clearing the bar set ten feet high and each earning 4.5 team points, while Barnes scored one with his eighth-place 7’6” best.
Jeremy Roderick placed second in his flight in the shot put, throwing the heavy sphere 27 feet, 10.5 inches, but ultimately finished over ten feet short of eighth-place Evan Raymond (37’11.5”) of PSHS. Alric Hudson threw 24’4” and also 68’8” in the discus (Roderick managed 70’6.5”), but the eighth-place, team-scoring effort with that apparatus went to 3A La Jara Centauri’s Nephi Rodriguez (110’0.5”).
Up next, the Bobcats will head to the April 26-27 Aztec, N.M., Invitational. The Friday portion of the meet is set to begin at 2 p.m., with the Saturday session starting at 9 a.m. Ignacio will then host the San Juan Relays on Tuesday, April 30, with action currently scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.