The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It’s getting really exciting right now”
[ by Than Acuff ]
Everything is progressing along swimmingly for the Crested Butte Titans track team after setting a slew of personal records (PR) at the Warrior Wild West Invitational in Grand Junction Friday and Saturday, March 25-26.
“It was just incredible,” says coach Christa Meilak. “I couldn’t keep up with all of the PRs. Every runner either ran a season best or a PR in at least one event.”
Part of that may have been the competition. The meet drew 17 teams, almost all of which came from much larger programs. And while that can have an intimidating effect on athletes from smaller schools such as Crested Butte, the Titans rose to the challenge and got some insight into the bigger pool of track athletes from throughout the state.
“We had some really serious competition,” says Meilak. “They played it cool and handled it really well. I think a lot of the kids were excited to watch other athletes compete at a level they can strive for.”
The biggest thing about the weekend was the two-day format as events were spread out allowing Meilak and her coaches to continue working their athletes into a variety of events without too much fatigue.
“It allowed for a broader range of events for the kids to try,” says Meilak.
In the end, the Titans competed in 16 different events, with several running in the same races with some notable results against the bigger schools.
Junior Ruby Pendy ran in the two-mile event on Friday placing eighth and then lined up the next day to finish seventh in the mile as well as join the girls’ 4×800 relay team.
“She ran one of her best 3,200 (two-mile) races form-wise and split-wise and then bounced back and ran a beautiful 1,600 (mile) on Saturday,” says Meilak.
A handful of other Titans racked up top 10 results as well amidst the tough competition. Junior India Nornes posted a 10th place finish in the 200 meters, senior Hayes Freeman finished seventh in her first ever 300-meter hurdles race and senior Connor Williams placed 10th in the 3,200-meters.
Freeman and senior Sam Merck also had stellar showings in the high jump and long jump and are in the mix for making the cut to the state championships.
“Having Dano Marshall volunteer coach has made an incredible difference,” says Meilak.
Given what the coaches saw out of their athletes in Grand Junction, Meilak believes they have taken a huge step toward getting the team dialed in across the board as they move forward this season.
“We really zeroed in what events athletes want to focus on now,” says Meilak. “We got a lot of our relays set up and I feel like our girls’ events are pretty set.”
The Titans head to Salida for their next meet on Saturday, April 2 during which Meilak looks to put the finishing touches on the rest of their event line-up as well as continue fine-tuning what they have in place.
“Our base fitness is getting established and we can start working on some details,” says Meilak. “It’s getting really exciting right now. I’m feeling really good about the whole team.”
