Titans track suffers through tough week of competition

Three meets in seven days

While results from the past week of competition for the Crested Butte Titans track team were spotty at best, the team survived and is set to peak in time for regionals coming up in two weeks.
It was a tough run for the team with two meets in Gunnison last weekend and a third meet in Montrose on Friday, April 30.
Adding insult to injury, athletes were met with a range of weather, mostly bad, throughout the week, especially at the Montrose event. Wind, rain and snow battered the tracksters, with the snow accumulating enough at times to cover the lines separating the lanes.
Junior Erin Kelly continues to climb out of her injury and gather steam for the upcoming post-season. Kelly ran her first mile of the season in Montrose, placing fourth with a time of 5:46.92.
Junior Madeline Malzhan broke into the top 15 in the 400-meter dash, as did sophomore Jessie D’Aquila, who took 15th place in the 300-meter hurdles.
The relay teams struggled through the day with one disqualification, but the sprint medley team of sophomores Toni Brown and Skylar Kraatz, junior Melanie Whiting and senior Karleigh Dean rallied to a ninth-place finish.
On the boy’s side, senior Ricky Sandoval pulled a calf muscle, holding him back from 100 percent throughout the day.
“For the most part, it wasn’t their best day,” admits coach Laura Puckett. “Last week was about sticking it out. They got some work in while being pretty tired.”
With the hardest week of the schedule out of the way, Puckett and her team are now focused on the Tiger Invite in Grand Junction this weekend, followed by regionals the following weekend.
“That was our last week to put a lot of training in,” says Puckett. “We want to see times come down this weekend and next weekend. And try to peak at regionals.”