Race(s!) Review

We wrapped up the regular season with several high notes!

Joe Shields at West Grand High School

Darby set a PR in the 1600, finishing in 3rd place, which matched her finishing place in the 800. Lila won her first high school meet in the 3200!

Malachi, Lukas and Daniel all set PRs in the 400. Daniel set another 2 second PR in the 800. Owen scored his first high school victory in the 3200!

St. Vrain

Avery set a 3" PR in the 800, now all the way down to 2:22.50. That puts her 6th on the SHS All Time list and 4th Junior. Lily ran a 12" PR in the 1600 to enter the Summit Milers Club. Ashley ran a 4" PR and just missed earning her Milers Club T-Shirt. More on that later.

Carter ran a 3" PR in the 1600 to move up to 5th SHS All Time and 4th on the Sophomore list. Cain finished just .37 seconds outside of Milers Club status at the Don Osse meet. He approached the St. Vrain with an mission. Mission accomplished! Cain ran a 1.5" PR to earn his Milers Club t-shirt.

Teddy's Last Chance

While Joe Shields and St. Vrain were focused on individual events, the main focus of Teddy's Last Chance was to qualify relays for State. We hadn't run the 4x800s at "full strength" yet this year. The 4x800 team of Avery, Lily, Ashley and Ella put together a string of great 800s to finish second, but more importantly, jump up to 9th in the 4A state rankings, securing a trip for the four girls to the State Championship! 

Following the relay, several girls ran individual events to improve their season bests. Avery set a 2.5" PR in the 400. Ella ran a season best in the 800 to finish 4th. 

Avery ran the 3200 in a strong time. It was her third race of the day and 4th in 24 hours, and while not a PR, was great training for State. Cece ran a new personal record in the 800 to secure a 7th place ranking in the SHS Junior performance list. 

Cece doubled back in the 1600 and ran a 4" PR that moves her up to 15th on the All Time list. Lily and Ashley repeated 1600 races about 24 hours after St. Vrain. Lily after a hard 24 hours of racing was a bit slower than her PR at St. Vrain, but Ashley, motivated to get the Summit Miler's T-Shirt, ran a 4.4" PR to join the Miler's Club!

The girls weren't done yet. They finished the night under the lights in the 4x400. It was the 4th or 5th race in 24 hours for many of them and while up against teams mostly of 400 meter specialists, they held their own. They now eagerly look forward to racing the 4x800 at State.

The boys 4x800 unfortunately did not go so well. Carter and Josh started with very strong legs that put the team in contention for a State Qualifying time. Lukas was suffering a cold and Jay's apophysitis proved too painful to run a fast 800. While they ran several seconds faster than the previous season best, if fell several seconds short of a State Qualifying time.

Carter and Cain followed up the 4x800 with individual 800s. Carter was just slower than his season best, but Cain ran a huge 8" PR, to go from unranked up to 16th All Time on the SHS performance list. Cain took a shot at three PRs in 24 hours in the 3200 but on very tired legs came up just a bit short.

The boys 4x400 team of Jackson, Josh, Eddy and Quinn ran the very last race in the Colorado regular season and blasted off a new school record of 3:27.59, that at the time was a solid 9th in the State Rankings. By the time results of other races were uploaded into MileSplit Sunday morning, that seemingly "sure thing" state qualification had slipped all the way to 18th, but as of "press time" (Sunday evening) we think there are no more races to report and they are going to State!

This is a record breaking year. EVERY SINGLE state qualification time, boys and girls, sprints to distance to jumps to throws is faster, farther, higher than last year. That's amazing. ALL EVENTS WITHOUT EXCEPTION. That has never happened before.

See this and previous year's qualification marks below.

Summit Daily Article: Summit track and field team secures final qualifying marks ahead of state meet

Joe Shields

St. Vrain

Teddy's Last Chance

More photos are here.

BUS: tbd

WHERE:  

West Grand - Kremmling High School

St. Vrain - Longmont High School

Teddy's Last Chance - Roosevelt High School

DISTANCE ENTRIES: Express your desired events here.

2024 Joe Shields at West Grand in Kremmling

RUNNING EVENTS will begin at 11:00am. and follow in order. 

Girls 110 hurdle prelims followed by boys 110HH prelims

Girls 100 prelims follow by boys 100 prelims

Girls 800 Meter Medley Relay

Girls 4 x 800 Meter Relay followed by Boys 4 x 800 

Girls 100 Meter Hurdles Finals

Boys 110 Meter High Hurdles Finals

Girls 100 Meter Dash Finals followed by Boys 100 Meter Dash Finals 

Girls 4 x 200 Meter Relay followed by Boys 4 x 200 Meter Relay 

Girls 1600 Meter Run followed by Boys 1600 Meter Run 

Girls 4 x 100 Relay followed by Boys 4 x 100 Relay 

Girls 400 Meter Dash followed by Boys 400 Meter Dash 

Girls 300 Low Hurdles followed by Boys 300 Intermediate Hurdles 

Girls 800 Meter Run followed by Boys 800 Meter Run 

Girls 200 Meter Dash followed by Boys 200 Meter Dash 

Girls 3200 Meter Run followed by Boys 3200 Meter Run

4X100 Co-ed Weightman’s Relay  

Girls 4 x 400 Relay followed by Boys 4 x 400 Relay

2024 St. Vrain

2024 Teddy's Last Chance at Roosevelt High School

2023 Results

This was another fantastic week for us. With 3 meets in 2 days and a lot of State analysis and prep to do, I'm just going to post the basics here. 

