The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Seven athletes headed to state championships
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans track and field team wrapped up the regular season of meets in Montrose on Saturday, May 10 and are sending seven athletes to the state championships this weekend to compete in two events. Cody Pleak secured his spot in the high jump while Sam Bullock, Max Sullivan, Finn Veit and Giles Billick, plus alternates Jake Pendy and Kenny Bullock, will compete in the boys’ 4×800-meter relay.
It was a tough season for Crested Butte. While coaches Shari Sullivan-Marshall and Sophie Klein had more than 30 athletes signed up this year, illnesses and injuries left the squad depleted throughout the entire season.
“This year, the team was tested frequently,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “Athletes battled through the sickest season I have experienced in years, fighting through illness or injury to train or compete.”
The final meet was no different, though better, as Crested Butte had 27 Titans make it to the Montrose meet, one of their biggest rosters of the year yet still missing a few key members of the team. Nevertheless, the Montrose meet provides the culmination of a season of training for the Titans and their progression over the 119 weeks was on full display as they combined to post 15 personal record (PR) results and seven season best (SB) results against 23 other teams.
“It’s a great way for the kids to do their best and highlight the hard work they’ve put in the past 11 weeks,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “What was awesome is that all the teams that came, came to race.”
The day opened with field events and the Titans all had their top throws and jumps of the season with Pleak using the meet to fine-tune his high jump plan for the state championships.
“Cody continued to play with when to enter the competition to mimic the state meet starting height and placed 11th overall with a jump of 5’6,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “State is a different beast of mind games and keeping your body ready.”
When the events turned to running, it opened with the boys’ 4×800-meter relay. While the Titans were fairly secure in their spot at the state championships, the state rankings can be turned upside down on the final weekend of the regular season. The relay team of Sam Bullock, Sullivan, Veit and Billick remained focused on their goal of reaching the post season shaving 11 seconds off their previous best time to secure their state spot.
“They had to run faster again,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “They were in a battle with two other 2A teams and because of that race within the race, it made us faster.”
The girls’ 4×200-meter relay team was a prime example of the struggles the Titan squad endured this season. Due to illnesses, injuries and the heavy spring testing schedule, Paloma Lamar, Ilo Hawley, Sophia Bender and Eva Loflin raced together for the first time in five weeks at the Montrose meet. They ended up improving on their time by seconds but missed a spot at state by one second.
“That pretty much represented our season,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “If they had been able to run together more, they probably would have made it, but we couldn’t get them to state due to sickness.”
Some of the sprint events followed and the Titan runners came close to or exceeded their best efforts of the season in their final races of the year. Brie Bender and Conor Thomson each set new PRs in the 100-meter dash while Lamar, Hawley, Sophia and Loflin ran to a new PR time in the 4×200-meter relay.
Attention then turned to the 1600 meters with four Titans lining up and Maryn Pritchett making the most of her final meet of the year to run a PR by 11 seconds.
“She ran a perfectly executed race,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “She ran so beautifully.”
Meanwhile, Kenny flirted with breaking the five-minute mark to run his best time of the season by six seconds.
Sawyer Barney led the way for the Titans in the 400 meters to finish his one season as a track athlete with a PR time while Cole Wimmet closed his season out with a PR in the 300-meter hurdles.
Along with the temperatures that day, the 800-meter race heated up with seven Titans competing. Pritchett and Ali Johnson dug deep down the stretch to pass runners near the end and each set new PR times. For the boys Sullivan and Sam set PRs as well, Pendy posted his fastest time of the season and Billick was in the mix avoiding a crash in the final 200 meters to run his fastest time of the season and finish eighth overall.
Crested Butte had one more sprint left to line up for, the 200 meters, and continued to showcase their progress over the season as Barney, James Brady and Bradley Jose finished their high school track careers posting PR results. Pleak then took to the line for the 3200 meters and after mixing it up through the first half of the race, Pleak turned to his own racing strategy to run to an eighth-place finish.
The day ended with one last relay with Crested Butte putting a team in both the girls and boys 4×400-meter race with Josie Feier, Loflin, Hawley and Sophia running to a ninth-place finish and Colby Smith, Kenny, Barney and Billick placing eight overall with the effort.
While the season was challenging for the Titans with illnesses and injuries holding them back, it was far from disappointing as the team finished with plenty of examples of progression throughout the year.
“It felt like a great closure to the season,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “In training, we talk about process. The process of working hard, showing up, being positive, resilience, and grit to name a few. Accepting the disappointment of missing the final meet(s) after working so hard all season and staying positive when results didn’t match the hard work. Congratulations to all the athletes for not giving up, celebrating the little wins and contributing to a great season.”
Attention for seven Titans and the two coaches now turns to the 2A state championships in Denver Thursday through Saturday, May 15-17 with Pleak in the high jump and the boys 4×800-meter relay team both competing on Thursday.
“The 4×800 team got on the podium last year so it would be great to see them on the podium again, I think they’re capable,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “I just want Cody to feel good about what he does and we’ll see what happens. All of these athletes worked really hard to get here.”
