Titans track finding their groove

Back from break and back in action

by Than Acuff

Crested Butte Titans head track coach Laura Puckett Daniels wants to be perfectly clear when it comes to the annual weeklong school break in April.

“It comes at a very inconvenient time,” says Daniels. “It’s difficult to transition into and out of the break smoothly. It’s more like a two-week break. In some ways it’s great because they’re nice and rested but it also means it could put us in a compromising position as well-rested could mean that they peak too early.”

Nevertheless, the team is getting back into the swing of things and returned to action on Saturday, April 27 for a meet in Montrose. Though even that was affected as the team only competed in the first half of the meet so they could get back to Crested Butte in time for prom.

As a result, while several Titan athletes spend meets competing in three or four events, they were able to focus on just one event in Montrose and with the rest from break shaken off and the team back into workouts, it seemed to work out well.

Josh Merck had a standout performance in the 100 meters, his lone event for the day. Merck continues to gain another step with each race and in Montrose he set a new personal record and set a new school record in the event. Teammate Hilt Freeman joined him the 100 meters and set his own personal record while Joe Coburn posted his fastest time of the season in the mile.

Meanwhile, the girls’ relays are starting to make a run at qualifying for the state championships. The team of Marlowe Desmarais, Lucy Duryea, Hayes Freeman and Sam Merck slashed between three and four seconds off their time in both the sprint medley and 4×200-meter relays.

“They looked good and really stepped up and are hovering at the margins of qualifying for state,” says Daniels. “If they have a beautiful race with beautiful handoffs, they have a shot.”

Sarah Bivens continues her push as a distance runner in her first season of high school track as she matched wits with runners from much bigger programs to place eighth in the mile.

“She’s really psyched about it,” says Daniels.

It’s now crunch time for the Titans as they have two more meets left in the season to make the cut for the state championships. While Merck has punched his ticket in three events already, a handful of athletes are still on the cusp and Daniels is looking to their upcoming meet on Friday, May 3 in Cañon City as a big one.

“This is the penultimate meet,” says Daniels. “We’ll see what happens. We’re still figuring out what we got and still assessing how the end of the season is going to look.”