{"id":46796,"date":"2021-05-12T21:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/area-track-stars-hear-the-gun-at-mancos-early-bird-meet\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:34:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:34:27","slug":"area-track-stars-hear-the-gun-at-mancos-early-bird-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/area-track-stars-hear-the-gun-at-mancos-early-bird-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"Area track stars hear the gun at Mancos Early Bird meet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=86b98243-b627-541d-9a41-81afb7d4cc27&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" alt=\"Durango junior William Knight finished second in the discus and shot put at the Mancos Early Bird meet last weekend. His discus throw should qualify him for state. Courtesy of Mike Ellis\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Durango junior William Knight finished second in the discus and shot put at the Mancos Early Bird meet last weekend. His discus throw should qualify him for state. Courtesy of Mike Ellis<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Nearly two years since the last time high school track and field athletes got the chance to compete, plenty were ready to set new personal records when the 2021 spring season began.<\/p>\n<p>In a meet loaded with talent from Southwest Colorado, the Durango High School boys and girls ran away with the team victories Saturday at the Mancos Early Bird meet. The boys scored 210 points, while Bayfield was second with 69 and Mancos third with 66. Montezuma-Cortez would place fourth with 58 points.<\/p>\n<p>Durango\u2019s girls won with 216 points, while Telluride was second with 60, one point ahead of third-place Bayfield. Montezuma-Cortez was fourth with 47.5, and Sargent was fifth with 38.<\/p>\n<p>The Demons did it without the services of some of their top distance runners who competed at the Brigham Young University high school invitational in Provo, Utah. Paul Knight ran the 3,200-meter run in a personal best time of 9:29.61 to place 14th and the 1,600 in 4:27.93 to place 36th. Damian Frausto finished 21st in the 3,200 in 9:42.48 and 34th in the 1,600 in 4:27.91. Land Lambert also was in Utah and ran the 1,600 in a PR time of 4:35.22 to place 57th. There were more than 90 runners in each event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose three guys have been running all winter and early spring getting ready for this season,\u201d said DHS head coach Johnny Bertrand. \u201cTheir hard work is already showing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a closer look at the Mancos Early Bird:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Boys Track and Field<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bertrand was impressed by the performance of some freshmen on the boys side. Charlie Dillman was the 800-meter run with a 20-second personal record in 2 minutes, 15.22 seconds. That beat Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s John Whyte, who was second in 2:23.20.<\/p>\n<p>Freshman Jaxon Fancher also won in the 200 and 400 for DHS. His 200 time was 23.80, which put him in front of teammate Emmet Thompson, who crossed in 24.15, two-hundredths of a second in front of Bayfield\u2019s Landon Kennedy. His 400 time of 54.00 edged teammate Landon Roberts (54.35) and Bayfield\u2019s Zeb Shields (55.98).<\/p>\n<p>Durango\u2019s Nathaniel Ellis, another freshman, also won the 3,200 in 11:37.06 to win by almost a minute in front of Sargent\u2019s Westen Burkhart (12:28.71).<\/p>\n<p>DHS sophomore Branden Marquez claimed first in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles. He won the 110 in 19.16 seconds ahead of DHS freshman Micah Zastrocky (20.19), and he edged Dolores sophomore Dylan Rantz (48.30) in the 300. It was the first time Marquez had competed in those events.<\/p>\n<p>The boys 100-meter dash victory went to Bayfield\u2019s Kennedy in 11.65, four-hundredths of a second in front of Durango\u2019s Evan Bastin. Durango\u2019s Tyler Woodworth was third in 11.82, while Fancher was fourth in 11.85 and Ean Goodwin was fifth.  Thompson made it a clean sweep for DHS with a sixth-place result in 12.00.<\/p>\n<p>Mancos\u2019 Edgar Hernandez claimed first in the 1,600 in 4:45.88 ahead of Bayfield\u2019s Shields (4:57.21).<\/p>\n<p>The boys high jump went to Bayfield\u2019s Crosby Edwards with a leap of 5-feet, 10 inches. That was two inches more than Mancos\u2019 Josh Lindner and six more than third-place Sawyer Smith of Montezuma-Cortez.