The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“The afternoon did not disappoint”
By Than Acuff
The typical regular season track and field meet on the Western Slope may attract around 15 teams, give or take a few, but when the Crested Butte Titans track team prepared for their trip to the North Fork Invitational in Hotchkiss on Saturday, March 22, they came to realize it was going to be bigger than expected with 24 schools registered to compete. That meant several heats in several events from sprints to distance to relays throughout what was a long day of competition.
“There were a lot of races, which was fun,” says coach Shari Sullivan-Marshall. “We also had six kids who had never been to a high school meet so it was great.
The Titans ranks were also a bit depleted on the day, so much so that they had just four athletes for the girls’ team able to compete. That, plus the size of the meet, had the Titans focused on personal improvements rather than podiums and the Titans ran with the overarching theme to post numerous personal records (PR) and personal bests (PB), but also score some team points as well.
“At a meet like this, we’re really competing against ourselves,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
The day got off to a great start as the 4×800-meter boys relay team of Max Sullivan, Finn Veit, Micah Hansen and Cody Pleak joined up for the first time ever to place eighth for some team points. The boys relay teams continued that trend on the day as Bradley Jose, Cole Wimett, Sawyer Barney and James Brady took ninth in the 4×200-meter relay and then the coaches experimented in the 4×400-meter relay to line up Giles Billick, Shawn Moran, Brady and Pleak and they ran to a seventh-place finish.
Pleak would end up the high point scorer for the Titans on the day as he also scored team points with a third-place finish and PR in the high jump.
“He had a breakthrough day in the high jump,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
Moran was the anointed “rookie of the day” for his efforts in his first high school track meet as his work in the relay and then posting the second fastest time of the season for the team in the 400 meters shows potential as he continues to gain experience.
The wind kicked up as the day progressed but that didn’t slow the Titans down as they all threw down either PRs or SBs in both the 800-meter and the 3200-meter races.
“The afternoon did not disappoint,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
The four Titan girls thoroughly embraced the plan as well with Ali Johnson, Brie Bender, Emerson Kaufmann and Josie Feier all posting either PRs or SBs in the five events they competed.
The Titans are headed to Cedaredge on Saturday, March 29 for their next meet in a field size significantly smaller than North Fork. In addition, the team should be close to full strength by then so the focus will shift back to results.
“This week we’re running for points,” says Sullivan-Marshall.
