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3A state track: Titans girls relay team sets record; boys squad takes second

Jon Mitchell
jmitchell@postindependent.com
Coal Ridge High School's Mariela Martinez, right, celebrates as she crosses the finish line past Brianne Hoglin of The Classical Academy to win the 4x400-meter state title at the Class 3A State Championships in Lakewood. The Titans set a state-meet record in the event with a time of 3 minutes, 57.98 seconds.
Jon Mitchell / jmitchell@postindependent.com |

Top three and local finishers, Class 3A:

BOYS

Team scores— Classical Academy 103; Coal Ridge 90; Frontier Academy 82; Grand Valley 13.

100-meter dash— 1, Miguel Molas, James Irwin, 10.98; 2, Malachi Peterson, Manitou Springs, 11.17; 3, Dustin Bohnert, Manitou Springs, 11.29; 4, Chris Contreras, Coal Ridge, 11.32; 8, Zen Gross, Coal Ridge, 11.51.

200-meter dash— 1, Nick Deray, Classical Academy, 22.28; 2, Dustin Bohnert, Manitou Springs, 22.44; 3, Miguel Molas, James Irwin, 22.48; 6, Chris Contreras, Coal Ridge, 23.08.

400-meter dash— 1, Nick Deray, Classical Academy, 49.12; 3, Chris Contreras, Coal Ridge, 49.48; 3, Daniel Marsh, Colorado Springs Christian, 50.11.

1600-meter run— 1, Chris Baker, Frontier Academy, 4:25.03; 2, Conner Wilburn, Classical Academy, 4:25.31; 3, Marcus Rodholm, Manitou Springs, 4:27.19.

110-meter hurdles— 1, Ryan Younggreen, Holy Family, 14.56; 2, Andy Bowles, Coal Ridge, 14.82; 3, Trevor Kelly, Coal Ridge, 14.89.

300-meter hurdles— 1, Jonathan Roy, Classical Academy, 38.67; 2, Ryan Younggreen, Holy Family, 38.99; 3, Alex Miller, Classical Academy, 39.35; 4, Andy Bowles, Coal Ridge, 40.01.

400-meter relay— 1, Manitou Springs, 43.82; 2, Frontier Academy, 43.86; 3, Manual, 44.35; 6, Coal Ridge, 45.00.

1600-meter relay— 1, Manitou Springs, 3:22.74; 2, Coal Ridge, 3:26.22; 3, Classical Academy, 3:26.25.

Long jump— 1, Jayce Hall, Classical Academy, 20-10.50; 2, Ryan Milner, Alamosa, 20-09.50; 3, Jack Murphy, Gunnison, 20-07.75; 5, Trevor Kelly, Coal Ridge, 20-06.75.

High jump— 1, Andy Bowles, Coal Ridge, 6-05; 2, Mason Chronowski, Pagosa Springs, 6-03; 3, Christian Hershberger, Frontier Acadmey, 6-01.

GIRLS

Team scores— Classical Academy 111; Eaton 82.5; Lamar 68; Coal Ridge 55.33; Roaring Fork 8.

100-meter dash— 1, Kayla Pinnt, Moffat County, 12.04; 2, Alicia Lawrence, James Irwin, 12.29; 3, Ashley Snyder, Lamar, 12.42.

200-meter dash— 1, Kayla Pinnt, Moffat County, 24.57; 2, Alicia Lawrence, James Irwin, 24.98; 3, Ashley Snyder, Lamar, 25.27.

400-meter dash— 1, Brittany Pierce, Eaton, 56.62; 2, Ashley Snyder, Lamar, 57.81; 3, Phoebe Vandemoer, Sterling, 58.24.

1600-meter run— 1, Kelsi Lasota, Estes Park, 5:06.92; 2, Makayla Santos, Frontier Academy, 5:07.57; 3, Taryn Ceglowski, Salida, 5:16.25.

100-meter hurdles— 1, Sarah Yocum, Faith Christian, 15.51; 2, Taylor Finn, Manitou Springs, 15.72; 3, Amber Bowles, Coal Ridge, 16.30.

300-meter hurdles— 1, Sarah Yocum, Faith Christian, 45.33; 2, Ryleigh Haynes, Eaton, 45.59; 3, Phoebe Vandemoer, Sterling, 46.47; 5, Amber Bowles, Coal Ridge, 47.21.

400-meter relay— 1, Cedaredge, 49.82; 2, Moffat County, 50.29; 3, Classical Academy, 50.34; 8, Coal Ridge, 52.39.

