If hard work is contagious, Joe Maloney is Patient Zero.
For four years, Maloney, now a senior on the Durango High School track and field team, has carried the work ethic virus as it’s wriggled from cell to cell with each pump of his runner’s heart.
The burgeoning viral count boosted Maloney to a sixth-place cross country finish at state last year, an eighth-place podium at the 2012 state track meet and a spot on the Weber State University running roster.
Then this season, the prion mutated; it went airborne. With Maloney – who’s competing in the 800-meter run, 1,600, 4x400 relay and 4x800 at state this weekend – already running a fever of 107, that work ethic bug exploded into a full-blown pandemic in the Demon population.
Last weekend, Maloney broke the 26-year-old 800-meter record as 21 DHS athletes locked down spots in the CHSAA Class 4A State Championships starting Thursday in Denver.
One other side affect of the illness: After burning through Rex Johnson’s 1987 record with a 1-minute, 54.8-second two-lap race, Maloney said forget about the aches and the shakes, he was just feeling good.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s the best feeling, that feeling of ‘I’ve finally got my goal,’ or one of them really.
“It’s a big culmination of all the hard work I’ve put in. It’s the best thing to turn around and see that clock and realize you got that.”
The race was an explosion for Maloney, longtime DHS track coach Steve Thyfault said. But the fall of the long-standing record isn’t what’s been most impressive about Maloney this year – it’s his ability to infect others with his work ethic.
“He just has grown, and actually there’s what I admired most about him this year – he became our team leader,” Thyfault said.
“He’s a workout role model.”
What the coaches ask, Maloney has done. And it’s rubbed off on everyone.
Thyfault, a coach of 37 years, can’t remember the last time DHS took more than 20 kids to the state meet, but “it’s been a long time.”
The qualifiers range from middle distance runners such as Maloney to throwers, jumpers and sprinters of all kinds, plus a bevy of relay teams.
All types of events are represented in the Demons’ population, and all of them have caught the bug, monitored by good doctors.
“Talented kids who are working hard and good coaches,” DHS head coach David McMillan said with a nod to the legion position and assistant coaches. “Good coaching, then kids just flat out working hard.”
Maloney said track too often is pigeonholed as an individual sport. It’s not, he said; it’s a team sport in ways few credit it.
“Individually, if you’re working as hard as you can, you’re making your teammates better,” said girls leader Dominique Ward, a DHS senior who will compete in the open 800 and on the 4x400 and 4x800 teams this weekend.
The Demons have ensconced themselves in that team spirit, and athletes such as Maloney and Ward have welcomed their roles as leaders, pulling the younger athletes along in workouts and keeping them calm under meet pressure, which will be a key for success at state.
McMillan admits it’s cliché, but this season’s team is all for one, one for all.
“They’ve really embraced that idea of ‘I am; we are,’” he said. “It takes all these different parts to make a strong team.”
That strength is why McMillan and the Demons aren’t settling for just qualifying in Denver; they want podium finishes.
Led by Maloney, who’s got his eye on breaking the DHS 1,600 record and taking first in at least one event, Durango is looking for top finishes from all of its athletes.
Now that everyone’s caught Maloney’s virus, that goal’s just within reach.
“I told the kids (Monday), if you add up all the times and distances, we’re about 15 seconds out of first,” McMillan said Tuesday, the Demons’ final practice this season at home before leaving for the state meet and the Front Range on Wednesday morning. “We’re about 100 meters from winning everything.”
jsojourner@durangoherald.com
Durango Demons
Durango High School
Track & Field
State Qualifiers
DHS Boys
Trent Andrews – 4x800
Shane Bisogno – 4x400
Gabe Gilleland – high jump
Devin Lewis – 200, 4x400
Joe Maloney – 800, 1,600, 4x400, 4x800
Justin Marcum – pole vault
Alastair McMillan – 4x800
Austin Miles – shot put
David Moening – 4x400, 4x800
Garrett Mulkey – alternate
DHS Girls
McKenna Franzen – shot put
Miranda Gallegos – 4x200, 4x400
Hannah Hwang – 400, 4x200, 4x400
Shannon Maloney – 800, 1,600, 4x400, 4x800
Mckenzie Marciante – pole vault
Natalie Neve – 4x200
Gabi Razma – long jump, triple jump
Katarina Seibert – 4x800
Mackenzie Sill – 4x200
Dominique Ward – 800, 4x400, 4x800
Madeigh Winsor – 4x800
Durango Herald
CHSAA Class 3A/2A Track and Field State Championships
CLASS 3A
Note: Bayfield High School will take nine boys, seven girls and four different relay teams to the CHSAA Class 3A Boys and Girls Track and Field State Championships this weekend in Denver.
Bayfield
Wolverines
BHS Boys
John Arnold – pole vault
Aubry Brown – discus
Michael Hawkins – shot put
Conner Kennedy – high jump
Tyler Meyers – pole vault
TJ Pazell – long jump, shot put
Geoff Pope – pole vault
Michael Voss – pole vault
Keith Wickman – 200
Also:
4x100, 4x200
BHS Girls
Morgan Allred – pole vault
Eva-Lou Edwards, 1,600, 3,200
Samantha Espinosa – shot put
Katie Hawkins – pole vault
Trista Hooley – pole vault
Brittany Hunter – pole vault
Jessie Roukema – high jump
Also:
4x100, 800 sprint medley
CLASS 2A
Note: Ignacio High School will take five boys, three girls and four different relay teams to the CHSAA Class 2A Boys and Girls Track and Field State Championships this weekend in Denver.
Ignacio
Bobcats
IHS Boys
Austin Haire – pole vault
Wyatt Hayes – 400, long jump
Nicholas Herrera – high jump
Kelton Richmond – discus
Klayson Smith – high jump, pole vault
Also:
4x100, 4x200
IHS Girls
Sky Cotton – long jump
Michelle Simmons – 200, high jump
Chrystianne Valdez – pole vault
Also:
4x100. 800 sprint medley
Durango Herald