Boesch breaks five-minute mile

Meeker High School freshman Jake Boesch broke the five-minute-mile time barrier last Saturday during a cold and rainy day in Rifle. Several other members of the Meeker track team set personal records (PR). The Meeker boys’ team finished second behind the host team and the girls placed sixth.
“Jake looked great in his one-mile race,” head coach Kris Casey said. “He broke five minutes and clocked in at 4:55.41 and he is now ranked 12th on the Varvee website.”
Lathrop Hughes also had a PR in the 800-meter run, running two laps in 2:16:56 and Alema Atoafa had a personal best in the long jump with a 19 foot, 7 1/2 inch jump. Tala Atoafa had personal bests in the triple jump, when his hop, skip and jump totaled 35-11 and in the 300-meter hurdles.
Meeker relay teams also had some success last week, with the boys’ 4×200 meter and 4×400 relay teams both recording their best times of the season. Toby Casias, Jared Frantz, Kevin Eli and Jake Nieslanik ran the 4×200 in 1:36.13, a team best that ranks them eighth on the Varvee website.
Casias and Frantz along with the Atoafas ran the 4×400 in 3:43.84, good enough to rank as the 12th best 2A time on the Varvee web site.
“Jared had an incredible anchor leg, catching two teams to place second and his split was 51 seconds,” Casey said of the senior speedster. “It was fun to watch.”
Since there will be no regional meet this year, the top 18 times and distances on the Varvee website will be used to determine state qualifiers.
The girls also had a relay team record a personal best when Adrienne Wix, Katie Morgan, Taylor Ahrens and Krissie Harman ran the 800 sprint medley in 2:04.73. Meeker junior Jordan Brown cleared 4-9 in the high jump for a personal best.
Meeker will run in Moffat County Friday, starting at 1 p.m.