MHS team performs well at event

The Husky Invitational at Battle Mountain High School in Edwards, Colo., resulted in another impressive team finish for the Cowboys track and field team.
The girls’ team finished third, behind host Battle Mountain High School and Rifle High School. The boys’ ended fourth, also behind much larger schools. The girls’ squad had many impressive performances, unfortunately only a few will count for state qualification due to the wind-aided times and distances in the afternoon.
Starting the day off for the girls was Sydney Hughes in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.42, earning second place and improving her previous best time by more than half a second. Hughes did not stop scoring points with that race. The 4×200-meter relay team of Kathryn Doll, Adrienne Wix, Linda Olivas and Hughes earned second place and ran a time that should qualify them for the state meet. Olivas had a great day as well, running a new personal best in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.83. This is a huge improvement from the beginning of the season when Olivas ran a 15.05 in the 100-meter dash. Her improvement has been a major factor in the girls’ sprint relays qualifying for the state meet.
Kathryn Doll continued her winning ways in the jumping events with her personal best mark of 17-7 in the long jump to win first place, and her mark of 35-9.5 in the triple jump, also enough for a first place finish. Teammates Aly Ridings and Piper Haney also scored points in the jumps. Ridings leaped to a personal best 16-4 in the long jump, earning fourth place, and Haney earned fourth place in the triple jump in her first time competing in the event this year. In the throws, Bailey Atwood continued earning valuable points for the team. Atwood placed third in the disc, with a new personal best of 110-7, and fourth in the shot.
The boys’ team also had some season-best performances. For the sprint relays, the group of Toby Casias, Jake Phelan, Tala Atoafa and Sebastian Clarke ran their fastest time of the season in the 4×100-meter relay with 45.72, earning third place. The same group of boys also ran the 4×200-meter relay earning third place, again running a season best time. Atoafa had an impressive outing with his first career attempt at the 110-meter high hurdles, earning fourth place, and coming close to breaking into the top 18. His scoring did not end there, he also earned second place in the triple jump. Phelan also contributed in the triple jump and the long jump, earning fourth and seventh place points.
On the distance side, the team was able to pick up a seventh place finish from the 4×800-meter relay of Lathrop Hughes, Caleb Lange, Aaron Cochran and Anthony Watt. Hughes also earned points in the 3200-meter run with a seventh place finish. The coming week will bring about the Western Slope League meet in Grand Junction at Stoker Stadium on Thursday, May 10, and Friday, May 11. Those athletes in the top 18 after this weekend will travel to Denver for the state tournament the following week.