Fast as sophomore Cayson Burcham has been, he showed in Ignacio’s last regular-season track-and-field appearance that fast can get even faster when State Championships seeding is on the line.
Clocking a sizzling time of one minute, 57.52 seconds Saturday, May 10, Burcham not only placed first in the Montrose Invitational’s 800-meter run but did so by nearly six seconds ahead of second-place Bryce Flanagan, a Grand Junction senior. Coming in fourth was IHS teammate Trace Crane; the junior legged out a 2:07.70 as the event ended up being the Bobcats’ most fruitful – and a major source of the gents’ 48.5 team points.
All told, Ignacio placed seventh in the 22-team standings behind Basalt (52.5), Bayfield (66.5), Montezuma-Cortez (72), Hotchkiss North Fork (74), the hosting Red Hawks (75) and champion Palisade (84).
Junior Zane Pontine fared well in the pole vault, winning the specialty with a best clearance of 11 feet, nine inches, and Josh Kerrigan took seventh with his 8’9” best. With a measured tailwind exceeding CHSAA’s limit, excluding his effort from State seeding consideration, junior Lincoln deKay nevertheless laid down a 15.72 in the 110-meter hurdles and placed second behind only Basalt senior Jared Tennenbaum’s wind-boosted (the two ran in the same fourth heat) 14.93.
12th in the 800 (2:14.67), IHS junior James Martin clocked a 4:48.68 in the 1,600-meter run and placed fifth behind PHS junior Hyrum DeFord’s winning 4:34.16. He also joined deKay, Crane and Pontine in comprising IHS’ 4×400 relay, which took fifth in 3:40.90. Burcham, Crane, sophomore Thunder Windy Boy and junior Dillon Brann made up the Bobcats’ fifth-place (8:24.99) 4×800.
Additional top-tens came from Brann in the 300m hurdles (eighth, 44.48), junior Norman Hackett in the triple jump (eighth, 35’0.5”), junior Evan Perkins in the discus (ninth, 110’3”) and the deKay-Crane-Burcham-Brann 4×200 (ninth, 1:35.83).
Ignacio’s girls, meanwhile, were led by sophomore Kelly Sirios’ seventh-place 1:08.08 in the 400m dash, her wind-aided ninth-place 28.94 in the 200, and an eighth-place 1:59.41 clocked by the 4×200 quartet of juniors Juliann Avila and Kristen Neil, plus Sirios and freshman Alleah Neil.
Avila also managed a tenth-place 4’6” in the high jump, but the Lady ’Cats officially tallied just four points and ranked 22nd out of 24 scoring teams. Atop the stack sat Montrose (96 points), followed closest by Palisade (78), Cedaredge (64.5), Grand Junction (56) and Montezuma-Cortez (49.5).
Sirios finished 11th in the 100 meters, posting a time of 13.94 seconds, Alleah Neil took 14th in the 400 (1:10.11) and Avila did likewise in the 100m hurdles (18.91) for the IHS girls’ last top-15 result.
The 2025 Class 2A State Championships will be hosted Thursday through Saturday, May 15-17, at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood. Representing Ignacio will be Burcham (400, 800), deKay (110H, 300H), Pontine (pole vault) and the boys’ 4×8.