Track girls take Southwest league title

16 Titans headed to state championships

by Than Acuff

For nearly the entire season the Crested Butte Titans track team has been battling larger programs throughout the state, but on Saturday, May 9 they got a chance to see how they match up against their peers and came away with a girls team league title.

In addition, a couple more Titans qualified for the state championships with their effort on Saturday, bringing the total to 16 Titans headed to the big show.

The Titans closed out the regular season with the Southwest league championships in Monte Vista last weekend, and coach Dustin Simoens believed the athletes were right where they needed to be for a successful showing.

“We were looking pretty good leading up as everyone was peaking, the tapering was going well and everyone was healthy,” says Simoens.

The league championships are unique in that the coaching staff asks every athlete to line up for four events each, making for a challenging day as the meet progresses. The hope is that they can score as many points as possible across the board in an effort to win a team league title.

“Everyone is in good enough shape now and they can run in multiple events,” says Simoens.

In the case of the girls team, the plan played out perfectly as the girls racked up 71 points throughout the day to take the 2A Southwest league title and finish fourth overall among the larger 3A programs also in attendance for their league championships. The boys numbers are somewhat limited this season but they still rallied to finish in third place among league opponents.

“Overall, I think it was a good meet,” says Simoens.

Typically, the girls relay teams led the Titans scoring points at meets throughout the season but at the league championships, the team got a boost from the individual efforts in sprints, mid-distance and long distance events.

Malia Olson had a stellar afternoon, placing third among her 2A opponents in the 100-meter hurdles and then placed second overall in the 100-meter dash, setting a new personal record (PR) and qualifying for the state championships.

“She’s peaking really nicely right now,” says Simoens.

Tara Mortell also put together her best individual effort to date at the league championships, setting a new PR to win the 400-meters and is on the cusp of making the cut for the state finals.

In the distance events Sydney Peterson and Sam Crossett teamed up to place second and third, respectively, in the mile and two-mile events, with Crossett posting PRs in both and racking up huge team points for the girls.

The relay teams went to work as well, scoring team points in four separate events including winning the 4×800-meter relay as Crossett, Peterson, Ariel Kilpatrick and Elina Smith joined forces for the win.

On the boys side of things, Quinn Winter spent the season placing anywhere from fourth to eighth place in the high jump against athletes from bigger schools with better training facilities. On Saturday, Winter jumped his way to the league title, taking first place in the high jump.

Kaleb Schultz set a new PR in the 200-meters to place third and also finished sixth in the 100 meters for key team points.

Aiden Truettner racked up the most points for the boys team on the day, placing second in both the mile and the two-mile events and then joined Joe Hayes, Conrad Truettner and Woody Martineau to run to a fourth-place finish in the 4×800-meter relay, setting a new PR and qualifying for the state championships.

“I think all of the kids rose to the occasion and it was nice to see we were at the top and competitive,” says Simoens. “It’s all I can ask for at league.”

Simoens and the coaching staff will spend this week keeping the 16 Titans headed to the 2A state championships focused and feels that they have an advantage going into the final race of the year.

“We’ll work on some fine tuning but for the most part the hay is in the barn,” says Simoens. “We just want to keep everyone healthy and well rested. I think the limited time on the track as the start of the season plays to our advantage at state and we’ve done a good job preparing the kids for the final push.”