{"id":46021,"date":"2021-06-27T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T04:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/three-panthers-land-all-state-performances-at-3a-track-and-field-championships\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:29:10","slug":"three-panthers-land-all-state-performances-at-3a-track-and-field-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/three-panthers-land-all-state-performances-at-3a-track-and-field-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Panthers land all-state performances at 3A track and field championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s
Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Avery Wright placed second in the 100-meter dash, fifth in the 200 and eighth in the 400 this weekend at the 3A State Track & Field Championships in Lakewood. (Joel Priest\/Special for The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

LAKEWOOD \u2013 Track fans across the Four Corners have gotten used to the familiar faces at the front of the field in orange and black. This weekend, at the 3A State Championships at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood, the rest of the state was introduced to the Panthers\u2019 prowess.<\/p>\n

M-CHS entered seven individuals and two relays into the three-day competition, and walked away with a haul of all-state performances from senior Zander Cruzan, sophomore Sawyer Smith and junior Avery Wright.<\/p>\n

Cruzan started the fireworks for the Panthers, as he blazed a time of 11.10 in the preliminary heats of the 100 meter dash, an event in which a staggering seven athletes broke 11 seconds. Cruzan qualified for the finals of the event, where he took eighth place overall.<\/p>\n

Later on Saturday, Cruzan again rose to the occasion as he ran 22.57 in the 200 meters final, an improvement of .16 seconds from his preliminary time, which landed him on the podium again, this time in seventh place.<\/p>\n

On the triple jump runway, Smith came up with a personal best on the state\u2019s biggest state, propelling himself 41 feet, 9 \u00be inches to take fifth place in the event.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s
Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Zander Cruzan motors down the innermost lane during the Class 3A boys 100-meter dash on Day 3 of the CHSAA State Track & Field Championships this weekend in Lakewood. Cruzan would place eighth in the sprint, clocking a time of 11.29 seconds. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Meanwhile, in the girls\u2019 sprints, Wright kept her name on the short list as one of the most prolific athletes in the state, as she added to her state medal collection.<\/p>\n

After qualifying comfortably in the 100, 200, and 400 dashes, Wright entered Saturday\u2019s finals with high expectations. As has been the case since emerging on the scene as a state champion as a freshman, Wright did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

She began her busy day with a silver medal in the 100, where her time of 12.56 was only bested by Coal Ridge\u2019s Peyton Garrison (12.38). Wright added a fifth-place finish in the 200 a few hours later, in a time of 26.32.<\/p>\n

Her championships also included an eighth-place finish in the 400 meters (59.41).<\/p>\n

Fellow Panthers also accounted well for the themselves, as senior Devon McHenry capped off her strong hurdling career with appearances in both the 100 hurdles (11th, 16.96) and 300 hurdles (14th, 50.42). Classmate Paige Yarbrough broke 100 feet in the discus, taking home a 12th-place finish with a throw of 102 feet, 5 inches.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Sophia Shepard made her first state championships in the triple jump, taking 18th place with a leap of 31 feet, 1\u00be inches.<\/p>\n

Shepard would join Kenzie Huston, Cassandra McCully, and Elaina Short as part of both the 4\u00d7100 and 4\u00d7200 meter relays. The Panthers would take 17th in the 4\u00d7200 relay (1:56.01) and 18th in the 4\u00d7100 (53.61).<\/p>\n

The Panthers also sent senior John Whyte in the 1,600, making his state debut in his final high school race. Whyte took 18th place in a time of 4:42.99.<\/p>\n

The Panther boys collected 10 points to finish in 23rd place as a team, while the girls amassed 15 points to finish in the 19th place. Coal Ridge (111 points) captured the team title for the girls, while Resurrection Christian (73 points) was the 3A boy\u2019s champion.<\/p>\n

\"Crossing
Crossing the finish line appearing an emotional opposite of the competitor to her right, Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Avery Wright (6) eagerly eyes Jeffco Stadium\u2019s scoreboard to see her time (12.56 seconds) and rank (second) in the Class 3A girls 100-meter dash final, this weekend in the Colorado state track meet. (Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cruzan, Smith and Wright headline M-CHS contingent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,36,216,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46021","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=46021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86714,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46021\/revisions\/86714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46021"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}