It’s been said that, in sports, one can’t coach speed.

But that’s exactly what seems to be right up the alley of Ignacio’s Tony Kimball, in terms of the week-to-week improvement of his 4×100-meter boys’ relay in two trips to his former sprinting grounds.

The quartet of Wyatt Hayes, Christian Knoll, Blaine Mickey and Miguel Perez had clocked 48.37 seconds their first time inside Bayfield’s Wolverine Country Stadium at the Bayfield Quad on April 5th, for a third-place finish, but then hastened to a second-place 46.62 at the April 12th Abel Velasquez Invitational—helping IHS to a third-place overall showing with 71 team points.

BHS’ 4×1 (John Arnold, Gabe Kaufmann, Brian Mashak, Nate Tate) won at the AVI with a 44.96, helping the meet’s co-hosts amass a second-place total of 146, just short of 4A Durango’s 150.  The Cats had ended fourth with 28.5, while DHS won with 152.5 and BHS followed with 93.

Perez’s victorious 17.4 in the 110-meter hurdles was likely the team’s highlight at the Quad, but Knoll made sure to make his own case the next weekend  –knocking almost eight-tenths off his time in the open 400, down to a winning 53.18 at the AVI from a third-place 53.95 at the Quad.

Hayes dashed across the finish line right behind in second at 53.39, and snapped up more big points for the cause with his winning 20’0.75” long jump.

Keith Joosten nearly claimed victory in the triple jump, but his runner-up 36’7” was over a foot behind the 37’11.25” of  DHS’ John Lee.

Squads from Dolores, Dove Creek, Lake City Community School, Mancos, Montezuma-Cortez, Nucla and Pagosa Springs also attended the 2014 AVI, but the Lady Bobcats were unable to improve upon a 16-point Bayfield Quad haul.

But in finishing eighth they did manage to equal it, led by Amya Bison’s second-place 14’4.5” long jump.  She’d previously helped the 4×1 (also including DaShona Lloyd, Azala Perez and Savannah Turner) take second at the Quad with an effort of 56.16 seconds.  Turner then added points with third in the open 100, finishing in 14.13.

Up next for IHS will be a third return to Wolverine Country  tomorrow for Bayfield’s 2014 Pine River Invitational, beginning at 9:00 a.m.  Results from the Bobcats’ short 4/15 trip westward to DHS’ Ron Keller Invitational, a 1 p.m. start, were unavailable by the Drum’s deadline.

On the horizon looms the Aztec, N.M., B&B Invitational on April 26.