The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We’ve got a lot of young talent”
by Than Acuff
With athletes still trickling in from winter sports and battling some preseason injuries, the Titans track team headed to the Center Invitational still shy of a full squad with just 19 Titans making the trip. Nevertheless, those 19 had a strong showing for the first meet of the year posting a handful of personal records (PR) as well as some podium finishes.
Center provides coach Ben Davis an opportunity to get a look at their league opponents as well as allows the Titan coaches to get some real times down for a majority of their athletes.
“We see a lot of our league teams there and we just look to get a base number for the kids, something they can work off of,” says Davis.
Davis also uses the opportunity to continue working on his relay teams, looking to see who works where among the numerous relay options.
“It gives me a chance to get some relay teams together,” explains Davis. “We ran four different relays at Center and that was one of our main emphases.”
One thing is for sure, Sydney Petersen is back to lighting up the distance events. Petersen had the top two results for the Titans at the meet winning the mile and placing second at the two-mile.
Erika Bremer started her race season on the right foot in her sprint event, placing fifth in the 100 meters and setting a PR as well.
Bremer then teamed up with Jamey Spahn, Malia Olson and Tara Mortell in the sprint medley and while they suffered a disqualification, it wasn’t without its silver lining. A mishap during a handoff brought their team to a complete stop in an effort to stay within the official handoff zone. Despite coming to a complete stop, they still managed to finish in second place and close to a PR. Unfortunately, during the mishap, they did end up out of the official zone and were disqualified.
Olson went on to place eighth in the 100-meter hurdles but came out of the race with a hitch in her giddy up and had to sit the remainder of the meet.
The Titan boys had a great showing for their first race of the season, scoring points in a number of events from long jump to the mile placing seventh as a team out of 20 teams.
Liam Woodward proved to be the biggest surprise for Davis. While during preseason workouts he stated that he could jump 5 feet, 10 inches, Davis remained cautiously optimistic. Then Woodward proved it in Center clearing 5 feet, 10 inches in the high jump to win.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” says Davis. “To start out the season jumping 5 feet, 10 inches is pretty impressive.”
Josh Merck provided another pleasant surprise for the coaching staff when he placed third in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet, 5 inches. The boys’ 4×400-meter relay and 4×100-meter relay teams took fourth and fifth place respectively and Hunter Wright placed fourth in the mile while Tate Young took sixth place in the 800 meters.
“We’ve got a lot of young talent,” says Davis. “I think we stack up pretty well against our league.”
The Titans will now prepare for an upcoming meet in Hotchkiss on Saturday, March 26 and Davis is looking forward to the week of workouts as the team appears to be at near full strength and they will get time outside on the track at WSCU.
“It’s good to finally see the whole team together,” says Davis. “We should be able to get in some good workouts and we’ll be outside which is nice and I think everyone is in a lot better shape and will be ready.”
