{"id":126311,"date":"2026-04-25T15:14:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-girls-track-finishes-top-3-in-iml-boys-take-fourth\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:35:55","slug":"montezuma-cortez-girls-track-finishes-top-3-in-iml-boys-take-fourth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-girls-track-finishes-top-3-in-iml-boys-take-fourth\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez girls track finishes top 3 in IML; boys take fourth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma\u2011Cortez\u2019s
Montezuma\u2011Cortez\u2019s Hayden Matthias, shown at the 2025 CHSAA Class 3A track and field state championships, placed third in both the 100\u2011 and 300\u2011meter hurdles at Friday\u2019s IML championships in Alamosa. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma\u2011Cortez entered the championship portion of the season on a high note, using a series of strong performances to earn a third\u2011place finish for the girls and fourth place for the boys at the IML championships during the High Altitude Challenge.<\/p>\n

The M\u2011CHS girls scored 66 points, finishing behind host Alamosa with 125.5 and runner\u2011up Gunnison with 69. The Panthers boys totaled 54.5 points, while Pagosa Springs claimed the league title with 128.<\/p>\n

The Panthers produced several top\u2011five finishes on the girls side, led by junior Tessa Jackson and sophomore Addison Spitzer in the high jump. Jackson won the event and Spitzer placed third as both cleared 5\u20111. Spitzer\u2019s season\u2011best mark moved her into contention for Class 3A state qualification.<\/p>\n

The girls 4\u00d7400\u2011meter relay remained on track for another state appearance, lowering its season\u2011best time to 4 minutes, 19.72 seconds while winning the IML title. The 4\u00d7200 relay also made a significant leap, running 1:50.87 to place second and move inside the top 18 in the state standings.<\/p>\n

Individually, Hayden and Aubrie Matthias each ran season bests in the 100\u2011meter hurdles. Junior Hayden Matthias dropped her time to 17.15 seconds to place third and strengthen her position in the state qualification field, while Aubrie Matthias finished fifth. Hayden Matthias added another third\u2011place finish in the 300 hurdles, cutting her time to 50.07 seconds.<\/p>\n

The Panthers added a fourth\u2011place finish from the 4\u00d7800 relay in 12:40.61 and a fifth\u2011place mark from sophomore Aubrieana Forsman in the long jump at 14\u20118\u00be to round out the girls\u2019 top\u2011five performances.<\/p>\n

On the boys side, junior Cruz Plewe continued his strong season by winning the IML title in the 3,200 meters. Plewe edged his nearest competitor by two seconds with a time of 10:56.78. The Panthers 4\u00d7200 relay also claimed first place, improving its state standing with a time of 1:32.92.<\/p>\n

In the high jump, a familiar state\u2011level matchup emerged as Bayfield\u2019s Tanner Vyborny, owner of the top jump in Class 3A, and M\u2011CHS junior Trey Hall went head\u2011to\u2011head. Vyborny cleared 6\u20117 to win, while Hall placed second at 6\u20115.<\/p>\n

Senior Parley Smith finished third in the triple jump at 39\u201111, matching third\u2011place finishes from the Panthers 4\u00d7400 relay in 3:39.38 and the 4\u00d7800 relay in 9:39.10. Junior Asher Bennetts added a fourth\u2011place finish in the 110 hurdles in 17.10 seconds.<\/p>\n

Montezuma\u2011Cortez has several meets remaining over the next two weeks to continue improving its state qualification prospects, beginning with the Pueblo Twilight on May 1 and the Doherty Spartan Invitational on May 2 as teams make their final push toward Lakewood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

relays, field events propel Panthers to top half of league standings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6313],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-126311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128390,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126311\/revisions\/128390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126311"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=126311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}