Titan track team finishes season with strong results at state meet

Erin Kelly takes two-mile, Jack Linehan second in mile

Every Titan made the trip to the podium at the 2A state track meet last weekend, with Erin Kelly reaching the top spot in the two-mile race and finishing her sophomore season with a state title.
The state meet opened for the Titans on Thursday, May 14 with the girls’ 4×800-meter relay. The Titans have an extensive history in the event, with a team from Crested Butte qualifying for states every year since the school has been in existence.
This season, the team of senior Emma Vosburg, sophomores Hannah Smith and Erin Kelly and junior Monica Kinsella carried the torch with another podium finish, taking sixth place.
Vosburg closed her high school track career running the opening leg of the relay and set a new personal record time in her split, keeping the Titan team in the mix at the close of the first leg.
The top seeded teams took control of the race during the second leg, leaving the Titans to battle with the middle of the pack for a spot on the podium. Smith, Kelly and Kinsella each posted solid splits to post the team’s fastest time of the season at 10:34.22.
“We were shooting for the podium,” says coach Laura Puckett. “We’re happy—it was great. I’m really happy for Emma to get on the podium in her last race. She’s really set the tone for the team all season long.”
Senior Jack Linehan and Kelly represented the Titans in the big show on Friday, May 15 with Linehan competing in the 800 meters and Kelly in the 3,200 meters, the two-mile.
Linehan has been on a meteoric rise in his high school track career. He started competing as a junior, making his way to the state meet last year in two events. He returned this year to the state meet with more confidence, looking to close his high school career on a high note.
“I felt a lot more confident going in and I knew what to expect,” says Linehan. “I really wanted to make an impact.”
This year, Linehan had his hands full in the 800 meters with a stacked field of 16 runners lining up. According to Puckett, the 800 meters is all about constant attention to one’s place from start to finish.
“It’s all about jostling for position and making a move every 100 meters,” says Puckett. “Each move is going to be a strategic move.”
While the top 800-meter runners in the state set off at a blistering pace, Linehan battled among five other runners the entire 800 meters. In the end, the five runners crossed all separated by hundredths of a second.
Timers collaborated over their results to sort out the flesh mass of humanity, and in the end Linehan was in eighth place, reaching the podium with a personal best time—and new school record—of 2:01.04.
“It was a really tight field,” says Puckett. “He raced really well and ran faster than he has all year and that’s awesome.”
Despite setting a new personal record time, Linehan felt some dismay with his finish.
“It was a good race—I felt solid,” says Linehan. “But I also felt I wasn’t as involved as I should have been. It was a tough day because I expected to do better.”
All attention then turned to Kelly and the two-mile race. After reaching the podium at the state meet last year as a freshman, Kelly came into this season with the two-mile state title in her sights.
“Last year I took fifth so I thought I had a pretty good chance at it,” says Kelly.
Kelly entered the state meet this year the number one seeded two-miler in the state, posting a time 10 seconds faster than her closest rival.
“She knew she was the target,” says Puckett.
“When you’re expected to win there’s some pressure,” adds Kelly.
Despite the pressure, Kelly ran a smooth race, following her pre-race strategy to the letter.
One runner took off from the start looking to open a lead on the rest of the field, but Kelly remained focused.
“The number two seed was right next to me so I knew that girl wasn’t the number two seed,” says Kelly. “I knew I was probably okay.”
By the second lap, Kelly worked her way into the lead, at which point she stepped up her pace to punish anyone who dared to challenge her.
On the fifth lap Kelly still had one last challenger on her heels, but she picked it up again to put the final hurt on her opponent and pull away for the win.
“She was on me for a long time,” says Kelly. “I thought she wouldn’t hang for that long so I stepped it up a little bit.”
Kelly posted a time of 11:30.27, 30 seconds ahead of second place and beating the previous Titans’ school record set by Emma Coburn.
“Erin just busted out her quarters [quarter mile splits] like clockwork,” says Puckett. “She is a state champion as a sophomore, which is awesome.”
Linehan and Kelly returned to state action on Saturday, May 16 to race in the mile.
Linehan shook off his disappointment with his 800-meter run to rally for his premier event, the mile.
“I knew that this was my last hurrah and I was going to give it everything I had,” says Linehan. “I felt that it was my race and I wanted to get a PR (personal record).”
Rather than let his competitors get away from him, Linehan remained in the hunt all race long. With 600 meters to go, one runner took off with Linehan and two others battling for second. Linehan made his move with 350 meters to go to build a gap on his competitors while still leaving gas in the tank for one last push.
“I started pulling away, but I still had another gear so I could go all out the last 100 meters,” explains Linehan.
Linehan hit his final gear kicking through to the finish to take second place with a personal record time of 4:27.97.
“He had to take all the frustration and ambition from the 800 and fuel it for his race on Saturday and he did just that,” says Puckett. “Strategically, it was impeccable. He did everything right.”
“I think it was a perfect race for me,” adds Linehan. “If I could go back and run it again I wouldn’t do anything any differently.”
Kelly’s strength lies in the two-mile event so the one mile proved to be icing on the cake as she tied a personal record time of 5:27.01 to take fifth place and make her third trip in as many events to the podium.
Puckett was happy with the way everyone closed their season, reaching a little bit further than they had and ending the year with their fastest times, making it into the top eight in every event.
“All of our kids made the podium in everything they did,” says Puckett. “I was ecstatic. I know that when they went out there, they gave everything they had.”
Linehan now has his sights set on a collegiate track career at Boston College. After a brief break from running, he will hit the pavement and trails to begin working towards next year.
“I’m going to take a good 10 days off and then start training every day for college,” says Linehan. “The last of those 10 glorious rest days is the day after graduation. Then I start on some base training. It’s a whole new game for me.”