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Guppies, er, Saints run well at Eaglecrest

Chris Freud

For all intents and purposes, the Vail Christian track and field team should have changed its mascot from the Saints to the Guppies at Saturday’s Lancer Invitational at Eaglecrest.

Vail Christian Guppies really doesn’t have a good ring and it certainly takes us away from the school’s founding philosophy, but it did describe the competition at Saturday’s meet.

Class 2A Vail Christian sent three runners to the Lancer Invitational to compete with athletes from 5A schools like Mullen and Montebello. Nevertheless, the Guppies, er, Saints held their own.



Rachel Glandorf, a 2A bronze medalist in the 800 meters last year, took fourth in half mile Saturday with a time of 2 minutes, 31.57 seconds.

“She ran a 2:30.32 at Grand Junction (at the Mickey Dunn Invitational earlier in the month) with no wind,” Saints coach Bob Isbell said. “So (Saturday’s) race was probably her best race of the year when you compare the wind.”

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Leslie Peterson, a fellow bronze medalist in 2003 in the 400, also turned heads. She ran a 1:01.05, good for fifth in the 400. She also clocked in at 13.47 seconds in the 100 and had a personal-best 27.61 in the 200. Those last two times didn’t qualify her for the final heat, but those marks may be a good omen when the Saints start running in the 2A Mountain League.

“It’s tough to figure,” Isbell said. “But, we need that competition to get ready for state and she really competed well.”

And look out for Karlie Peterson, Leslie’s younger sister. She ran a 31.72, a personal-best, in the 200 as a freshman.

The Saints will have their full squad Saturday when they head to the Eagle Valley Invite in Gypsum and Isbell is excited to see how things pan out.

“I’m very excited. It’s great,” he said. “You look at what Rachel, Leslie and Karlie have been doing and then you bring on Amanda Larson, Brittany Wright, Molly McGee and the rest of the crew. That’s exciting.”


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