They took some big steps at the Lions Club Invitational Track and Field Meet at Palisade High School.

Montezuma-Cortez High School head boys coach Bob Archibeque reported his team made excellent progress in preparing for the looming road ahead: Regionals and State.

As a team the Panthers came in fourth place. Between Cortez and second place was just a few points, according to Archibeque.

"We had a lot of people place but we didn’t have anybody hit a time, height or distance to qualify for State (Class 4A)," Archibeque reported. "I didn’t really expect it of them quite yet."

Under the new Colorado High School Activities Association rules, an athlete can qualify for State if qualifying marks are met at designated meets where electronic timing and other criteria are met. This was one of those meets. The Wildcat Relays on April 21 and the Cheyenne Mountain Invitational also are qualifying meets.

The 4X100 relay team of Adam Williams, Josh Lee, Jake Collett, and Andrew Pearson came in fifth place in 46.06 seconds which was a good time although Archibeque noted work still needs to be done on polishing up the handoffs.

The 4X200 relay team of Williams, Lee, Collett, and Pearson came first with an electronic timing of 1 minute, 33.35 seconds.

The 4X400 relay team came in fourth. 3:40.6. Charlie Ream, Josh Mortensen, Walt Pape, and Span foreign exchange student Alex Bustillo were on that team.

The 4X800 relay squad had a time of 9:14.19. Archibeque said they didn’t really concentrate on that event as a couple of runners coasted on their turn.

Jeff Yarbrough did well in the high jump. He took fifth with a leap of 6-feet, 2-inches which is really good for a sophomore. Lee came in third in the long jump with a leap of 19-10 1/2. Collett took second in the triple jump with a hop, a skip, and a jump of 40-2 3/4.

In the 100-meter dash, Williams looked good in a strong field by placing third in 11.35. "He really looked good," Archibeque added. Williams finished second in the 200 with a time of 23.51. Collett took fifth in the 400 in 54.4 and Mortensen got ninth in the 800 in 2:10.90.

The Panther girls were hit hard by the stomach flu going around. Julie Christenson and Gina West did not run at all after getting sick while on the road. Stefanie Allison got sick at the meet, although she did compete a few events.

Allison made the finals in the 400 after running in the preliminaries but did not make the call for the finals. She finished fourth in the high jump with a leap of 5-1 which was only a quarter-inch off qualifying.

Christina Tilton had a good day. She made a personal best in the discus with a toss of 95-10 which was good enough for sixth place. MCHS head girls coach Doug Anderson said she threw more than a foot-and-a-half farther than she has ever thrown before.

Anderson said he had to put together a makeshift 4X400 relay team together at the last minute because of sick athletes. The team of Marie DeBolt, Hannah Mortensen, Krystal Begay, and Allison came in eighth in 4:46.00. Allison had to jog around during her turn.

Holly Smith turned in personal best in the 1600, cutting quite a bit a time.

"We just were not at full strength although we took 23 girls. Several of them just were not feeling well. I think we will do better this week," Anderson added.