The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Distance runners making strides
It’s a season-long process of improvements and adjustments for the Crested Butte Titans track team and this past weekend at the Mickey Dunn Invitational in Grand Junction, the big jump came in the distance events.
“It was a particularly good day for the distance crew,” says coach Laura Puckett. “It was good to see the distance runners start to mature in their racing strategy.”
Leading the way was sophomore Amber Scott. Matched up against some heavy hitters from 4A- and 5A-sized schools, Scott ran a personal best time of 12:38.96 to place fourth in the two-mile event.
“That was huge,” says Puckett. “And she’s barely tapping her potential.”
Puckett saw additional improvements from sophomore Jesse Reeves, who has turned the corner in his distance strategy.
“Jesse ran a really smart mile,” says Puckett.
Sophomore Abby Whiting continues to prove herself a middle-distance phenom. Puckett had Whiting in four races, running the individual 200, the individual 400, the anchor leg of the 4×400 relay and the 400-meter anchor leg of the 800-meter sprint medley.
“We loaded her up,” says Puckett.
Whiting stepped up to the challenge, starting with an 11th-place finish in the 200-meter race. She then charged into her strongest distance, the 400 meters, placing fourth with a time of 63.36.
“She didn’t even run track last year and to place fourth is awesome,” says Puckett.
Whiting teamed up with sophomore Elisabeth Desmarais and freshmen Suzanna Dumas and Lindsay Kopf in the 4×400-meter relay team that finished ninth place.
“We’ve got four girls running under 1:10 splits, which in the Crested Butte scheme of things is a big deal,” says Puckett. “To have that strength in the relays this early is great.”
She then closed the day with freshman Monika Oleson, junior Toni Brown and senior Karleigh Dean in the 800 sprint medley.
It was here that the Titans’ diversity really shined as they ran to a fourth-place finish.
“That was awesome,” says Puckett. “It requires diverse runners to do it and that’s our strength. We’ve got a bunch of runners that can do a bunch of things.”
The boys’ team got a big shot in the arm this week as freshmen Forrest Smith and Ian Boucher joined the squad off successful Nordic ski seasons.
Both posted respectable results in their events, Smith in the mile and Boucher in the two-mile, despite limited training specific to their distance events. Right now their fitness from the Nordic season is carrying them and they should start making their move into the top 10 and higher as the season progresses.
“Both of them are smart freshmen racers,” says Puckett.
Boucher, Smith, Reeves and freshman Danny D’Aquila then joined forces to post a ninth-place finish in the 4×800-meter relay.
Puckett and her coaching staff will spend this week pushing their athletes hard in workouts and look to start adding hurdle events to their repertoire as they prepare for the Pikes Peak Invitational in Colorado Springs on Saturday, April 2.
“We’re ramping up the training again,” says Puckett. “This is our first foray into the Front Range since I’ve been coaching. I’m excited to see new competition and to see what’s going on in the rest of the state.”
