YOUR AD HERE »

Battle Mountain Huskies track and field repeats as champions

Battle Mountain's Naomi Harding eyes the home stretch during the 4A Western Slope League Meet on Saturday, May 5. Running out of her comfort zone, Harding won the open 400 meters, helping the Huskies to the league title.
Special to the Daily

GRAND JUNCTION — Meet the new champs, the same as the old champs.

Battle Mountain girls track and field repeated at 4A Western Slope champions on Saturday, May 5, at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction.

The dynasty continues with some fun with numbers.



• This is the team’s fifth title in seven springs.

• This is the 20th major title — league in track; region in cross-country or state crown — for the school’s running squads between the boys and girls under coach Rob Parish.

Support Local Journalism



• The Class of 2018 has won seven of eight league/regional titles in cross-country and track and field.

That would be some serious bling.

As always with league meets, the key is shuffling the deck. The Huskies moved some of their long-distance aces like Naomi and Lizzie Harding, Alex Raichart and Grace Johnson into faster races, while the likes of Kaela Fahrney, Brogan Murray, Elliot Pribamsky stepped up in the distances.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have an Elizabeth Constien anchoring your 3,200 relay.

“It’s very easy for an athlete to say the 800 is their event and that’s what they’re running,” Parish said. “They buy into what the team needs and they’ve been doing that for a while now. They get it’s a collection of the parts.”

And, thus, your 400-meter league champion is Naomi Harding. Raichart was running a 200 on the 800 relay.

Meanwhile, Sabrina Sutter did her thing — winning the 100 and the 200 and getting points in long jump and the triple jump — while freshman Emma Reeder started the weekend with a pole-vault win and ended it in the points in high jump and the 300 hurdles.

Trotter, Blair make history

Eagle Valley’s Harrison Trotter won four events — the 110 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump — as the Devils boys nearly ran down Glenwood Springs, 121-118, for the league title.

Eagle Valley coach Jeff Shroll has coached some studs — Brad Gamble and Sean Matheson, come to mind — but he does not remember an athlete winning four individual titles at a league meet.

Bottom line — if you’re in Gamble or Matheson territory as an Eagle Valley athlete, you’re in a good place.

“He looked good in the (preliminaries on Friday, May, 4),” Shroll said. “He started today with a career-best in the high jump, and he just went from there.”

And Trotter was at the center of a slugfest between the Devils and Demons, as both teams spent most of the weekend trying to best each other.

Nobody was on Joslin Blair’s level. All she did was win the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 and was part of the 4-by-8 squad that finished second.

Kelly and Kim Smith were tremendous runners for Eagle Valley in their day, but they never won all three distance races in one meet. And, in a fun bit of trivia, Blair broke the school mark in the 800, previously held by Roxy Trotter. Yep, that would Harrison’s older sister.

In other news about as surprising as the sun rising in the east, Cassie Jaramillo swept the throwing events.

Last call

Battle Mountain is at St. Vrain on Friday, May 11, while Eagle Valley heads to Rangeview on Saturday, May 12. While this weekend was about winning the Slope, the upcoming meets are the last chance for making state.

Parish’s shopping list for St. Vrain includes getting the girls 800 and medley relays into the state 18, as well as Raichart in the open 800 and Constien in the 1,600.

For the Devils, it’s all about the relay teams, and Eagle Valley has an ace up its collective sleeve.

A reminder: If a school qualifies in a relay, it may shuffle its lineup for state. The foursome that put up the state time doesn’t have to be the same foursome running in Denver.

With Blair easily qualified in the open 800, 1,600 and 3,200, she can run relays next weekend, helping some Devils teams qualify.

4A Western Slope Meet

Girls

100 — 1. Sabrina Sutter, Battle Mountain, 13.04; 2. Kaikea Cavaliero, Eagle Valley, 13.11.

200 — 1. Sabrina Sutter, Battle Mountain, 27.23; 2. Jewel Scrivens, Eagle Valley, 27.23 (thousandths); 4. Sofia Piliero, Battle Mountain, 27.86.

400 — 1. Naomi Harding, Battle Mountain, 59.89; 2. Alex Raichart, Battle Mountain, 1:00.14; 4. Gabby Trueblood, Battle Mountain, 1:01.08.

800 — 1. Joslin Blair, Eagle Valley, 2:15.05; 2. Naomi Harding, 2:17.08; 3. Lizzy Harding, Battle Mountain, 2:19.66: 4. Alex Raichart, Battle Mountain, 2: 20.24.

1,600 — 1. Joslin Blair, Eagle Valley, 5:01.16; 2. Lizzy Harding, Battle Mountain, 5:10.75; 3. Naomi Harding, Battle Mountain, 5:12.60; 4. Grace Johnson, 5:12.68; 5. Avery Doan, Eagle Valley, 5:23.25.

3,200 — 1. Joslin Blair, Eagle Valley, 11:05.13; 2. Grace Johnson, Battle Mountain, 11:20.76; 3. Elizabeth Constien, Battle Mountain, 11:32.36; 4. Avery Doan, Eagle Valley, 11:39.47.

100 hurdles — 4. Tristan Book, Eagle Valley, 16.82; 5. Emma Reeder, Battle Mountain, 17.00.

300 hurdles — 3. Emma Reeder, 48.39.

