HS Track Competes at Bulldog Invite
By: Coach Peters
Lake County High School’s track & field team participated in the Tiger/Bulldog Invitational held at Hayden High School and Friday Night Lights hosted by Pueblo West High School last week. At both meets, t-shirts were awarded to event champions, and the Panthers brought home quite a bit of apparel.
Anthony Martinez earned 7 t-shirts for his 7 events during the week. His victories came in some of his strongest events, like the 110 meter hurdles, which he won in both competitions with times of 15.52 and 15.17 seconds. But he also got a win in the triple jump, an event that he had never tried before. His best leap of 39’4” was the top mark at the meet, and it ranks him 8th in the 2A state standings. Martinez set personal bests in the 100 m dash (11.17), long jump (20’6”), and the 200 m dash (23.18) on his way to victory in those events.
Fabian Jimenez brought home t-shirts for winning the 400 m dash at both invitationals. He ran 51.53 at Hayden and 51.32 in Pueblo. Jimenez finished 2nd in the Hayden triple jump, with a personal record (PR) of 38’8.5” and in the 200 m in Pueblo with a new PR of 23.38.
Jace Peters won his shirt in the pole vault on Friday. He reached a PR of 11’5” to achieve the victory. Aurora Marruffo also won the pole vault event in Pueblo. Her clearance of 8’10” was a PR and improvement of her school record.
The final individual event champion was Keira King, who ran the 2nd half of her 1600 m run faster than the first half, broke through the 6 minute barrier for the first time, and finished in 5:56.
The 4 x 400 m relay was the last event of the Tiger/Bulldog Invitational. Obed Tarango, Javier Lazano, Peters and Jimenez teamed up for a dominant performance, winning the race in a time of 3:39.
On Friday night, the Pueblo meet concluded with a coaches 4 x 100 m relay. The Lake County coaches answered the challenge by winning the race easily and earning their own set of t-shirts, despite getting bombed with water balloons by the high school athletes.
Other Panther athletes who finished in the top 8 places of their events were Avery Milne (6’10” in the pole vault for 2nd), Morgan Holm (6’4” in the pole vault for 3rd), Violet Hill (13:44 in the 3200 m for 3rd), Jaycee Windorski (4’9” in the high jump for 4th), Molly Coleman (4’7” in the high jump for 6th and 4th), Marruffo (13.48 in the 100 m for 3rd and 56.17 in the 300 m hurdles for 5th), Eli Durand (20.66 in the 110 m hurdles for 4th, 50.59 in the 300 m hurdles for 7th and 7’10” in the pole vault for 7th), Cody Hall (17’3” in the long jump for 4th), Ivan Liewer (36’5.75” in the triple jump for 4th and 16’2” in the long jump for 7th), Anthony Harris (8’10” in the pole vault for 6th), James Garrison (4’11” in the high jump for 7th), Peters (44.35 in the 300 m hurdles for 4th and 10:55 in the 3200 m run for 7th), and Tarango (21.47 in the 110 m hurdles for 7th).
The relay team of Garrison, Tarango, Lazano and Hall placed 2nd in Hayden with a time of 1:40.36 and 5th in Pueblo with a time of 1:40.01.
The Panthers head to Bennett High School on Thursday, June 10, for the Frontier League Championships, where the Lake County boys team hopes to accomplish a 4-peat as team champions and the girls team looks for their first Frontier League team title.