MONTE VISTA—The 2017 track and field season opened up last Friday for several San Luis Valley teams as the Center Vikings hosted the 2017 Center Invitational that was hosted at Monte Vista High School. The meet was held at MVHS because the track at Center Community Park, which normally hosts the meet, is starting to show the wear and tear of the San Luis Valley winters and the hot sun. Ironically, most teams that started their season or competed this past weekend at MVHS will close out the regular season in early May when the Pirates host the Last Chance Meet.

On Saturday, the Salida Spartans swept the competition by winning the boys’ team race with 90 points while dominating the girls’ team race with 116.5 points.
On the boys’ side, the top SLV teams were the Centauri Falcons (60 points) in fourth place. Monte Vista (56 points) finished in fifth, Center (33 points) finished in ninth, Alamosa (25 points) finished in 11th place, Sangre de Cristo (11 points) and Sargent (11 points) tied for 15th place, Moffat (9 points) finished in 17th place, Sierra Grande (7 points) tied with Custer County for 18th place, Centennial (4 points) and Del Norte (4 points) tied for 21st place.

On the girls’ side Center (57.5 points) was the top Valley team with a fourth-place finish while Centauri (53 points) and Del Norte (53 points) tied for seventh. Sargent (41 points) was ahead of Alamosa (38.5 points) as the two finished in seventh and eighth place, respectively, while Monte Vista (25 points) finished in 12th place. Antonito (8 points) and Sierra Grande (8 points) tied for 14th place.

On the track, the nice warm weather helped athletes pose great starting times; however, even though the season is early, they know that they can post better times as the season progresses.

In the boys’ sprinting events, Jayden Gomez (11.90) of Centauri was the top Valley finisher at 100 meters as he was just nipped by a tenth of a second by Lake County’s Cesar Hernandez (11.80). The Falcons’ Caleb Zuchowski (12.07) finished in fifth place as they were the only two scorers in the event.

Monte Vista’s Noel Heredia (24.84), DeAndre Sanchez (25.37) and Jordan Sierra (25.50) all scored points for the Pirates in the 200-meter dash as they finished in third, sixth and seventh, respectively. The Pirates got three points from Kaidon Wenta (57.27) who finished sixth in the 400-meter dash while Sargent earned three points with a seventh-place finish from Josh Thompson (57.49) and an eighth-place finish from Nigel Cortright (57.67) in the 400-meter race.

Centauri’s Dustyn Sowards (2:04.93) ran away with the 800-meter title as he won by four seconds. Alamosa’s Richard Sais (2:16.17) finished in fourth while Sangre de Cristo’s Chase Mortensen (2:17.93) took fifth.

In the mile, Sais (5:09.71) was the top finisher in his heat by more than 22 seconds; however, he finished second overall. Centennial’s Derek Quintana (5:25.72) finished in sixth while Sargent’s Jacob Robirds (5:27.69) finished in seventh.

Alamosa’s Josh Lopez (12:03.52) and Quintana (12:05.15) were the only two SLV scorers in the 3,200-meter run as they finished in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Sangre de Cristo earned five points from Dillon Palmgren (18.97) who finished in fourth place in the 110-meter hurdles while Moffat earned four points from Joedeelee Rigdon (19:56), who finished in fifth.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Monte Vista’s Mateo Cordova (45.77) finished in third while Rigdon (48.37) finished in fourth. Centauri’s Jason Guymon (48.56) finished in sixth place while Alamosa’s Luke Smith (49.98) finished in seventh.

In the relays, Monte Vista won the 4x100 meter relay (45.45), the 4x200 meter relay (1:35.53) and finished in third in the 4x400 meter relay (4:01.37). Centauri finished in second in the 4x100 meter relay (46.69), third in the 4x200 meter relay (1:37.33), won the 4x400 meter relay (3:38.96) and finished in seventh in the 4x800 meter relay (10:10.61).

Center finished in fifth in the 4x100 meter relay (48.88) while Sargent finished in seventh in the 4x100 meter relay (50.20). Sierra Grande earned a point by finishing eighth in the 4x100 meter relay (50.38), eighth in the 4x400 meter relay (4:12.64) and fourth in the 4x800 meter relay (9:50.54) and Alamosa earned three points in the relays as they finished in sixth in the 4x400 meter relay (4:06.91).

In the field events, Center’s Kendall Vance (5 feet, 8 inches) finished second in the high jump, while his teammate, Fidel Villa (5 feet, 4 inches) finished in sixth. Center’s Cosme Cordova (18 feet, 7.25 inches) was the only Valley placer in the long jump as he finished in eighth. Monte Vista’s Jose Flores-Lauro (42 feet, 1.25 inches) won the triple jump.

