Titans track hot out of the starting blocks

Veteran crew to lead team

There’s been an incredible transformation in the Titans track program over the past four or five years. What was once a fledgling sport driven almost entirely by its distance runners is now a legitimate 2A powerhouse—with nearly 40 athletes posting top results in everything from the two-mile to the 100 meters, relays and even shot put.
A majority of the credit can go to Laura Puckett who, along with her coaching staff, focused on building their sprinters, creating a team atmosphere and bringing more kids into the track fold.
Puckett stepped down this season, leaving the program in the hands of Dustin Simoens. Simoens worked with Puckett during those transformative years and is seeing the excitement for track continue into this season.
“When I was first coaching we had only 17 kids,” says Simoens. “It’s really cool to see how the program is growing.”
Simoens’ strength as a coach lies in the distance events, so he has called on Anne Pederson and April McCue to coach the sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers.
The team this year is poised for greatness with an incredibly strong returning crew of upperclassmen across all events.
“We have a lot of good senior and upper-class leaders,” says Simoens.
Looking at his team and who he has this season, Simoens and his coaching staff laid out a set of three goals for the Titans this year.
“First we want to qualify as many for state as possible—it’s just such a cool experience,” says Simoens. “We want to win the league meet again and we want kids to experience events they’ve never really done before.”
About the only thing holding the team back right now is, as always, the weather and facility. The practice track has been cleared of snow but remains icy in several spots and the schizophrenic spring weather has the team working out indoors a majority of the time.
“It’s definitely a challenge with the weather and the lack of a track,” says Simoens.
Nevertheless, Simoens and his coaching staff are making the most of the situation and using the early weeks of the season to prepare their athletes to ramp up their workouts mid-season and then peak when it matters most, at the end of the season.
“We’ve been running inside and working on basic strengthening, core strength and trying to get everyone’s form together and ease into things,” explains Simoens. “Injuries are a big part of track, especially early on, and we are working to prevent that.”
Eight Titans were eligible for a preseason meet in Montrose two weeks ago and Simoens used the opening event as an opportunity for reminding his athletes how a track-meet works.
Last week, the team grew four-fold, with more athletes getting the required amount of practices in and joining the team after finishing their basketball, hockey and Nordic seasons.
The influx of numbers allowed Simoens to take a team of 33 Titans to the Delta Panther Invite on Saturday, March 15. The meet attracts programs ranging from 5A to 2A size schools, with Crested Butte one of three 2A programs in attendance.
Despite the bigger schools and lack of training on an actual track, the Titans finished the day with a number of podium results as well as some personal records.
“Delta went really well,” says Simoens. “We held our own.”
The girls’ sprint team and hurdlers racked up a number of top-three finishes. Sienna Brooks and Suzanna Dumas placed first and third, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles and the Crested Butte girls won the 4×200 and 4×400-meter relays. Elizabeth Kilpatrick placed third in the two-mile run and Shannon Costello placed third in the 800 meters.
Relays led the way on the boys’ side of things as well as they won the 4×100-meter race and took third in the 4×400-meter relay. Rain Landry placed third in the 200-meters, Dakota Wiggins took third in the 400-meters and Liam Mortell posted a fourth place in the discus and third in the shot put.
“We have some strength in almost every area,” says Simoens. “I think we have a pretty good balance.”
The team will now start transitioning into the next phase of their workouts this week.
“We’re going to transition out of our strength-based phase and start working on technique a lot more,” explains Simoens, “keeping strength where it is and start increasing volume.”
The Titans head to Center on Friday, March 21 and will get another shot in the arm from the addition of Aiden Truettner and Forrest Smith to the distance program. Simoens and the coaches will continue their workouts here in Crested Butte and hope to get the runners on the track in Gunnison by the end of the month.
“You can feel the excitement, even before the season started,” says Simoens.