BERTHOUD — The Loveland boys track and field team has emerged as one of the top teams in the state in Class 5A and the Red Wolves showed why Friday, dominating the KC Logan R2J Invitational at Max Marr Stadium.
Loveland totaled 188 points to win the team title, well ahead of second place Vista PEAK Prep, which scored 109.
The Loveland girls completed a sweep for the Red Wolves, claiming their division’s title with 173 points. Legacy was second with 150.
On the boys’ side, the Red Wolves were led by a trio of double winners in thrower Ashton Daly, sprinter/jumper Jackson Conroy and hurdler Preston Evans.
Daly won the discus with a throw of 151 feet, 11 inches, and the shot put with a heave of 50-1.5. After recently competing at the Nike Indoor Nationals, he is off to a strong start to his outdoor high school season.
He finished third in the discus and sixth in the shot put at last year’s state meet. His focus right now is technique and expects his biggest throws of the season to come near or at the state meet in May.
“We’re not having the distance that we want right now, but technical-wise, we’re setting it up so that I can throw those bigger throws like over 60 feet,” Daly said. “For low-percentage reps, almost like drill work, it was a good day. It’s setting up so by the time state comes, I can have a huge PR at state, which is about when you want those.”
Conroy, last year’s 5A state champion in the 110-meter hurdles, has the fastest time in the state this season in that event but ran the 100- and 200-meter dashes instead Friday.
He won the 100 in a season-best 11.24 seconds and finished second in the 200 in 22.95. He also won the long jump with a leap of 22-2.
With Conroy not running the 110 hurdles, it opened the door for the Red Wolves’ second-best runner in that event, Evans.
Evans finished first in the 110s in 15.10. He also won the 300s in 40.68.
“It was weird not doing (the 110s) with Jackson,” Evans said. “So, I was trying to have that mental image of him with me even though he wasn’t. We’ve been doing hurdles together for a while and it just felt good. It was a small PR with a lot of headwinds, so I’m happy with that.”
The Loveland boys also won the 4×800 relay and the 4×400 relay.
The Loveland girls were led by double-winners Brynn Torres, who won the 1,600 meters in 5:04.78 and the 800 with a PR of 2:25.21, and Ava Wankelman, who won the long jump with a leap of 15-7.25 and the pole vault with a mark of 11-7.
Torres, a freshman who finished 15th in the 5A race at the state cross country meet in the fall, is off to a strong start in her first high school track season.
“I’m really excited for the season to finally be started, and I’ve been enjoying it a lot,” she said. “It’s fun to come to these meets and watch my teammates race and be able to race myself, too. My races today went really good. I was really proud of them. I hit some goals that I wanted to and I was happy with my overall performance.”
Also finishing first for the Loveland girls was Sydney Brantley in the 3,200 with a PR of 11:41.59. The Red Wolves also won the 4×800 and 4×400 relays and were second in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.
The top athletes from Berthoud, Thompson Valley and Mountain View competed in either Johnstown on Friday or Niwot on Saturday, or both in a few cases.
Resurrection Christian’s best runners, jumpers and throwers did compete at Max Marr on Friday. The RCS girls finished fourth with 85.5 points.
The Cougars were led by sprinter/jumper Tatum Van Pelt, last year’s 3A state champion in the 100. She won that event Friday in 12.87 and also won the 200 in 26.22 and the triple jump with a leap of 33-9. She also anchored the Cougars’ 4×100 relay to victory in 51.09.
It was her first meet of the season after helping lead the RCS girls basketball team to the Class 3A Final Four.
“It’s been a quick turnaround, but it’s really fun to be back,” Van Pelt said. “The 100 was good. There was a lot of wind, and it was cold. I didn’t do as good as I wanted to, but I’m still happy with the way I ran. My 200 was good. I just wanted to get out a little better and work on my start, and then just work on my ending speed because I slowed down a lot at the end. Then, our 4×1 was really good. We had good exchanges.”
The Resurrection Christian boys finished sixth with 45 points. The Cougars were led by Trevor Lim, who won the 800 in 1:57.75. He was third in the event at the state meet last spring. RCS also won the 4×200 relay.