We went into this final weekend of the season with the primary goal of securing our State Championship positions in the 4x400 and 4x800. We were successful in 3 out of 4! That wasn't surprising. We knew you had the potential to do it based on your improvement this season. What wasn't as expected was securing three more individual State Championship appearances! That was fantastic!

St. Vrain is the most competitive meet of the year in Colorado. (Arguably more competitive than the State Championship because all classifications compete together.) SHS showed up ready to compete!

Josh ran a huge 8 second PR in the 3200 to jump to 16th in the State rankings and secure a trip to the State Championship. A few hours later, Lauren ran an incredible 15 second PR in the 1600 to jump 20 spots in the State rankings to #12 and secure her own spot in the 1600.

The next day at the Berthoud Last Chance, Lauren ran a 8 second PR in the 800 that secured another State Championship appearance!

I believe this is the most State Championship appearances in SHS history:

• Dom - 800, 1600, 3200, 4x800

• Josh - 3200, 4x800

• Carter - 4x800

• Will - 4x800 (missed a 800 appearance by 3 spots)

• Ella - 1600, 3200, 4x400, 4x800 (Also qualified in the 400 and 800, but scratched those to focus on the others)

• Lauren - 800, 1600, 4x400, 4x800 (Also qualified in the 3200, but scratched to focus on the others)

• Avery - 4x800

• Faith - 4x400, 4x800, 100 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles

• Teegan - 4x400

There was another large haul of PRs at the meets:

• The 4x800 ran by Lauren, Faith, Avery and Ella ran a 13 second Season Best to move up to 10th and lock in a State Championship appearance.

• The 4x400 of Faith, Lauren, Teegan and Ella ran a 4 second Season Best to move up to 11th. Had they not run and improved, they would have been knocked out of the State Championship.

• Avery - .8 seconds in the 800, 4.5 seconds in the 1600.

• Will - A huge 10 second PR in the 1600. A 2.7 second PR in the 800 got him within 3 spots of qualifying for State.

• Josh - In addition to the State qualifying run in the 3200, PR'd by 4 seconds in the 1600, advancing to 24th in the State rankings. Also PR'd by 4 seconds in the 800.

• Carter - a 4 second PR in the 1600 and another 4 second PR in the 800.

• Cain - another in a series of big PRs in the 1600, this one by 7 seconds.

• James - a 7 second PR in the 800 and a 19 second PR in the 1600

• Zach - Season's Bests in the 400 and 1600

• Jens - a 7 second Pr in the 1600

• Claire ran her first 800, Lila her first 1600 and Darby and Josie their first 3200s.

Sportsman/Teammate of the week (month or year?) has to go to Dom, who went all the way to Berthoud to run the 4x400 in an attempt to get the team qualified for State – even though he wouldn't run it at State if qualified. That is putting team above self!

PR Watch

With Dom and Ella taking the weekend off except for helping the relays secure their State births, it was the chance for other runners to grab the spotlight and make some big moves in the SHS All-Time Lists. I spent a few hours updating the rankings and was amazed!

Full updated lists are here.

Final State Rankings

St. Vrain Results

Berthoud Last Chance resuLts

Joe shields/West Grand Results

2022 JOE SHIELDS/WEST GRAND

WHEN:  Friday 13 May

WHERE:  West Grand High School, Kremmling

DISTANCE RESULTS: We "split-squaded" it a bit today. Dom went to St. Vrain in search of a State Qual time. To keep him company and pursue their own PRs we sent Lucas Sudduth and Josh Shriver as well. Hurdlers Emily Koetteritz, Malachi Ryan and Cam Fox also went to this very competitive meet, where Emily triple jumped as well.

From all reports (I went to St. Vrain as well) it was VERY windy in Kremmling. Despite this, we had several great performances.

Adaline and Avery both PR'd in the 1600, Adaline by 2 seconds and Avery by 5 in shoulder to shoulder 6:14.22 and 6:14.45 respectively for second and third. The "learning to compete" that became evident at Leagues continued. Roan placed 7th in 5:40.95 while James and Jacob followed in 11th and 12th in 6:32.16 and 6:42.19.

The 1600 efforts and winds prevented any further PRs, but Avery and Adaline 2nd and 5th in the 800 while Roan placed 10th.

2022 St. Vrain invite

WHEN:  Friday 13 May

WHERE:  Longmont High School, Longmont

DISTANCE RESULTS: St. Vrain is a very big and very competitive meet, with very stringent entry standards per event. For years it has been the premiere "last chance" meet for those hoping to place in the top 18 in their event and earn a trip to the State Championship. In fact, I had to request special approval just to get Lucas and Josh into the meet as they technically didn't meet the entry standard of 4:45 in the 1600. 