400 relay — 2. Battle Mountain, 53.27.

800 relay — 2. Battle Mountain, 1:48.76.

1,600 relay — 1. Battle Mountain; 4. Eagle Valley.

3,200 relay — 1. Battle Mountain, 9:40.84; 2. Eagle Valley, 10:04.27.

Medley — 1. Eagle Valley, 1:55.18; 2. Battle Mountain, 1:55.54.

High jump — 2. Emma Reeder, Battle Mountain, 4-7.75; 3. Gabby Gully, Battle Mountain, 4-7.75 (attempts); 5. Alden Pennington, Battle Mountain, 4-3.75.

Long jump — 4. Sabrina Sutter, Battle Mountain, 15-7.5.

Pole vault — 1. Emma Reeder, Battle Mountain, 9-4; 3. Phoebe Walters, Battle Mountain, 7-10; 5. Brielle Kromer, Battle Mountain, 6-10.

Triple jump — 3. Sabrina Sutter, Battle Mountain, 33-2.5.

Discus — 1. Cassie Jaramillo, Eagle Valley, 110-2; 4. Jessie Hawkins, Battle Mountain, 95-10.

Shot put — 1. Cassie Jaramillo, Eagle Valley, 37-1; 3. Jessie Hawkins, Battle Mountain, 29-4; Rayne Lieurance, Eagle Valley, 28-4.

Boys

100 — 1. Alejandro Aragon, Eagle Valley, 11.58; 3. Kevin Carlson, Eagle Valley, 11.77.

200 — 2. Alejandro Aragan, Eagle Valley, 23.55; 2. Kevin Carlson, Eagle Valley, 23.79; 5. Qwahn Kent, 23.85.

400 — 4. Bailey Scrivens, Eagle Valley, 52.94; 5. Miguel Castillo, 54.41.

800 — 2. James Moran, 2:00.71; 4. Jack Neifert, Eagle Valley, 2:05.26; 5. Gage Nielsen, Eagle Valley, 2:07.15.

1,600 — 3. Aiden Branch, Eagle Valley, 4:31.93; 4. Nico Piliero, Battle Mountain, 4:32.72.

3,200 — 3. Aiden Branch, Eagle Valley, 10:03.89; 5. Nico Piliero, Battle Mountain, 10:18.47.

110 hurdles — 1. Harrison Trotter, Eagle Valley, 15.29.

300 hurdles — 1. Harrison Trotter, Eagle Valley, 39.67; 5. Tony Hernandez, Eagle Valley, 43.57.

400 relay — 3. Battle Mountain, 45.69; 4. Eagle Valley, 46.47.

800 relay — 2. Eagle Valley, 1:33.21.

1,600 relay — 1. Eagle Valley; 2. Battle Mountain.

3,200 relay — 2. Battle Mountain, 8:22.85; 4. Eagle Valley, 8:38.04.

High jump — 1. Harrison Trotter, Eagle Valley, 6-3; 3. Matthew Turner, Eagle Valley, 5-11.

Long jump — 2. Miguel Castillo, 20-8.75; 4. Bailey Scrivens. Eagle Valley, 19-11.

Pole vault — 1. Joseph White, Eagle Valley, 13-10; 2. Nelson Wyatt, Battle Mountain, 13-4; 3. Holden Daniels, Eagle Valley, 13-4; 4. Nick Apps, Battle Mountain, 12-4; 5. Theo Marston, Battle Mountain, 10-10.

Triple jump — 1. Harrison Trotter, 42-1.25.

Discus — 1. Max Christenberry, Battle Mountain, 148-10; 5. Darryl Gallegos, Eagle Valley, 118-11.

Shot put — 2. Jackson Stricker, Eagle Valley, 43-8; 4. Darryl Gallegos, 40.

2A/1A Western Slope Meet

Girls

100 — 6. Kendelle Smith, Vail Christian, 13.63.

200 — 4. Kendelle Smith, Vail Christian, 27.95; 5. Mariana Egleby, Vail Christian, 27.95.

400 — 2. Kendelle Smith, Vail Christian, 1:00.71; 3. Mariana Engleby, Vail Christian, 1:02.21.

800 — 6. Kiana Brausch, Vail Christian, 2:35.43.

Medley — 8. Vail Christian, 2:08.68.

Pole vault — 3. Blake Layman, Vail Christian, 7-10

Boys

100 — 5. Quinn Mitchell, Vail Christian, 11.92; 7. Luke Bowers, Vail Christian, 12.10.

200 — 2. Harry Jaffe, Vail Christian, 24.26.

1,600 — 6. Collin Wilson, 5:06.29.

110 hurdles — 7. Tom Engleby, Vail Christian, 18.98.

300 hurdles — 4. Zach McKeever, Vail Christian, 44.34.

400 relay — 2. Vail Christian, 45.61.

800 relay — 2. Vail Christian, 1:33.81.
1,600 relay — 3. Vail Christian, 3:33.20.

3,200 relay — 3. Vail Christian, 8:53.63

Long jump — 6. P.G. Nkalang’ango, Vail Christian, 18-9.25; 8. E.J. Koller Vail Christian, 18-4.

Triple jump — none.

Pole vault — 5. P.G. Nkalang’ango, Vail Christian, 8-10.

Discus — 7. Zach McKeever, Vail Christian, 121-2.


Support Local Journalism