by Kim Bodemann
WG Booster Club President
The West Grand track team had lots of success of the weekend at the Western Slope League Championships held in Grand Junction. Both the boys’ with 74 points and girls’ scoring 86 points placed third out of the 11 teams that competed. Brady Gore and Ralin Corrales earned All-Conference honors as well when they both won the pole vault event. Corrales continues to break her own school record and increased her height to 9’6” as Gore also had a new personal record (PR) of 11’6”. The Mustangs swept the event as they captured first through third in the pole vault. Rheann Pesch took second with a PR of 8’6” as Gabby Willson went 8’0” for third. For the boys’, Gabe DeMattos had a PR of 10’0” good for second, and Jake Bentler took third with 10’0”.
Other placers for the boys were; Hugh Wheatley taking third in the 100m dash with a PR at 11.93. In the hurdle events, both boys set PR’s in each of their races as Josh O’Hotto placed third in the 110 high hurdles with a time of 17.59 and took eighth in the 300’s finishing in 45.78. Jonathan Gale had a time of 18.91 good enough for fifth in the 100’s and took seventh in the 300’s with a 45.33. Gale also placed fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 37’10.5” and went 5’7” in the high jump to claim fifth. DeMattos also placed in the triple jump, going 35’0” to take eighth. In the shot put Marcos Ramirez brought home seventh with a mark of 39’10.75”.
The relay teams did very well as the 4X100 set a season best (SB) time of 46.57 with team members Travis Barnes, DeMattos, Wheatley and Jose Rosas-Valente placing second. The 4X200 team of T. Barnes, Rosas-Valente, Wheatley, and O’Hotto also had a SB of 1:37.03 to claim third place. Another SB was in the 4X800 made of Jordan Knight, Grady McAllister, Badget Lengel, and Garrett Miller finishing in 9:56.62 to take sixth. The 4X400 relay team of Rosas-Valente, DeMattos, Luis Dominguez, and O’Hotto took seventh in 3:48.62 to claim the final points of the meet.
Scoring for the girls’ team in individual events was; in the high jump, Emma DeSanti placing third with a PR of 4’9” as Sydney Almgren went 4’5” for sixth. Pesch placed sixth in both her jumping events as she went 31’3” in the triple jump and had a leap of 14’3.5” in the long jump. In the discus, Willson threw for a fifth place with a distance of 95’1” as Bodemann was sixth with a mark of 94’6”. Willson also had a PR and placed in the shot with 33’4”. In the 100m dash Sydney Ritschard had a PR in 13.04 and claimed second. She also had a PR of 27.71 in the 200m dash taking fourth. Also in the 200m dash Corrales took eighth with a PR of 28.57.
For relays the 4X200 had a new SB time of 1:51.63 with members Corrales, Jacey Murphy, DeSanti, and Ritschard to take second. Placing fifth was Corrales, Murphy, Willson, and Ritschard in the 4X100 with a time of 53.49. Bringing home sixth was the 4X800 in 12:59.82 with Destiny Barnes, Isabelle Eggers, Jessica Gregory, and Hannah Zagone. The 800 Medley team of Pesch, Almgren, Juliana Jimenez, and Morgan Jones also took sixth running a 2:09.47. Rounding out the scoring was the 4X400 of DeSanti, Jones, D. Barnes and Murphy with a seventh place finish in 4:38.39.
Many other team members had PR’s in the meet. Anna Mendoza had three, in the 100m dash with a 15.69, 200m dash a 32.53, and the 400m dash a time of 1:18.95. Jimenez went 28’1.5” in the triple jump as Charish Jansen threw the shot 28’11”. In the 100m dash for boys’ T. Barnes ran a 12.37 just missing the finals, and Cameron Wood improved to 13.66. Rosas-Valente ran the 200m dash in 24.85. Both Knight at 2:18.22 and Miller with 2:20.06 improved in the 800m run as Cody Docheff brought his time down to 6:12.63 in the 1600m run. Connor Miller went 34’0” in the triple jump and cleared 5’1” in the high jump.
The Mustangs will compete one more time before the State meet. West Grand will hold the Joe Shields Invitational today, Thursday, May 11 starting at noon. This is a state qualifying meet with ten teams anticipated to compete.
