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Huskies start season well at Harrison Relays

Chris Freud

COLORADO SPRINGS – No snow is a nice concept for Battle Mountain track and field.”The first time we saw the track was last Saturday when we shoveled it,” Huskies coach Rob Parish joked.One week later, the Huskies had 60 or so competitors in the Harrison Relays, and looked sharp despite not being outdoors much.”They looked fantastic,” Parish said. “We really stressed the whole week that this was kind of a glorified workout. Today was the first day the throwers threw outside, that any of the jumpers jumped into the pit, that any of the runners could run around the track without having to avoid snow banks.”

Without snow banks, the Huskies were fast. In a development shocking to absolutely no one, the boys’ 3,200-meter relay led the way in second place. Tony Crisofulli, Derek Byron, Jonny Stevens and T.J. Simpson clocked in at 8 minutes, 32 seconds.Crisofulli shined for the Huskies with a 2:03 split, good for a personal best.The time of 8:32 is interesting in a few ways. Just two years ago, that would have been only 3 seconds off the old school record. But Connor Drumm, Shea Phelan, Stevens and Byron pushed that mark down to 7:58.64 at the state meet last year. On the other hand, this year’s quartet is 10 seconds ahead of where last year’s team was at this point in the season. Stay tuned.In the mile relay, an individual 1,600 race scored like a cross country race, Travis Landauer, Stevens, Simspon, Crisofulli and Mario Gonzalez took fifth.Stevens’ first mile of the year was clocked in 4:54.

The 800-meter boys’ relay isn’t far off the school record of 1:32. Todd Walker, Ascher Robbins, Aaron Wilcox and Andreas Apostol put up a 1:35.8, despite a bad handoff. The girls’ 3,200 team of Cecilia Garcia, Marit Johnson, Shannon O’Rourke and Olivia Fauland were eighth.Levi Horn started the season in pole vault, going 12 feet, good for fourth.The Huskies left before receiving results in the throwing events, however, Parish speculated that the boys’ shot put quartet of Mitch Gray, Punky Carlos, Lucas Brown and Gio Brown and girls’ discus crew of Kaleigh Quintana, Max VanDyke, Jenna Oppenheimer and Rachel Cassidy picked up points.Next up for Battle Mountain are the Horizon Relays Saturday.Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.Going lowerThe Battle Mountain boys’ 3,200 meter relay team has made a habit of changing the school record in the last few years. In Saturday’s season opener, the team got off to good start, a time that would have put them close to the company of Duncan Allen, Chris Isbell, Tavius Sims and Carl Acuff, who held the mark from 1992-2005. Here’s a look at the best times in school history in the 3,200:8:32March 10, 20078:29.45Old-1992 school record 8:15April 30, 20058:07May 14, 20058:04.44May 12, 20067:58.64May 19, 2006


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