That special request was redeemed as Lucas, Josh and Dom raced great. Lucas was the only one to run the 800. If he improved his PR of 2:11.47 by just half a second, he would move up two spots on the SHS all-time 800 list to 8th. It wasn't as windy in Longmont as it was in Kremmling, but it was still pretty windy during the 800. Lucas was boxed a bit on the third turn, made a hard effort to pass three runners on the backstretch, but then had to fight the wind on his own on the last turn. The efforts took their toll, and Lucas fatigued on the final stretch missing a new PR by just 6 hundredths of a second.

Lucas has PR'd in every meet this season. He was disappointed to break the streak, then we remembered that he still had the 1600. Lucas was in the same heat as Josh. By this time, the winds had dissipated and it was ideal conditions. Lucas seized the moment to go out with a bang and wrapped up his high school career with a 9 second PR, dropping down to 5:12.99. We just wish Lucas had started running earlier as his improvement this season was incredible.

Josh was seeded last in this heat and hadn't yet run a 1600 this season. It was only his 3rd weekend of racing and training after recovering from a soft tissue injury. Josh decided his seed time was soft and he could win the heat. And just that he did. He started smartly by sliding into fourth or fifth place and sighted up the competition. After 400 meters he decided the pace wouldn't do and set off on his own gradually opening up a 30-meter gap on the field. The announcer remarked several times on the Summit runner enjoying the thick front range air and the Summit Freshman with an incredible performance and a bright future. Josh finished with a 18 second PR in 4:22.68.

A couple heats later it was Dom's turn. 4A distance running, boys and girls, is incredible this year. Much stronger than larger 5A. To place in the top 18 would require a 4:22, with Dom's PR for the season being 4:31. Dom ran an exceptionally controlled, tactical and efficient race. He relaxed in fourth or fight place for two laps, then made a move and wasted no time in not just going to the front, but dropping the field. His last lap was a blistering 62 seconds. The early pace didn't let him threaten a State Quali time, but he ran a season's best by over four seconds.

His 62 second closing lap (only 5 runners in the following fastest heat finished faster) along with a 52.5 split in the 4x400 at Leagues gave Dom confidence that he could run a quali time in the 800 the next day in Denver. Back to Summit he went to sleep and recover.

2022 Jeffco last chance

WHEN:  Saturday 14 May

WHERE:  Jeffco Stadium, Lakewood

DISTANCE RESULTS: This turned out to be the best meet conditions we had all year. It was calm with a comfortable temp in the 70s. Dom was seeded 5th in the heat. The first three runners didn't answer roll call and it looked like Dom may have to work alone to get the State Qualification time, expected to be in the low 1:58s. Dom had broken 2:00 (a big accomplishment) for the first time ever two weeks earlier at Steamboat in 1:59.82. Dropping over 1.5 seconds to get down to the low 1:58s was a big ask, but Dom's racing and training performance was screaming hints that he could.

The goal was to go through the 200 in 28 seconds and 400 in 57 seconds. The hope was that he needn't lead to achieve that. As evidenced by the night before, Dom's race awareness had made a big improvement. Instead of hammering the pace at the front, Dom was realizing the value of patience and situational awareness. Two boys went out hard and Dom astutely slotted in behind them and relaxed. 200 meters - 28 seconds. 400 meters - 57 seconds.

The race plan was to slightly pick it up on the third curve and then shift a gear each of the last 3 100-meter sections. Dom came off the curve on the shoulders of the two leaders. He accelerated and moved to the front on the back stretch. He accelerated again on the last curve and opened a small gap. One runner made a move coming off the curve but Dom accelerated a third time down the closing stretch and finished in.…

1:56.96!

Not just a 3 second PR! Not just a top 18 time and a State Championship entry! The 8th fastest 4A time all season and the 16th best time in the State. Dom didn't just qualify for the State Championship, he will now be on the radar as a podium contender. That's the way to capitalize on year's of hard work.

2022 WEEKEND WRAP UP: 

We finished up the "regular season" with a bang. Not only did Dom earn a trip to the State Championship, but another 5 PRs were run.

"First year Senior" Lucas ran the 8th fastest 800, 5th 1600 and 8th 3200 times by SHS Seniors ever. Dom now has the fastest SHS Junior times ever in the 800, 1600 and 3200. Josh added claim to the freshman 1600 time and now has the fastest ever Freshman times in the 800, 1600 and 3200. And Ella has the fastest ever freshman 800, 1600 and 3200.

The State Championship, and next year, are going to be exciting!

I'm very proud of the efforts made this season (and pre-season) and very happy to see those who worked hard rewarded with tremendous improvement. You should be very proud of your efforts and achievements.

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Summit Daily article: Track-filled weekend leads to fast times and top-10 finishes for Summit before state meet

Updated SHS distance rankings are here.