Middle school track teams enjoy strong showing

RBC I Rio Blanco County’s middle school track teams had an outstanding meet Saturday in Craig. The weather was beautiful and proved conducive to fast times and long throws for both teams.
The meet started with field events with both Rangely and Meeker having a great deal of success early. Noah Overton placed first in the eighth grade boys’ discus, Troy Allred won the seventh grade boys’ triple jump, with Sam Nieslanik winning the event in eighth grade, as well as placing second in the long jump. Overton placed second in the shot put and seventh grader Casey Turner was third in both the shot and discus. Also placing in the boys’ field events was Ty Dunham was fifth in the high jump, Josh Turner was fourth in the long jump, Tom Chitwood was fourth in the triple jump and Chase Rule was fourth in the shot put.
In the girls’ field events, Kinzie Burke won the seventh grade girls’ long jump with Maggie Phelan placing fifth. Amanda Begaye finished fifth in the shot put.
The running events took off with the first starting gun at 9 a.m. for the 1600-meter run. Patrick Scoggins and Chris Hogan showed Rangely was a team to reckon with both winning the mile.
The hurdles were set up and Meeker’s Kinzie Burke finished second among seventh grade girls, and Reese Pertile was right behind her in third. The 100-meter dash was extremely exciting as Meeker’s eighth grade boys were first and second with T.J. Shelton and Devon Pontine respectively. Rangely’s Jesse Odom finished fourth in the event. In the seventh grade boys’ 100, Sheridan Harvey was second and Patrick Scoggins of Rangely was third. Rio Blanco County went first, second and third in the seventh grade girls’ 100. Halle Ahrens was first, Corinne Combs was second and Peyton Burke was third, all coming out of different heats. Chase rule finished fourth in the 800-meter run after an extremely fast start. The open 400-meter dash is always an impressive event to watch, eighth grade boys R. Barlow and D. Conner of Rangely finished third and fourth and Sam Lange of Meeker was fifth. In the seventh grade boys, Patrick Scoggins proved to be the best and B. Rhea was fourth in the seventh girls division. There were several individual runners that did not place but set a personal record in their event.

The relays were arguably the most exciting part of the day as Rio Blanco County teams performed very strong. In the 400-meter relay, the Meeker eighth grade boys ran away with the win and a school record of 48.72. Team members Dylan Frantz, Jacob Nielsen, Devon Pontine and T.J. Shelton set a mark that may be on the record board for years to come. The Rangely eighth grade boys finished second. Meeker’s seventh grade boys’ team of Casey Turner, Cole Brown, Tell Blanke and Sheridan Harvey had to come from behind to win the event and went on to win the 800-meter relay as well.
The winning streak continued for Meeker with the seventh grade girls’ team of Peyton Burke, Kinzie Burke, Reese Pertile and Halle Ahrens. Meeker’s eighth grade boys’ 800 relay team also won the event with Sam Nieslanik running the second leg. He upped the distance and ran the 400 for the medley relay with the Meeker boys finishing second in the event. Rangely’s eighth grade boys’ 1600-meter relay team finished fourth. The Meeker seventh grade girls’ 800-relay team with Maggie Phelan running first finished third despite a one turn stagger start opposed to the required four turn 800 start. The seventh grade girls’ medley won the event with team members Julia Eskelson, Peyton Burke, Caroline Copeland and Maggie Phelan.
As far as team scores were concerned, the eighth grade boys from Meeker were the overall winners with 55 points and Rangely finished third with 36. The eighth grade girls’ division was won by Craig with Rangely finishing fifth and Meeker ending up ninth. The seventh grade girls from Meeker ended the day third and in the seventh grade boys’ division Meeker finished a strong second and Rangely was fifth.
Overall the middle school kids had an outstanding meet. Meeker coach Marty Casey said, “I am very pleased with the effort from all the athletes, and am excited to see what we can accomplish at our future meets.” The Meeker team heads to Eagle Valley this weekend for their third meet before the final meet in Steamboat two weeks.