Center’s Sean Cook (42 feet, 6 inches) won the shot put by a foot while Centauri’s Ryan Gonzalez (39 feet, 3 inches) took fourth, Alamosa’s Andrew Novotny (39 feet) took fifth, Centauri’s George Galviz-Ortiz (38 feet, 8 inches) took sixth, Sangre de Cristo’s Tristan Harrelson (37 feet, 3 inches) took seventh and Del Norte’s Hafen Campbell (37 feet, 2.5 inches) took eighth.

In the discus, Cook (120 feet, 8 inches) took second while Sargent’s Hunter McKibbon (115 feet, 11 inches) took fifth, Campbell (115 feet, 7 inches) took sixth and Centauri’s Jackson Price (107 feet, 11 inches) took eighth.

On the girls’ side of things, Center’s Malyka Medina (13.43) won the 100-meter dash with ease while Antonito’s Brianna Martinez (14:02) took fourth and Del Norte’s Destiny Patrick (14.22) took sixth.

At 200 meters, Medina (28.05) won the race while Del Norte’s Emilee Haefeli (28.27) took second, Sargent’s Quincy Lester (29.71) took fifth, Monte Vista’s Kayla Hernandez (30.64), Sargent’s Harlee Pepper (30.74) and Centauri’s Nicole Cormier (30.90) rounded out the final three scoring spots.

Del Norte’s Lacie Jones (1:02.11) was the top finisher in the 400-meter dash with her second-place finisher while Center’s Marilu Zamora (1:08.44) finished in third. Monte Vista’s Heather Prevatte (1:10.98) took sixth.

In the 800 meters, Sargent’s Kendra Sears (2:47.22) finished in fourth while Centauri’s Mariah Ruybal (2:50.36) took fifth and Prevatte (2:53.46) took seventh.

Center’s Camille Ruggles (5:59.36) won the mile while Sears (6:11.36) took third, Ruybal (6:15.30) took fourth and Sargent’s Jaci Kenison (7:13.14) took eighth. Ruggles (13:02.36) took second in the 3,200-meter run to be the only Valley runner to score.

In the 100-meter hurdles, Alamosa’s Inez Herrera (20.04) took seventh while Sargent’s Yessenia Jimenez (20.46) took eighth. The 300-meter hurdles saw Jimenez (55.81) take fifth while Sierra Grande’s Itzel Molina (57.44) took sixth and Patrick (58.15) finished in seventh.

In the relays, Del Norte won the 4x100 meter relay (54.01), finished in eighth in the 4x200 meter relay (2:09.27), second in the 4x400 meter relay (4:42.31) and fourth in the 800 sprint medley relay (2:06.02). Monte Vista finished third in the 4x100 meter relay (56.33), finished second in the 4x200 meter relay (1:59.62) and sixth in the 800 sprint medley relay (2:06.65). Centauri finished in fourth in the 4x100 meter relay (56.41), finished fourth in the 4x200 meter relay (2:03.11), fourth in the 4x400 meter relay (4:46.46) and third in the 800 sprint medley relay (2:02.30).

Alamosa finished fifth in the 4x100 meter relay (57.26) and won the 4x200 (1:57.91). Sargent finished in sixth in the 4x100 meter relay (57.56), finished third in the 4x200 meter relay (2:01.85) and finished fifth in the 4x400 meter relay (5:02.04). Sierra Grande finished in eighth in the 4x100 meter relay (1:02.02), sixth in the 4x400 meter relay (5:28.79) and eighth in the 800 sprint medley relay (2:17.85). Center’s only relay was the 800 sprint medley relay and they finished in seventh place with a time of 2:15.26.

Del Norte’s Devin Dallas (4 feet, 10 inches) won the high jump while Center’s Alyssa Hammel and Alamosa’s Leilani Licktag tied for seventh by clearing 4 feet, 2 inches.

Medina (16 feet, 3.75 inches) won the long jump while Patrick (13 feet, 11 inches) took sixth in the triple jump. In the triple jump, Alamosa’s Taylor Motz (32 feet, 9.5 inches) edged Centauri’s Tona Lavadour (32 feet, 3.75 inches) for the title while Alamosa’s Tara Sowards (32 feet, 2.5 inches) took third.

Centauri saw Caroline VanBerum (28 feet, 10.5 inches) take fourth place in the shotput while Antonito’s Kerrissa Romero (28 feet, 3 inches) took sixth. In the discus, Centauri’s Kaitlynn Martin (91 feet, 11 inches) was fourth while Van Berkum (86 feet, 8 inches) was sixth.