Toby Casias won the 100- and 200-meter dashes last Saturday in Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction at the annual Frank Woodburn Invitational track meet. Casias’ top placing helped his team finish seventh in a field of 15 teams, featuring mostly 3A, 4A and 5A schools.
“Toby had a great day,” head coach Kris Casey said of her junior sprinter. “The weather was not fantastic but we only had rain for about an hour or so.”
Casias’ time of 11.47 in the 100, pre-qualified him for the state meet but because of the wind factor, his time of 24.16 in the 200 did not.
Casias, along with seniors Jared Frantz, Ryan Wix and Jake Nieslanik finished third in the 4×100-meter relay, as did the 4×200 relay team, which included Kevin Eli, Frantz and Nieslanik.
“Our boys’ relay teams looked really strong,” Casey said.
Several members of Meeker’s team were in Denver at a FCCLA conference and did not compete but it did allow several underclassmen to get experience.
“Jordan Smith took about 40 seconds off her mile time,” Casey said of the freshman. “Jake Boesch and Lathrop Hughes also improved their mile times and Lathrop also improved his time in the 800-meter dash.”
Sophomore Bailey Atwood finished sixth in the shot put and freshman Ohana Mataia placed seventh in the discus.
Adrienne Wix, Taylor Ahrens, Mariah Jensen and Brayden Bastian finished sixth in the 800-medley relay.
Alema finished fifth in the long jump, with a leap of 19 feet, 7.5 inches and was 15th in the triple jump. Frantz finished eighth in the 400 and Nieslanik was 10th in the 200.
“All of the coaches are very happy with how the kids performed,” Casey said. “We will have two meets this week: Friday in Coal Ridge and Saturday in Glenwood Springs.”