Special to the HT
MEEKER | The Barone Middle School track and field team wrapped up its season with a strong stretch of meets, building on a midseason surge that featured multiple school records, relay wins and standout individual performances across several weeks of competition.
The momentum began in Rifle, where the 4×200-meter relay team of Thomas Theos, Dylan Blaisdell, Ridge Butler and Gael Rodriguez set a new school record in 1:41.06. Rodriguez led the way individually with wins in the 100 meters (12.12 seconds), 200 meters (25.50) and long jump (18 feet, 5 inches). Theos added a first-place finish in the 400 meters in 59.69 seconds, while Tadeo Gonzales won the shot put with a mark of 32-11. The sprint medley relay team of Butler, Ian Shimko, Dillon Koenig and Tyler Follman also earned a win in 2:01.88. On the girls side, Riley Wilson won the 100 meters in 14.12 seconds.
At Thursday’s Meeker Relays, the Cowboys boys team continued its record-setting run. The 4×800 relay team of Myles Dupire, Parker Dupire, Ollie Thomson and Quinn Thomson finished in 11:00.54. The distance medley team of Zane Dixon, Parker Dupire, Xander Bourchard and Noah Hanberg posted a time of 4:50.46. The 4×100 relay team of Theos, Case Conway, Butler and Rodriguez ran 48.47 seconds, while the 4×400 relay team of Theos, Conway, Butler and Rodriguez finished in 3:59.91.
Additional first-place finishes in Meeker included the boys sprint medley relay team of Conway, Shimko, Blaisdell and Follman, and the 4×200 relay team of Theos, Blaisdell, Butler and Rodriguez. On the girls side, the 4×100 relay team also placed first. The coed thrower 4×100 relay team of Gonzales, Spencer Bair, Dillon Koenig and Cambrey Rogers added another victory.
The streak continued in Steamboat Springs, where more school records fell. Rodriguez set a new mark in the 100 meters at 11.67 seconds. He also joined Theos, Conway and Butler on a record-setting 4×100 relay team. Rodriguez added wins in the 200 meters and long jump, while the 4×200 relay team of Conway, Shimko, Butler and Rodriguez and the 4×400 relay team of Parker Dupire, Miles Dupire, Noah Hanberg and Xander Borchard also took first.
Barone closed its season at meets in Hayden and the Best of the Best competition with more record-breaking performances. At Hayden, Noah Hanberg broke the seventh-grade school record in the 800 meters, taking five seconds off the previous mark to lower it to 2:30.
At the Best of the Best meet, Graysie Coryell capped her season by breaking the girls eighth-grade 800-meter record, shaving five seconds off the previous mark to finish in 2:39. The boys sprint medley relay team of Rodriguez, Case Conway, Ridge Butler and Theos set a new school record in 1:48.33. The same quartet also lowered the 4×100 relay record to 47.50 seconds, putting an exclamation point on their middle school track careers.
With records falling across multiple grades and events, Barone Middle School closed the season with sustained depth, speed and a strong relay core that carried the program through its final meets.
Members of the Barone Middle School track and field team pose for a photo after closing out a successful season that included multiple school records, relay victories and standout individual performances at meets in Rifle, Meeker, Steamboat Springs, Hayden and the Best of the Best meet this spring.
