Middle school track team finishes on a good note

MEEKER — The Barone Middle School track team finished its season last weekend with a meet in Steamboat. After a week of bad weather, Saturday turned out to be a great day for a track meet.
The seventh-grade girls completed their sweep by winning all four of the meets in which they participated. The 4×100 relay team of Bailey Atwood, Maclaine Shults, Savannah Vaden and Cassie Fronatt finished an undefeated season as did the 4×200 and 4×400 team consisting of Kaysyn Chintala, Anna George, Tristen Nielsen and Jordan Brown who were only .5 seconds off the mile relay record.
The medley relay team of Courtnie Blazon, Nicole Hilkey, Kaysyn Chintala and Kristin Rowland also did a great job finishing first or second in every outing. Along with the team and relay success there is certainly some individual recognition in order, beginning with Bailey Atwood who broke the 15-year-old shot put record at the Rangely meet a week ago.
Jordan Brown won the triple jump in all three meets she participated in that event and Tristen Nielsen ran an incredible 400-meter dash to win that event Saturday. Savannah Vaden ran a 6:32 mile in her first time in the event and showed tremendous heart doing it.
Kaysyn Chintala ran in three relays for the team as well as placing well in the 200-meter dash. Cassie Fronatt won two of the four meets in the 100-meter dash and placed in the top four in Steamboat.
The seventh-grade girls did a remarkable job all season. They worked extremely hard and showed a ton of heart and athleticism in all of the events. It was certainly neat to see a great group of girls have success.
The eighth-grade girls had a great season as well.
The 4×100 relay team of Adrienne Wix, Randia Rule, Katie Morgan and Kathryn Doll also went undefeated for the season.
The relay teams this year were coached by Debbie Cook and they truly did dominate the meets.
It is indeed the volunteers that make the program successful. One proof of that was Kathryn Doll’s win in the triple jump in all four meets but doing it in record fashion in Steamboat. She broke a 15-year-old record with a jump of 31-4. Shane Phelan has been working with the jumpers and clearly their effort paid off.
Doll also won the 100 dash in all four meets and only missed the record by .05 seconds. Adrienne Wix also showed her athleticism and hard work with a second in the triple and 100 dash in the meets.
Randia Rule placed highly in the 100 and 200 dashes in all four meets and Katie Morgan was always a top three competitor in the shot put and discus.
On the boys’ side, Toby Casias had an incredible meet last week in Rangely, breaking the 200 record, coming within a half of a second to the 400 record and anchoring the 4×100 record breaking relay team.
Justin Hardy, Nick Brink and Christopher Ruckman joined Toby to run an amazing 51.4 second 400. The team changed by one member Saturday and ran the 4×400 relay. They lapped three of the teams they were competing against and ran a 4:18.
The team was obviously unbeaten on the year. The 4×200 team of Jordan Haney and Trey Morris (alternating meets), Cameron Tegeder and Lake Bullard won three out of four meets and improved with every attempt.
The 800-meter medley relay of Collin Cochran, Aaron Pena, Charlie Scherbarth and Ethan Overton did a great job this season finishing from first to fourth in the event. They worked extremely hard all season and along with the rest of the team deserve a ton of credit.
The seventh-grade boys 4×100 relay team changed in all four meets with Nate Walsh starting it off in every meet, followed by Alex Smith, Ben Fitzgibbons, and (alternating) Drew Collins and Wyatt Rowlett. The team did a great job this season and individual seventh-grade boys showed great improvement throughout the year.
There are undoubtedly kids who did not get mentioned but that is not to say their effort is not greatly appreciated.
All 41 athletes contributed to the team and made it a fun and successful season. Once again, the team would like to thank all of the volunteers that helped with the middle school meet, as well as a huge thank you to the volunteers that came up to practice to work with the kids.
This year out of four divisions in four meets (total of 16) the middle school kids won four, were second in seven and third in four. They broke five records and were a combined two seconds from four other records. All of this done in a year that did not offer good weather and required the kids to practice in difficult conditions. They certainly proved they are a great bunch of kids.