Boulder Invitational II

Niwot's girls are giving every appearance of being a legitimate 4A title contender. Assuming they can keep the wheels on the wagon for another 10 weeks, they should be able to mix it up with perennial powers like Mullen and Thompson Valley at the state meet.

Valor Christian is making noises within the ranks of 4A boys. A 3:26.81 4x400 in March has a way of getting people's attention.

And, for those who can remember Tinker to Evers to Chance, start thinking about Hardy to Warner to Wright. This trio of Silver Creek sprinters is going to make things difficult within the ranks of 4A boys sprinters.

City to City Challenge

A good number of hurdlers had nice opening weekends. Start your list with Caylee Packham of Loveland and keep your pencil sharp as you work your way through this summary. By the way, Packham runs a couple of mean relay legs in her spare time.

And, surprise, Thompson Valley was the first girls' 4x800 to dip below 10 minutes this season (I'll get you for this, Matt!).

Finally, Amy Medina had an Amy Medina kind of day in Greeley on Saturday.

Fort Morgan Invitational

It seems kind of fitting that an apparent reprise of last year's throwing fest in Colorado high school track and field starts to take hold in Fort Morgan. History tells us that testosterone-laden athletic activities find fertile ground out in Fort Morgan. This time, its A. J. Frieler and Reece James taking over for last year's usual suspects.

And, Samantha Berggren definitely took the long road to serve notice that she is back strong and intends to be heard from this season. An opening day combo pack of 57.87, 2:21.47, and 5:22.47 tells us one of two things--either things are once again right with the world in Granby or Sam Berggren has an unusual affinity for times ending with a 7 digit. But, do you really mean to tell me Panthers couldn't find a meet closer than Fort Morgan?

Horizon Early Bird Invitational

There are plenty of things too wonderful for my brain, by I can wrap my mind around this one. It was not exactly tropical anywhere in Colorado on Wednesday. Despite that, Carly DeLorenzo of Arvada West goes and uncorks a 12.59 100 meter dash. I figure that makes her a 5A sprint contender.

Liberty Lancer Invitational

No Hanenburg? No problem for TCA. While Kaitlin Hanenburg was taking a well-deserved week off of competition after a long season of basketball, the other Titan girls were having a nice day on the track. 123 points and individual titles for Samantha Reid (200), Shelby Stableford (3200), and Emily LaValley (300 hurdles), plus two relay titles (including a 4x800 that took more than 10 minutes).

Just as dominant on the boys' side was Fountain-Fort Carson. Two relay titles, a sweep of the shot and disc by Jamarius Mathis, plus Bankston's 100 title and a win in the 400 for Brandon Parson gave the Trojans a large gap on the field. Pencil them in as 5A boys contenders.

A just-too-fast 2.4 wind kept a 14.98 and a 15.27 for Ben Hinckfoot and Hunter Warwick, respectively, from counting for prequalification or rankings. Figure both will be working at fixing that situation next week. Photo by Alan Versaw.

NCAA DII Indoor Championships

Okay, so this wasn't exactly a high school meet, but you need to know that Adams State just won the men's national indoor championship on the strength of scoring 33 points in the mile and 32 points in the 5000 meters. Do you suppose Damon Martin knows something about coaching distance events?

Pueblo East Invitational

The timing system demons were not kind to Kita Alvares of Cheyenne Mountain. At least not in the 100 hurdles. Her 15.1h won't go into the rankings. Alvares came back and clobbered the field in the 300 hurdles, this time with a time that the timing system captured.

Doherty's Jordan Rand picked up where she left off in the triple jump. Most people start off 40 meters or so back on the runway, but Rand seems to start from the pit. Her 39-0 suggests 40 feet is in view before the end of the season. Doherty's girls scarcely needed the help, winning by a huge margin. Alexis Cooks made sure the boys around the state weren't the only ones enjoying a throwing fest.

Doherty's boys needed every point they could get, however, including a sweep of the short sprints from Kenny Chambers, to edge crosstown rival Coronado by a single point.

And, hold the presses, I believe Megan Patterson of Dolores Huerta just posted the all-time best 3A shot put mark at 43-9.

Rock Canyon Jaguar Invitational

While Eaglecrest dominated both divisions of this meet, you missed something if you didn't notice that Discovery Canyon means to be heard from in their final season in 3A. Not many 3A schools can go to a big-school meet and post points like the Thunder did on Saturday.

That blur you think you might have seen in the hurdle events was Kami Mendez of Denver East.

Reggie Allison of Palmer sharpened his skills in his two signature events, the 110 hurdles and the triple jump. Allison won both events easily.

Ryan Poland of Denver Christian posted a very nice 4:28.37 to win the 1600.

ThunderRidge Invitational

It's convenient that ThunderRidge comes late in the alphabet of school names. That allowed me to save the best for last.

Ryan Poland had a nice 1600 at the Rock Canyon Invitational, but Walter Schafer and Chris Ganem were simply outstanding at the TR Invitational, going 1-2 with times of 4:15.68 and 4:19.75. I think I could believe that one overly ancient 1600 record just might bite the dust this year. We shall see.

Schafer's teammate Clare Gallagher established the early season top marks for the girls' 1600 and 3200. The Bruins have the goods in distance.

Vanessa Fabrizio has been racing over the winter and it shows. A 2:17.55 isn't a typical March mark in the 800. Of course, neither is three sub-1:58s in the boys 800.  Somebody go remeasure the Mullen track and report back to us, please.

Finally, it looks as if we may need to get accustomed to hearing the name of Paige Follett (Chaparral) in the jumping events. For those of us with a distance orientation, it may be hard to associate the surname of Follett with jumping, but it looks like Paige has the plan.

Oops, almost forgot, that 15.27 with a -2.1 wind by Mr. Casey Young of Regis Jesuit was a very nice time over the 110 hurdles for so early in the season.