MEEKER I Two meets in two days ended up being no small task for the Meeker Cowboy runners, jumpers and throwers. Friday night the team traveled to Coal Ridge High School in New Castle and Saturday they competed in the Demon Invitational in Glenwood Springs. Both days the team was short-handed, due to many team members traveling to the state FCCLA competition in Denver.
The highlight of the meet for the Cowboys was freshman Jake Phelan winning the fourth annual Colter Gavito Memorial award. Phelan won the event by having the best triple jump mark out of all the freshman and sophomores competing at the meet. He also earned eighth place overall in the event with teammate Tala Atofa earning sixth. Also scoring points was Kathryn Doll winning first place in the triple jump. While the jumpers were busy at the pits, junior Bailey Atwood was at work in the throwing ring placing third in the shot and fifth in the discus in a very talented field of throwers. While other Cowboys had some good performances, there were not a large number of personal records due to the chilly conditions and the wind.
The second competition of the weekend in Glenwood Springs brought better results for many of the cowboys. Toby Casias improved yet again on his season best in the 100-meter dash, running to a second place finish in the finals with a time of 11.53. Kathryn Doll also ran well in the 100 earning fifth place and a season best time. Casias also placed in the 200-meter dash while Doll helped both the 4×100 and 4×200-meter relay teams earn points. The boys’ 4×200 meter relay of Jeff Wagner, Jordan Haney, Justin Hardy and Anthony Watt placed fifth. In the throwing ring Bailey Atwood again had a very productive day in the discus with a new personal best of 110 feet, earning first place. Some of the younger athletes had a productive meet, but still finished just out of range in terms of scoring points. Freshman Amber Holding ran an excellent 400-meter dash showing huge potential, Aaron Cochran and Caleb Lange ran very gutsy races in the 800-meter run and Joe Newman set a new personal best in the shot. The younger group of athletes is improving every weekend and should be able to secure some team points at the league championship in a few weeks when the team will compete against 2A competition only. This coming weekend the Cowboys will stay close to home competing in the Rifle Invitational on Saturday.
