Ignacio girls tenth overall in Bayfield
With graduation at Ignacio High happening the same day, Bobcat Track & Field still managed to compete at the May 22, 2021, Pine River Invitational in Bayfield and come away with some positive results.
Most occurred on the girls’ side of things; paced by junior sprinter Lexy Young’s three top-ten performances, the Lady ’Cats accumulated 21 team points and ranked tenth when all was said and mostly done. With wind and rain arriving in force prior to the meet-ending boys’ and girls’ 4×400-meter relays, the decision was made to call it a day with Durango nowhere near to being caught; the Lady Demons racked up 183.5 points, more than doubling up 3A Montezuma-Cortez’s 85 and 3A Alamosa’s 76.
Young placed fifth in the 100-meter dash, with her 14.24-second time ending up only 0.01 slower than DHS sophomore Ava McClellan’s and 1.12 behind M-CHS junior Avery Wright’s winner. IHS sophomore Trinity Strohl ended up 24th in 16.57.
Young would take seventh in the 200, clocking 30.70 seconds (Wright won in 28.44), while sophomore teammate Harmony Reynolds finished 20th in 34.60. Wright would complete a solid sprint sweep with her first place 1:01.12 in the 400, while IHS sophomore Laci Brunson placed seventh in 1:12.38 and Young tenth in 1:13.63.
The 800m medley relay unit placed third out of three entries, clocking 2:26.78.
Freshman Lauren deKay came in 14th in the 800m run, recording a time of 3:30.80, and Strohl finished 21st in 3:58.47. Freshman Moriah Ashley starred in the 1,600, placing eighth (out of 19) in 7 minutes, 17.23 seconds, and deKay took 13th in 7:43.24. Ashley also took on the 3,200 meters and placed fourth out of four in a time of 16 minutes, 0.64 seconds (DHS junior Tea Forrest, by comparison, won in 12:39.23).
In the field, Brunson placed eighth in the long jump with a best leap of 13 feet, 7.75 inches, while junior Alexis Pontine – this spring a dual-sport track/soccer athlete – tied AHS sophomore Heather Lee for 11th in the shot put with a best 25’7” heave. Pontine’s discus effort was even more impressive; she placed ninth with a 78’7” best.
The Bobcat boys, meanwhile, were shut out of the scoring but had several near misses.
Freshman distance runner Camron Cooper turned in a team-leading tenth-place (out of 19) time of 2:27.16 in the 800, and also took tenth (again out of 19) in the 1,600 with his 5:19.89. Sophomore John Riepel finished 12th in the 100, clocking 13.35 seconds, and also finished 13th in the 200 with his 28.09. Junior Tyler Barnes ended up 16th in 28.96. Neither Riepel nor Barnes, however, recorded a successful pole vault, nor Cooper a qualifying long jump.
Junior thrower Alric Hudson managed to place 15th in the shot with a 33’5.5” best. Classmate Jeremy Roderick was 19th at 32’2”, and freshman Kyle Rima 25th at 23’6”. Durango junior William Knight and 2A Mancos junior Connor Showalter, however, were on another plane; the former won with a throw of 49 feet, 7.5 inches, while the latter earned second with a 48-footer.
Hudson would finish 13th in the discus, with a peak throw of 104’9”, while Roderick and Rima were each unable to record a distance. DHS sophomore Joshua Bates would win with a 145’2” launch; Showalter (144’6”) again settled for second.
All told, Durango captured the boys’ team title with 151 points; 3A Pagosa Springs was runner-up with 83.5.
Up next on the schedule, Ignacio was to travel to Mancos on Saturday, May 29, for the Blue Jay Invitational (results were unavailable at press time), then hit DHS’ Ron Keller Invitational on Sat., June 5.
2021 PINE RIVER INVITATIONAL GIRLS’ STANDINGS
- Durango 183.5
- Montezuma-Cortez 85
- Alamosa 76
- Pagosa Springs 52
- Bayfield 47.5
- La Jara Centauri 41
- Del Norte 34.5
- Dove Creek 30
- Mancos 28
- IGNACIO 21
- Mosca Sangre de Cristo 20
- Monte Vista 12.5
- Sanford 4
- Dolores 1