Roaring Fork, Basalt tracksters step it up
GRAND JUNCTION – Before this weekend’s Class 3A regional meet, Roaring Fork and Basalt’s track teams had slipped under the radar to opposing teams.
By Phil Sandoval
Post Independent Staff
GRAND JUNCTION – Before this weekend’s Class 3A regional meet, Roaring Fork and Basalt’s track teams had slipped under the radar to opposing teams.
That’s no longer true.
By the end of the annual two-day affair, the Rams and Longhorns had won five individual events and one relay event between the two area schools.
Basalt was the leader in sending qualifiers to next week’s 3A state meet in Pueblo with six (three boys, three girls) compared with Roaring Fork’s five state entries. The Longhorns also top the list in regional wins with four titles, compared to the Rams’ two.
Individually, Basalt senior Hank Kindall was the area’s lone double-event champion.
On Friday Kindall won the 3A regional shot put crown with a toss of 46 feet. The following day, Kindall followed up that effort by winning the discus competition with an event-best mark of 144-7.
In the jumps, Roaring Fork’s Tommy Joiner won the boys’ high jump competition over teammate Lloyd Tucker. Joiner and Tucker finished with identical marks of 6-0, but Joiner got the nod due to fewer misses.
Joiner also finished third in the long jump, behind teammate James Leonard.
Ram sophomore Alex Tiernan won the boys 1,600 in 4 minutes, 46.90 seconds and will also compete in the 3,200 in Pueblo after a second-place run of 10:35.53 on Saturday.
In the girls meet, Basalt’s Emily Taets emerged from the shadows this weekend.
On Friday, the unheralded Longhorn sophomore posted a 2:25.71 time to win the 800 run. Then, on Saturday, with Taets running the third leg of the Longhorns 4×200 relay, Basalt earned its second girls regional title in as many days.
The all-underclassmen foursome of sophomore Kate Wilson, freshman Tara Thaden, Taets and Emily Gustafson, a sophomore, coasted in at 1:53.98 to squeeze by Gunnison for the title.
In the Class 2A regional meet, Grand Valley freshman Sam McKinley advanced to the state boys 100-meter prelims with his 11.40 second-place finish on Saturday.
Complete local results will appear in Monday’s Post Independent.
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