CB Titans shine at state track championships

Galley brings home state title, school records shattered

As the 800-meter boys race was making its way around the track on the second lap, Titan senior Matt Galley was sitting in the middle of the pack. It was at that point Galley made his move. As the field rounded the final turn, Galley was in full stride and picking off runners at will. With 100 meters left, Galley was shoulder-to-shoulder with the race leader and fighting hard eventually breaking the tape for the 2A state title with a time of 1:58.34.
“One second he was in 13th place and before I know it, he’s passing people,” says Titans track head coach Laura Puckett. “He exceeded all of my hopes and expectations.”
Galley shattered his previous best time by over seven seconds and set a new Crested Butte Community School record. In addition, it was Crested Butte’s first state title since Erin Kelly’s two-mile title four years ago. Furthermore, Galley wasn’t even on the radar of title contenders at the state championships coming into the event ranked ninth in the state.
Galley nearly pulled off similar heroics the next day in the 1600-meter race. Following a similar strategy, Galley started picking off runners but the leader was too far in front this time as Galley crossed in second place with a time of 4:36.47.
Teammate Forrest Smith joined Galley on the podium in the 1600 meters. Smith put together his strongest mile to date to post a time of 4:40.59 shaving 11 seconds off his pervious personal record.
“To be fourth and run that fast of a time is awesome,” says Puckett.
Smith’s performance in the 1600 paled in comparison though to his effort the previous day in the 3200-meters. It was Smith’s second trip to the state championships in as many years in the two-mile and Puckett could tell, he was a different runner the second time around.
“He was very calm and very focused,” says Puckett.
Smith ran what Puckett described as “a beautiful race” in the 3200-meters shattering his personal record time by 24 seconds with a time of 10:09.50 to place third and setting a new school record.
Amber Scott had a similar, but different, experience in her 3200-meter effort. After settling into third place for most of the race, Scott dropped to fourth with two laps to go and losing ground. With 300 meters left to go, Scott reached deep and reeled in her new found nemesis to edge out a third place finish by a step posting a time of 11:53.39.
“Amber fell asleep for a lap,” says Puckett. “But she found a kick that I’d never seen before.”
Scott did it again in her 1600-meter race edging out the same girl in the home stretch to take fourth place with a personal record time of 5:27.11.
“She finally ran under 5:30, that’s a huge benchmark,” says Puckett.
In the end, Scott made three trips to the podium. In addition to her 1600-meter and 3200-meter efforts, Scott joined Shannon Costello, Lindsay Kopf and Miki Olesen to place seventh in the 4×800 relay on the opening day of the state championships.
“Everybody pulled their weight,” says Puckett. “It was very exciting.”
In fact, the Titans had a solid opening day to the state championships on Thursday setting a flurry of school records. The girls sprint medley relay team of Monika Olesen, Toni Brown, Suzanna Dumas and Skylar Kraatz set a new school record and finished in 10th place.
Monika followed that with a personal record time in the 100-meters to finish 13th and teamed up with Brittany Barefield, Kopf and late addition Ali McGuire to set a school record in the 4×200-meter relay race.
In addition, both Kyle Boyle and Kraatz set new school records in the 400-meters to finish in 12th and 10th place respectively.
“Everyone was on a high, super-charged and feeling really positive,” says Puckett.
Kraatz and Boyle would go on to join their teammates in the 4×400-meter relay races. Kraatz ran with Kopf, Miki and Dumas to run their fastest time of the season and place 10th while Boyle, Michael Ryan, Kaleb Schultz and Galley set a new school record in their race.
“If every kid shows up and runs their fastest time of the year, they did everything they can do,” says Puckett.
The girls’ 4×100 relay team of Brown, Barefield, McGuire and Monika rounded out the flurry of Titan relay teams at state with a 15th place finish.
McGuire closed the meet for the Titans in the triple jump. After just squeaking into states as the 18th seed, McGuire stepped up four spots with a jump of 31 feet, four inches to place 14th.
In the end, the boys’ team finished seventh overall, the highest team finish for a Titan boys team in recent memory, while the girls’ placed 18th.
“All in all, the kids ran amazingly well,” says Puckett. “It was thrilling to have so many athletes there. We’re starting to expect to go to state and to do well at state. It was wonderful and we want a little bit more.”
Looking ahead, the Titans could continue to gain strength with such a young team making waves at the state level already.
“Losing Skylar, Toni and Matt is a huge loss but they’re mostly sophomores and freshmen so there’s high hopes for the future,” says Puckett.