Look out for purple at the 2015 CHSAA Class 3A state track and field championships.
The Bayfield High School Wolverines will be out in force Thursday through Saturday in Lakewood.
BHS will bring 23 athletes, the most of any La Plata County School.
“The good thing is all those fellas and gals that we expected did make it,” BHS co-head coach Gary Heide said. “There’s a couple that we knew were going to be on the bubble, about four of them that were nice surprises.”
Of the no-doubters, four enter the meet as their event’s top seed.
Aubry Browns’ 166 foot, 10-inch discus throw from the Terry Alley Invitational leads the state of Colorado across all classifications.
It’s also more than eight inches farther than his closest competitor.
Brown also qualified second in the shot put.
Michael Voss leads 3A in the pole vault at 14-00, almost a foot ahead of the second seed.
Those two had been leading for several weeks, but Conner Kennedy snuck in to the long jump’s top spot with a 21-09 leap at the Intermountain/Southern Peaks League Championships last weekend, squeezing 1.5 inches in front of Platte Valley junior Dane Corliss.
“I think what they’ve got to do is really view this as a competition,” Heide said. “In the throwing events, you can kind of go back and forth and respond, same thing with the long jump and the high jump.”
Jessica Cusick, on the other hand, has held her spot atop the 800-meter rankings for most of the season.
She’s aimed for this state championship since she finished third last year.
“The 800 is her strongest event, and I think she’s trained all year for a state championship,” Heide said.
Cusick also will run the 400-meter dash, where she’s the No. 11 seed.
BHS qualified both its boys and girls 4x100-meter and 4x200-meter relay teams, and the boys 4x1 team is ranked second in the classification.
The Wolverines also will run in the girls 800-meter sprint medley relay.
Preston Hardy, Bridget Goddard, Amber Johnson, Gabe Kaufmann and Amy Roach are Bayfield’s only athletes competing in relays.
The rest at least have one individual event.
Zane Westbrook and Blane Barnes will join Brown in the shot put.
BHS qualified four girls for the pole vault: Morgan Allred, Maddi Foutz, Katie Hawkins, and Miranda Talbot.
Foutz also is running the 200.
Emily Bauer is entered in the long jump and Jessie Roukema the high jump.
Brady Fields will run the 110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter hurdles, and Carl Heide will join him in the 110-meter high hurdles.
Brian Mashak will contend for the fastest man in 3A title, running both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
With all of those entrants, the Wolverines boast legitimate team title aspirations.
“They’re very well-balanced. I think any time you’re well balanced – sprinters, jumpers, throwers, pole vaulters – about the only thing we don’t have is the distance runners,” coach Heide said. “If everybody does their best, then they’ve got a good chance to get into that top three (as a team).”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
