Lady ’Cats collect four titles in Mancos
Sophomore-to-be Moriah Ashley won’t forget her first San Juan Basin League Track & Field Championships.
Entered in the June 8 meet’s two most grueling events, Ignacio’s young distance runner impressed with her second place showing in the 1,600-meter run – her 7:05.37 ranked behind only Mancos graduated senior Grace Manning’s 6:41.12 – but starred with a victory in the 3,200. Clocking 15 minutes, 44.70 seconds, Ashley finished nearly 1:20 ahead of MHS junior Aspen Bumgarner in earning IHS ten team points towards an eventual third-place total of 75.
Amassing 95 points, Telluride left MHS with the girls’ team title, while Manning, Bumgarner and the meet-hosting Lady Jays had to settle for being runners-up with 89. Dove Creek (66) and Ouray (42) rounded out the standings’ top five.
IHS senior-to-be Lexy Young captured a SJBL title in the 100-meter dash, clocking 13.86 seconds and beating Mancos junior Desi Dainty-Guilfoyle by 0.17. Repeating the feat in the 200, Young outran Dainty-Guilfoyle 28.37 to 28.67, and Young would also earn fourth in the 400 (1:08.10) with Laci Brunson (1:09.38) taking fifth.
With her own freshman campaign also starting to wind down, Lauren deKay finished the 1,600 in a fifth place 7:29.51. In the 800 meters, Ashley ran a tenth place 3:13.62 and deKay an 11th-place 3:18.23; Manning paced all with her 2:38.21. Ignacio’s 800m sprint medley relay placed third in 2:13.42.
Springtime dual-sport (soccer/track) junior Alexis Pontine won the discus with a best throw of 97 feet, 8 inches – an effort nearly nine feet farther than the best of Dolores’ Samantha Castillo, and well over 14 feet farther than that of Norwood’s Claire Jacobs. Pontine placed a surprise sixth in the 200, recording a time of 32.34 seconds, and Trinity Strohl just missed earning the Lady ’Cats another team point in the sprint with her ninth-place 33.60.
Brunson took fourth in the long jump, with a peak leap covering 14 feet, 1.75 inches.
On the boys’ side of things, a 2-3-4 performance in the long jump helped the Ignacio boys rack up 43 team points and ultimately place fifth behind DHS (50), DCHS (63), Ouray (141) and Mancos (171).
Freshman Camron Cooper took second in the specialty with a 17’1” max, with graduated senior Jawadin Corona (16’11.5”) and sophomore John Riepel (16’9.5”) finishing right behind him. Riepel would take ninth in the 100 meters and junior Tyler Barnes 11th, in respective times of 12.90 and 13.21 seconds, with Corona (13.51) finishing 13th. Barnes would also place fifth in the 200 with a 26.77.
Fourth place in the 800 with a 2:20.78, Cooper’s 5:14.20 in the 1,600 was good for another fourth, while freshman Trajan Garcia earned eighth with his 8:06.81 … after finishing eighth in the 800 with a 2:45.48 (for comparison, OHS sophomore Paton Edwards won in 2:00.68; MHS junior Edgar Hernandez took the 1,600 in 4:48.78).
Garcia would also attempt the 3,200 and placed third (14:02.80) out of three finishers (Hernandez won in 11:29.08).
In the discus, freshman Kyle Rima placed ninth with a best throw of 80 feet even, but neither Jeremy Roderick nor fellow junior Alric Hudson managed to mark. In the shot put, Hudson managed to take seventh place (33’10.5”) and Rima ninth (31’6”), but Roderick did not register a distance.
Next on the schedule for Ignacio was to be the June 17-18 Grand Junction Tiger Invitational, with action inside Ralph Stocker Stadium beginning at 9 a.m. each day, but results were unavailable at press time. The 2021 CHSAA State Track & Field Championships – spanning all classifications – are set for June 24-26 at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood.
2021 SJBL TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, BOYS’ STANDINGS
- Mancos 171
- Ouray 141
- Dove Creek 63
- Dolores 50
- IGNACIO 43
- Telluride 29
- Norwood 5
- Nucla 3
2021 SJBL TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, GIRLS’ STANDINGS
- Telluride 95
- Mancos 89
- IGNACIO 75
- Dove Creek 66
- Ouray 42
- Nucla 35
- Dolores/Norwood 24