{"id":34194,"date":"2023-05-04T21:15:46","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T03:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-boys-mancos-girls-take-san-juan-titles\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:16:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:16:35","slug":"dove-creek-boys-mancos-girls-take-san-juan-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-boys-mancos-girls-take-san-juan-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek boys, Mancos girls take San Juan titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Kade Hankins is flanked by teammates Cody Alexander and Bobby Pastorius in the 110 hurdles in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School.<\/p>\n

Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Balance for Bulldogs and Bluejays key to besting league fields<\/div>\n

The Dove Creek boys track and field team played out a familiar theme from a special 2022-23 athletic year for Bulldogs athletics \u2013 winning takes a full program buy-in.<\/p>\n

While the \u2018Dogs have a star-studded lineup that owned plenty of top spots in the San Juan Basin League track and field championships, head coach Jason Fury\u2019s group ran away with the team title on account of contributions from the entire complement of a blue-and-yellow arsenal that piled up points. The Bulldogs scored 175 points to nearly double up their nearest competitor Mancos (93 points), en route to a sweep of track and field, basketball, and football league championships in a year to remember for Bulldog athletics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a group that works hard and has bought in,\u201d said Dove Creek head coach Jason Fury, \u201cand they see the improvement every week \u2013 and that effort is raising the bar for the rest of our athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the girls meet, Mancos used a similar formula, taking advantage of plenty of great performances and depth across the different events to secure back-to-back league titles, pulling away from runner-up Nucla to win 139-115 on their home track.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Mancos and Dolores 4×800 meter relays fight for position in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As has been the theme all season, Dove Creek took the SJBL to task in the hurdles and field events, taking titles in almost every field event on offer.<\/p>\n

Senior Kade Hankins won three events, taking the long jump with a best effort of 20 feet, 2\u00bc, inches to go along with his domination of the hurdle events, comfortably winning both the 110 and 300 events.<\/p>\n

Classmate Kendall Gardner led a 1-2-3 sweep for the \u2018Dogs in the triple jump, as he, Cole Taber and Quaden Huffaker continued to make waves in an event where all three may end up in JeffCo Stadium vying for a state title in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a natural fit,\u201d added Fury of his team\u2019s knack for taking on the field events, \u201cand our assistant coaches have been working hard to refine the talent \u2013 but it starts with a \u201cwant to\u201d from the kids, and we\u2019ve got that from this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos freshman Adam Martinez fires the shot put in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Asher Nye launches the shot put in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gardner would add a shot put victory (37 feet, 6 inches), and the Class of \u201923 got another win from Asher Nye in the discus (108-6) in a sterling field performance for Dove Creek.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team loves playing for each other,\u201d said Fury, \u201cand while they\u2019re competitive with each other, everybody roots for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Add to the equation victories in the 4×100 (45.41) and 4 x 200 relays (1:40.29), and the Bulldogs had their league title secured with several events remaining on the slate.<\/p>\n

Junior Colten Fury ran away with the 800 meters (2:16.11) to round out the league champion performances, but it was the depth of the \u2018Dogs that made their lead insurmountable. Senior Dustin Glover contributed with fourth place in the 200, junior Cody Alexander raced to third place in the 110 hurdles, sophomore Sheldon Garner took third in the shot, while junior Bowdy Seely claimed fourth in the discus, setting the stage for a runaway league title.<\/p>\n

The Mancos girls enjoyed similar balance, in addition to scoring in all five relays, to hold off all challengers for their league title repeat.<\/p>\n

Wins in the sprint medley relay and 4×400 put the Bluejays in the driver\u2019s seat as their depth kept collecting scoring performances.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Mancos and Dove Creek sprint medley relay teams duel down the backstretch in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brooke Jabour (2:36.77) edged teammate Adalaine Kearns (2:37.94) in a 1-2 finish in the 800 meters, and sophomore Teagan Archer won the 3,200 meters (13:46.95) to continue Bluejay control over the distance events.<\/p>\n

Freshman Aysia Mathews won the triple jump (30-2) as the remaining league champion, but the points kept coming from plenty of other sources. Haylie Higgins took runner-up in the high jump (4-5), while Madilynn Ritter claimed fourth in the 3,200.<\/p>\n

Freshman Claire Goodwin took third and fourth in the 100 and 300 hurdles, respectively, while Jabour took third in the long jump, and Akima Kane took fourth in the shot put. Sarah Knezek added a fifth-place effort in the high jump, as the Bluejays piled up enough points to overcome a strong Nucla squad for the league title.<\/p>\n

The Mancos boys took second in the SJBL title chase, utilizing a league title for freshman Jonah Ritter in the high jump (5-9) to lead the way for the Jays.<\/p>\n

Ritter would add runner-up finishes in the 100 and 200 to his busy afternoon, and sophomore Spencer Eschallier would take second to Ritter in the high jump. Junior Levei Martin claimed third in the long jump while senior Braxton Dennison took third in the 800 and fourth in the 1,600 to round out the Mancos individual top four performances.<\/p>\n

The Jays collected a trio of top-three relays to continue their battle toward a top-two team finish, led by runner-up 4×100 and 4×400 relays.<\/p>\n

The Dove Creek girls earned fourth in the SJBL, spurred by a double victory in the throws for senior Tara Glover. The state qualifier edged teammate Rylee Hickman in the discus in a 1-2 finish (97-3 to 91-3), and completed the sweep with a throw of 33-4\u00bd in the shot put.<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Trista Barnett clears the final hurdle of the 100 hurdles in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

D.C. won the 4×100 relay (55.05), and senior Trista Barnett took runner-up spots in both of the hurdle events. Freshman Ambrynn Huffaker raced to a third-place finish in the 200 meters, and sophomore Ralynn Hickman leapt to a runner-up jump in the triple jump. Dove Creek accrued 86 points, just 10 behind third place Ignacio.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur girls program has a tremendous work ethic,\u201d added Fury of the Dove Creek girls group, \u201cand our seniors have provided a role models for the younger athletes and have great attitudes through it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores walked away with a pair of SJBL titles, as freshman Micheal Rantz won the 400 meters (55.59) and the 4×400 relay (3:50.54) took top honors to headline the day for a Bears\u2019 fifth-place team finish. Classmate Bridger Beyhan added to a promising showing for the future of Dolores track and field with a runner-up spot in the 800 meters, while junior Ty Gaddis took runner-up in the 300 hurdles.<\/p>\n

The Bears added a runner-up 4×200 relay, and freshman Aaron Nielson took third in the 1,600 for the up-and-coming Bears.<\/p>\n

On the girls side, Dolores put together three scoring relay teams, led by a runner-up 4×400 squad to help the Bears to a sixth place team finish.<\/p>\n

Sophomores Elia Lowe (third, 400 meters) and Siena Parr (third, 3,200 meters) topped the individual performances for the Bears, while Keira LaRose added a fourth-place run in the 400.<\/p>\n

With the league meet in the books, the SJBL teams turn their focus to the final push for state qualification marks, and with plenty already secured, Dove Creek, Mancos, and Dolores hope to add or better their marks to the state qualifying field with a trip to the Terry Alley Invitational in Pagosa Springs coming up this weekend.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creek senior Kade Hankins is flanked by teammates Cody Alexander and Bobby Pastorius in the 110 hurdles in the San Juan Basin League at Mancos High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journalcca Balance for Bulldogs and Bluejays key to besting league fields The Dove Creek boys track and field team played out a familiar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[39,28,37,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34194","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=34194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82510,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34194\/revisions\/82510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34194"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}