1600-meter relay— 1, Coal Ridge, 3:57.98 (Meet record); 2, Classical Academy, 3:58.45; 3, Cedaredge, 4:02.86.

Long jump— 1, Kylie Chavez, Sterling, 17-05; 2, Taila Howe, Roaring Fork, 17-00.50; 3, Alexis Rutz, Sterling, 16-09.25; 4, Paige Ryan, Coal Ridge, 16-08.

Shot put— 1, Hannah Carr, Classical Academy, 41-04.75; 2, Tarynn Sieg, Eaton, 40-06.50; 3, Courtney Clark, Lamar, 40-03.75; 4, Britini Allen, Coal Ridge, 38-04.50.

LAKEWOOD — Mariela Martinez crossed the finish line Saturday, thrusting her arms in the air as the track-and-field season came to a close.

And it closed in a pretty positive way for the Coal Ridge Titans boys and girls squads.

Martinez anchored the Titans’ 1,600-meter relay team and crossed the finish line in a state-meet-record time of 3 minutes, 57.98 seconds, the second state championship for the Coal Ridge girls in a meet that provided plenty of highlights for the Titans.



And the girls 1,600 relay was the biggest highlight of all.

“I could feel her coming up on me,” Martinez said of Classical Academy anchor leg Brianne Hoglin. “Our goal from the beginning was to beat the state record, and we all did our part.”



Martinez teamed with Paige Ryan, Amber Bowles and Amanda Wenzel for the second relay title of the meet for the Titans. Classical Academy finished second, and Saturday’s performance broke the previous meet record of 3:58.07, which was set in 2012 by none other than The Classical Academy.

Coal Ridge High School’s boys track team, meanwhile, came oh so close to winning a team championship.

The Titans dropped to second in the team standings during the final hours of the meet, falling just short of what would have been the first team championship of any kind in Coal Ridge High School’s short history. The Classical Academy, a charter school in Colorado Springs, came away with the team championship thanks to its overall depth in the distance and field events. The Classical Academy Titans won three state championships in the running events and a state title in the long jump, which proved to be the difference.

Coal Ridge had just one state champion in senior Andy Bowles, who won the high jump and ended up placing in each of his three events.

“Classical is just too deep,” Coal Ridge coach Ben Kirk said. “We knew going in that they had about two more events than we did, and we had to have a lot of things go right for the title to happen. All that said, we stilll have an awful lot to be proud of from this meet.”

Bowles, hampered by a gash on his knee he got while running in the 110-hurdles preliminaries Thursday, still found his way to the top of the podium in the high jump. The Colorado State University commit went 6-5 to win the event — well below his season-best mark of 6-10 last month — and managed a second-place finish in the 110 hurdles.

It was a big deal for Bowles to finish the way he did. During his junior year, he pulled a hamstring during the 110 hurdles final and had to walk the final of the 300 hurdles. This year, running through Thursday’s injury — which took eight stitches to patch up — meant a lot to him.

“Hey, I finished all the races,” Bowles said, laughing. “That was my overall goal.”

Bowles’ senior teammate, Trevor Kelly, practically finished side by side with Bowles in the 110 hurdles in third place. He was more than happy with his mark of 20 feet, 6¾ inches in the 3A long-jump final, even though it was close to 3 inches shorter than his personal best mark in the event.

“I’m more than happy with it,” Kelly said. “It’s the best I could do today.”

Then there’s Chris Contreras, the Titans’ top sprinter. He just barely finished second in the 400 meters and took fourth place in the 100, and his sixth-place finish in the 200 provided the Titans at least a fighting chance to win the team championship.

The Classical Academy, however, had distance runners where Coal Ridge did not, giving it a 12-point advantage in the team standings with two races remaining. The Classical Academy’s third-place finish in the 400-meter relay, accompanied by an eighth-place finish by Coal Ridge in the same event, sealed it.

Coal Ridge had plenty of success come on the girls side, too.

Amber Bowles began inching her way up the podium in the 100 hurdles, finishing third in Saturday’s event final after finishing fourth in the event as a freshman last year.

“The only reason I’m not happy with it is because I didn’t set a PR,” she said. “I’m hoping for more next year.”

Britni Allen surprised herself in the 3A shot put finals. She had a personal-best mark of 38-4½, which was more than 2 feet better than her previous best mark headed into the meet. Hannah Carr, of The Classical Academy, won the event with a mark of 41-4¾.

Grand Valley had a state placer on the boys side. The Cardinals’ 400-meter relay team managed a fifth-place finish in 44.81, just ahead of the fifth-place time of 45.00 by Coal Ridge.


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