Cortez Special Olympians bring home medals

Cortez Special Olympians bring home medals

March 16, 2000

SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE Cortez Special Olympics team brought home medals after competing at the annual Colorado Special Olympics Winter Games at Copper Mountain Resort. Jacob Milligan (top row, left) brought home a silver, a bronze, and a gold. Jim Carton and Jennifer Romero both won golds and Dominic Vasquez a gold and a silver. Eric Garcia, kneeling, brought home a gold and two silver medals.

Journal Staff Report

COPPER MOUNTAIN RESORT — Several members of the Cortez Special Olympics brought home medals after competing in the annual Colorado Special Olympics Winter Games at Copper Mountain Feb. 27-29.

Special Olympians could compete in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, and snowshoes.

In the snowshoe event, which is much like a track meet except on snow with the athletes wearing snowshoes, saw the team compete in the 50- and 100-meter dash, 500 meter race, 1 kilometer unified team race, and 4X1K relay.

The team did quite well, according to reports. Jennifer Romero blew away the field and easily won the gold medal in the 100. In the men’s 50 and 100, Eric Garcia garnered two silver medals.

Garcia will be representing Cortez and Colorado at the Pre-World Games which will be held in Anchorage, Alaska.

Jacob Milligan won a bronze medal in the 500 meter race and a silver in the Unified 1K. His partner was Dominic Vasquez. Vasquez is a student at Southwest Open High School.

The final race was the 4X1K Unified Relay. The team, which incidentally had the best time in the state, was composed of Milligan, Vasquez, Jim Carton, and Garcia. Garcia filled in as an alternate at the last moment when a regular team member was not able to make the event. Without his help, the team would not have been ab le to compete this wintr or, for that matter, bring home the gold.