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy also won the long jump for BHS at 19-11, well further than Mancos freshman Cole Dainty-Guifoyle\u2019s second-place jump of 18-03. Durango\u2019s Allan Hardee was third at 17-07.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Sawyer Smith would claim the triple jump at 39-09.70 to beat teammate Austin Wood (36-04). Durango\u2019s Kilian Gwinn was third with a jump of 36-01.70.<\/p>\n<p>The boys discus throw was won by Connor Showalter of Mancos with a state qualifying throw of 143-09. Durango\u2019s William Knight was second with a throw of 135-05 that should also get him to state. Durango\u2019s Josh Bates was third with a heave of 134-00.<\/p>\n<p>Showalter again won the shot put with a throw of 50-04, while Knight was second at 48-09 and Bates was third at 45-05.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Girls Track and Field<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nykole Meshew of Bayfield gave the Wolverines a sweep of the 100-meter dash events, as she won in 13.60, one-tenth of a second ahead of Durango\u2019s Mason Turner. Anderson Gillen of Durango was third in 13.91.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Sophia Shepard would win the 200 in 29.31, while Dolores\u2019 Akima Edwards was second in 29.66 and Ignacio\u2019s Lexy Young was third in 29.69.<\/p>\n<p>Durango took the top-three spots in the 400, which was won by  Turner in 1:03.56. Halle Moore was second in 1:04.97, and Ava McClellan was third in 1:05.85.<\/p>\n<p>Angela McManus of Durango showed her form in the 800 with a win in 2:29.27, 10 seconds in front of teammate Abby Fehr. Mancos\u2019 Grace Manning was third in 2:43.25.<\/p>\n<p>Willow Lott led Durango\u2019s podium assault in the 1,600, as she won in 5:49.18. Her teammates took the next four spots behind her with Fehr (5:59.97) in second, Nina Quayle (6:03.68) third, Ashley Forrest (6:19.10) fourth and Kayleigh Frazer (6:25.07) fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Lott would also win the 3,200 in 12:52.31, with Ignacio\u2019s Moriah Ashley second in 15:26.34.<\/p>\n<p>Sargent\u2019s Bailey Asbell won the girls 100-meter hurdles in 17.87 to beat Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s Cassandra McCully (18.36). Elise Schumann of Durango was third in 18.77.<\/p>\n<p>McCully would claim the 300 hurdles in 56.12 to narrowly beat Durango\u2019s Jessica McVaugh (56.17). Schumann was third in 58.32.<\/p>\n<p>In the high jump, Bayfield\u2019s Meshew was first with a leap of 5-feet. Gillen of Durango was second at 4-08.70.<\/p>\n<p>The triple jump win went to Sophia Shepard of Montezuma-Cortez at 31-03.25, while McManus was second at 30-05.5.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=d5639c53-d71a-5ff4-a305-0ec716432d5b&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1800\" alt=\"Sydney Flores of Durango won both the shot put and discus throw at the Mancos Early Bird track and field meet last weekend. Courtesy of Mike Ellis\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Sydney Flores of Durango won both the shot put and discus throw at the Mancos Early Bird track and field meet last weekend. Courtesy of Mike Ellis<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Sydney Flores of Durango swept the discus and shot put events. Her discus throw of 111-06 was well ahead of Dolores\u2019 Sam Castillo (99-03), and third went to Durango\u2019s Samantha Vasquez at 89-11, which matched the throw of Bayfield\u2019s Emily Nelson.<\/p>\n<p>Flores tossed the shot put 32-04.75. Vasquez was second at 29-03.50, and Castillo was third at 28-10.<\/p>\n<p>Bayfield, Durango and Ignacio will take varsity teams Friday to Alamosa.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-c26aecaf320b99945686dfd614a448d1\"><a href=\"mailto:jlivingston@durangoherald.com\">jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durango boys, girls sweep meets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1871,592,846,37,36,427],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield-high-school","tag-durango-high-school","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-prep-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46796","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=46796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87033,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46796\/revisions\/87033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46796"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}