Eagle Valley racks up 10 individual wins at home track invitational

Hudson Wyatt summed up the Devil’s home track meet well.

“Today,” he started, huffing hard after setting a nearly 2-second personal best in the 300-meter hurdles, “today is a good day.”

Wyatt was one of three athletes who recorded double victories at the Eagle Valley Invitational on Saturday. In addition to his wins in the 110 and 300-meter hurdles, Dylan Blair duked past his brother in the 1600 and went sub-2 for the first time in the 800 later in the day while Wynn Sanders won the 100 and led an Eagle Valley podium sweep in the 200. All afternoon, the Devils fed off each other.

“It’s great — to come out and represent at our home meet, to put on one last show for us seniors for the home crowd. I think it’s been really fun,” said Blair, who jogged right from the finish of his half-mile victory to the high jump pit to congratulate Jason Flaherty on clearing 6-feet, 3-inches.

“He was stoked with that,” Blair said of his teammate, a rare breed of athlete who can run cross-country 5Ks, toy with sub-50 in the 400-meter dash and post a state-qualifying high jump mark without hardly any plyometric-specific training to speak of.

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“He’s shorter than me and can jump so high,” Blair continued.

The camaraderie between Eagle Valley athletes led to wins in every single individual boys track event except the 3200-meter run (where no one was entered). On the girls side, Lily Brueck won the 300-meter hurdles, took second in the 100-meter hurdles and picked up a bronze in the 200-meter dash.

“100s felt really strong,” Brueck said. “Not my best (in the 300) but it’s still early season, so there’s a lot of time to improve.”

On the distance side, freshman Nina Hasseltine picked up a 33-second win in the 3200-meters, finishing eight laps in 12:27.90.

In the field, Tiago Horruitiner — who came into the meet as Colorado’s all-classification long jump leader — took the discipline before flying out to tour the University of Florida. Shortly after, a couple of other NCAA DI recruits — Tyler and Dylan Blair — tore away from the field in the 1600-meter run. Dylan Blair towed his twin brother through the first lap in 62 seconds.

“The plan was for Dylan to go out and lead,” Tyler Blair said before smiling and adding: “Not so hot, though.”

“I was just really excited for it I guess,” added Dylan Blair, who was targeting 4:15 or 4:16. The next lap was a 68, however, and times were tossed out the window as the race evolved into a dual in the sun between brothers.

“It’s kind of crazy, senior year, going to Montana (State),” Tyler Blair said when asked what was going through his mind — other than the pain from increasing lactic acid accumulation — during the final revolutions around his home track. “Just trying to enjoy the last high school track season.”

In the end, Dylan Blair edged his brother out, 4:24.27 to 4:25.52. Summit’s Cain Steinweg was 20 seconds back in third. A few hours later, the Blairs lined up again in a relatively stacked 800. Dylan Blair once again set the tempo, coming through the first split in just over 60 seconds. Tyler Blair sat in the slipstream along with Battle Mountain junior Nate Beuche. On the final backstretch, Dylan Blair threw in a monster surge.

“I could see that Dylan was itching to move. So when he did, I was like, I’ll just follow him,” said Beuche, who came into the event fresh and focused on a sub-2-minute time. Blair said he slightly regretted his move when he hit 200 to go.

“I realized I might have gone a little early,” Blair said. “But it ended up being good. I just had to grit out the last 100.”

Dylan Blair dropped a negative split, breaking the tape first in 1:59.95. He held off Beuche, who was able to glide by Tyler Blair for silver in 2:01.17. Even though it wasn’t a personal best, the Husky was proud of how he competed.

“I respect Tyler and it’s also nice to beat someone who is good,” Beuche said. “This is a competition, that’s what I wanted to do – just beat somebody.”

Beuche broke 10 minutes in the 3200-meters for the first time this season and believes he’s capable of going under 4:30 in the mile.

“I feel probably the fittest I’ve ever felt,” he said before praising his young team for its enthusiasm. “Our team has been doing great. It’s nice to have people who want to get out here and compete and I feel like Coach Parish has really helped us do that this year.”

Other Husky highlights included Kye Gosnell and Sawyer Willis tying for fifth in the pole vault, sophomore Simone Dozois claiming a third-place in the discus and Reese McCommons rocketing into fourth in the 400-meter dash (1:01.56). In the boys’ one-lap sprint, Eagle Valley senior Henry Martin stepped down in distance to take the win.

“I thought it was kind of funny, I was the only guy not using blocks, because I don’t know how to. But it felt really good. Last 100 meters was strange, being alone,” Martin said after running 52.08. Teammate Ivan Jaeger was second in 52.35, over two seconds in front of the third-place athlete. Both athletes started training for the season in December.

“(This year is the) first time I’ve really locked in this much,” said Martin, whose main event is the 800. “But especially at the home meet, I’ve never won anything like this.”

“I’d say it’s now definitely paying off,” added Jaeger, who also placed seventh in the 100 and was third in the 200. After graduating Kingston Clous and Blake Anderson from a team that set six school records last spring, Jaeger said there was some uncertainty coming into the season.

“A lot of us have stepped up. We took a lot of initiative, some leadership, because at the beginning of the season we weren’t sure about all of our big seniors from last year leaving,” he explained. “We weren’t sure how this year was going to pan out, but I’d say it’s gone better than expected.”

Sanders received a few block-start tips from Clous earlier in the season as the Western Colorado University freshman came home to train over spring break.

“I think I pieced it together and now my start is looking pretty good. I just have to work on that top-end speed,” Sanders said. “I’ve gotten a little bit faster every meet so I think as long as I keep chipping away at it, I can beat my previous record.”

When asked about the Devils’ collective energy reverberating across event groups all afternoon, Sanders said it all comes back to culture.

“We always keep a high standard. We compete really well in practice with each other – I think that’s showing on the track on meet day,” he said. “Everyone really tries to support each other, help each other out and cheer each other on to do their best.”

Nowhere was that more evident than after Wyatt busted out his two-second win in the 300-meter hurdles (40.31). After a getting hugs from his teammates and coaches, the junior thanked head coach Jeff Shroll and distance/winter track coach Charlie Janssen for guiding his improvement.

“I want to give them a big shout out,” Wyatt said.

Looking ahead, Wyatt didn’t offer a particular result when asked if his goals needed to be readjusted after Saturday. Instead, he simply provided the required recipe for more “great days.”

“Just try to do better,” he said. “Every single race, come in thinking, like, ‘I had the spirit last week, I’ve been training all week, I can do better than I did last time.’ (I) can’t wait for next meet. I can’t wait to see my teammates do better, too.”