The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Huge team, raw talent make foundation for success
Coach Laura Puckett worked diligently in her first four years of coaching to bring the Crested Butte Titans track team up to speed and this year, her efforts are bearing fruit.
Puckett and her assistant coaches Ann Pederson and Luke Ott have 44 athletes out for track this season, with more trickling in as the winter sports season comes to a close.
“It’s the biggest track team I’ve ever seen,” says Puckett. “This is what I’ve been working on, it’s awesome.”
In fact, while Puckett had just eight boys out last year, this year she has 22.
“We actually have a full boys team,” says Puckett. “It takes a certain volume to cover all of the events and to win a meet you have to have coverage.”
Seniors Elisabet Desmarais and Amber Scott captain the girl’s team while juniors Liam Mortell and Kyle Boyle will head up the boys team and the coaches are calling on them to help guide the large squad.
“We really look to the captains for leadership,” says Puckett. “The leadership and dedication they provide is vital.”
The team opened the season with workouts four weeks ago, got in a scrimmage meet two weeks ago and then opened the competitive season on Saturday, March 16 with the Delta Panther Invite, the first state qualifier of the season.
Based on what Puckett has seen so far, the season looks to be extremely promising.
“It was a huge debut weekend for us,” says Puckett. “We had stellar individual results and stellar team results.”
The girls’ team finished the day in fourth place and the boys’ team in fifth place, which is unheard of for Titans track, especially so early in the season.
Scott is off to a great start winning the 800-meters with a time of 2:29 looking stronger than ever before.
“She’s already racing faster than I’ve ever seen her race at the start of a season,” says Puckett.
Junior Monika Olesen set the bar extremely high in her first races of the season winning the 200 meters and finishing in third in the 100 meters, first among her class 2A counterparts. As a result, she is currently ranked first in both events in the state among 2A runners.
Junior Suzanna Dumas is making her mark on the hurdling world after jumping into the fray last season. Dumas placed second in the 300-meter hurdles and fourth in the 100-meter hurdles and is currently ranked fourth in the state in the 300-meter event.
“She’s taken her place as the leader of the hurdling crew,” says Puckett.
The girls relay team of Olesen, sophomore Brittany Barefield, freshman Sienna Brooks and junior Rosie Ewert took the top spot in the state rankings with their effort in Delta winning the 4×100-meter relay.
Meanwhile the rest of the girl’s team followed suit with a slew of scoring efforts in their events to pace the team to the fourth place finish.
Puckett is expecting the team to continue to ramp up with strong results with freshman Tara Mortell a couple weeks of training away from success in distance events and junior Ali McGuire back in the jumping fold.
The boys’ team got a huge boost from some rookies to the track world posting notable efforts based on their pure raw talent.
Senior Kane Hamilton-Young had little to no experience in the high jump yet stepped into the Delta meet to place fourth and is currently ranked second among 2A jumpers.
Junior Rain Landry is on course in the sprint events placing fifth in Delta, second in the state. Landry joined sophomore Kaleb Schultz, junior Dakota Wiggins and Hamilton-Young to set a new school record in the 4×100-meter relay and are the number one team in the state.
Freshman Shawnee Landry had a breakout day in his first high school race placing third in the 200-meters and fifth in the 400-meters.
“As a freshman, that’s huge,” says Puckett.
The team will head to Center on Friday, March 22 for a league meet and Puckett just has a few roster spots and one coaching hole to fill to bring the team to completion.
“We’re a little thin in the girls distance events and we definitely would love some volunteer help with coaching throws,” says Puckett. “Really good things are happening.”
