Titans track and field headed to state championships

Qualify in six events

[  by Than Acuff  ]

The Crested Butte Titans track and field team wrapped up the regular season of meets in Montrose on Saturday, May 9 with 10 Titans, including two alternates, qualifying in six events for the 2A state championships at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood Thursday through Saturday, May 14-16.

Seniors Cody Pleak, Flint Hoyt, Max Sullivan, Colby Smith, Ilo Hawley and Sophia Bender will carry the Titan colors at state with Pleak making his second trip and Sullivan his third.

“To see their hard work pay off is a huge accomplishment,” says coach Shari Sullivan-Marshall. 

Sophomore Micah Hansen will make the trip as well with freshmen Dari Spedden, Barbara Siqueira and Haley Erickson getting their first experience at the big show.

“It’ll be great for them to see what state looks like,” says Sullivan-Marshall.

The state qualifier crew is led by Pleak as he will be competing in the high jump, the 4×800-meter relay, the 800 meters and the 3200 meters.

“It’s exceptional to qualify in four events, we haven’t had that in a while,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “What’s super unique is we have a high jumping two-miler.”

Smith, Hoyt and Sullivan join Pleak in the 4×800 meter relay with Micah Hansen as the alternate while Bender will compete in two events, the 400 meters and the 4×400-meter relay with Spedden, Siqueira and Hawley with Erickson set as the alternate for the team.

The 4×400 team actually punched their ticket to the state meet in their own separate trip prior to the Montrose meet. With the team missing Hawley for Montrose, Sullivan-Marshall took them to a meet in Delta on Thursday hoping to make their mark.

“The girls knocked it out of the park and that secured their spot,” says Sullivan-Marshall.

And while the Montrose meet is not only the last opportunity for Titans to secure their spots at the state championships, but also the final meet of the season for the entire team and numerous Titans made the most of it with their typical slate of personal records (PR) and season best (SB) marks.

“We went into Saturday as everyone’s last chance to run their best and they did that,” says Sullvan-Marshall.

Leading the way was senior Cole Wimett who set PR marks in the long jump, the 200 meters and the 300-meter hurdles in his final high school track meet.

“He had the meet of the day,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “He is the epitome of hard work and tapering can come into play.”

Based on comparative results with other athletes in the state as well as their personal growth throughout the season, Sullivan-Marshall believes the Titans should be in the mix for a podium result, with the podium going nine deep at the state championships, in every event they enter.

“Everyone goes into state with podium on the mind and it’s realistic,” says Sullivan-Marshall. “For the girls 4×400 we are just focusing on preliminaries and qualifying for relay finals. Only nine teams make it to finals so that would be a podium as well.”

The meet opens for the Titans on Thursday, May 14 with Pleak in the high jump at 1:30 p.m. The boys 4×800-meter team enter the championships ranked third and will race on Thursday at 4:45 p.m. with the girls 400 meters preliminary at 6:50 p.m. Pleak will race in the 3200 meters at 10:30 a.m. and the 800 meters at 1:05 p.m. on Friday with the girls 4×400-meter relay preliminaries at 3:35 p.m. The Titans state championship experience then closes on Saturday with the girls 400 meters final at 11:37 a.m. and 4×400-meter relay final at 4:40 p.m.

Live results and a live stream of the track and field state championships can be found at co.milesplit.com.