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Eagle Valley’s Samantha Blair bronze in 800

The sister act continues

Nearly half of the nine-place podium in the state 800 is from Eagle County. Eagle Valley's Joslin Blair is fourth, the Devlls' Samantha Blair third, Battle Mountain's Naomi Harding fifth and Lizzie Harding seventh.
Special to the Daily

The Blairs are going to Blair and the Hardings are going to Harding.

Yes, to Blair and to Harding are verbs the way this 4A state meet is going.

The Hardings took Round 1 on Thursday with the 3,200-meter relay title. Give Round 2 on Friday to the Blairs.



And, to be more specific, give Round 2 to Eagle Valley’s Samantha Blair, who topped all locals in Friday’s state 800, finishing third with a time of 2 minutes, 13.54 seconds.

Not bad for a freshman.

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As Devils coach Jeff Shroll put it, Friday’s 800 was a race for second. That’s no disrespect to the Blair or Harding sisters as Niwot’s Taylor James is in her own world when it come to running two laps.

James won going away with a 2:08.29, the new 4A state meet record, thank you. Steamboat Springs’ Maggi Condon was 5 seconds behind, followed by younger Blair.

Joslin Blair took fourth with a time of 2:14.44.

“That was a great strategic race on the Blairs’ part,” Shroll said. “They did a phenomenal job. They’re so coachable. They executed their plan and ran exactly with who they needed to run when to move up and it paid off for them.”

Here’s some fun trivia. Joslin Blair, junior, won her sixth state medal on Friday with fourth place. As accomplished as the older sister has been — she well on her way to being the best female runner the school has ever had between cross-country and track — Joslin did not medal as an individual as a freshman.

As a first year, she was on the 1,600 and 3,200 relays and was 14th in the open 800. Samantha took bronze on Friday in the 800.

Sorting out the school records, Samantha broke Joslin’s mark in the 800, and did so in cross-country in the fall. Joslin holds the 1,600 and the 3,200.

On Friday, Samantha also took care of business, qualifying in the 300-meter hurdles. The finals are today.

Both Blairs will be in today’s 1,600. Joslin is the defending champion. Also, Miguel Castillo and Yanitza Carbajal also compete in the triple jump.

Naomi takes 800 record

The Liberty Bell meet back in April was a bit awkward. Battle Mountain went 1-2 in the 800 with Lizzy Harding setting the new school record in the event with a time of 2:15.15 ahead of sister, Naomi.

Battle Mountain’s Naomi Harding (5) becomes the first Huskies female to break 2 minutes, 15 seconds in the 800 meters. (Special to the Daily)
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The only thing was that Naomi had been going for that school record for most of her career at Battle Mountain. On Friday at state, Naomi took the school record from Lizzy with a 2:14.88. Naomi took fifth and Lizzy seventh.

Battle Mountain’s 1,600 relay team of Sofia Piliero, Sabrina Sutter and the Hardings qualified third on Friday with a time of 4 minutes-flat.

In coming attractions for Battle Mountain in state, the Hardings go in the mile today, while Sutter takes off in the 200; Max Christenberry chucks in the shot put and the 1,600 relay tries for a medal.


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