The final Mancos Invitational Track and Field Meet may have been held.

With only four teams showing up, not many teams want to compete in back-to-back days, according Mancos High School head track coach Tim Dunham.

"I don’t know, but right now this may have been it," he said following the meet on Saturday, April 22. "They (area coaches) just don’t want to compete back-to-back meets."

The Blue Jay girls and the Blue Jay boys completely dominated the meet, which was run under less-than-good weather conditions with rain and wind.

On the girls side, they won with 199 points while Bayfield JVs came in second. Dolores County took third and Nucla fourth. In the field events for MHS, Erica Russell took first in the shot put, Rachel Russell second in the shot, Brooke Binford fifth in the shot, Melissa Keller second in high jump, Kristin Paxton took second in the long jump, Erica Russell first in discus, Randee Reider second in discus, Rachel Russell third in the discus, and Kerri Morgan took third in the triple jump.

The 4X800-meter relay, the 4X100 no. 1, and the 4X200 relay all took first, and the 4X100 no. 2 third, and the 4X400 second.

Amanda Kennedy captured first in the 100 dash, Rene Davis took first in 300 hurdles and second in 100, Daugherty third in 100, second in the 100 hurdles and third in 300 hurdles, Jori Yeomans took first in the 1600, Lacy Morris second in 400, and Jolene Thomas sixth in 400, Megan Doty second in 800, and Tiffany Young first in 3200.

The Mancos boys also dominated with 190 points. Bayfield JVs came in second while Dolores County grabbed third and Nucla fourth.

Ray Thomas took first in the triple jump and first in the long jump. Gary Baker captured first in the high jump and second in the triple jump. Sven McNeil took third in the long jump. Baker also took first in the high jump. Shawn Roberts took fifth in the long jump. Josh Seymour second, Jacob Talent third, and Kevin Schlemmer fifth in the discus. Travis Clark won the shot put while Rowdy Thompson came in third and Cory Hallam sixth in that event.

The 4X800 grabbed first, 4X200 no. 1, and the 4X100 no. 1 all took first. The MHS 4X200 no. 2 took third and the 4X100 no. 2 placed fourth, and the 4X400 second.

Daniel Wilson crossed the tape in first in the 110 hurdles, Shawn Roberts fifth in 100, John Borelli sixth in 100, Preston Hennrich placed fourth in the 1600, Micah Sucharman took third in the 1600, Jesse Rousset second in 400, Daniel Wilson came in third in 300 hurdles, Greg Cummings second in 800, Phillip Wilson first in 200, Alan Cummings fifth in 200, and Hennrich third in 3200.

The Pine River Invitational, which was held on Friday, April 21, has changed through the years. It used to be hosted by Bayfield and Ignacio and usually held at one of those two schools. But now the meet has changed and this year it was hosted by Durango High School. However the meet will go back to Bayfield next year. It was moved to DHS so it could be a Class 2A State Qualifying meet, which has rigid standards such as an all-weather track and accu-track timing must be used.

So it should come as no doubt which team won. The Demon girls’ team, which has lost several members due to injury, was able to pull out the win with 158.5 points, just 20 more than Bayfield.

Centauri took third for the girls with 79 points and Dolores took fourth out of the 15 teams with 77.5. Ignacio finished sixth overall with 64 points. For the boys, Durango ran away with the meet, scoring 208 points to second-place Centauri’s 98. Bayfield placed fifth with 62, topping sixth-place Ignacio by just two points.

"Actually, I really didn’t mind Durango being at the meet. That just made for a better meet competition-wise," Dunham remarked.

Several Mancos and Dolores high school thinclads qualified for State. For Mancos, Erica Russell tossed the discus a personal best 115 feet, 8 inches. Yeomans crossed the tape in 5 minutes, 46 seconds in the 1600, the boys 4X800 team of Jesse Rousset (filling in), Greg Cummings (filling in), Baker, and McNeil finished in 8:46.00, Phillip Wilson qualified in the 200-meter dash in 23.07. Amanda Kennedy, although she won the 100 dash in 13.18 (hand-held time), just missed qualifying. For Dolores, three people qualified in five events: Tracy Everett qualified in the 1600 and 3200, Cody Beaver in the 110 and 300 hurdles, and Daisy Ragland in the long jump. The girls medley relay team placed third in the meet and just missed by .6 of a second.

Several other Dolores thinclads did well at the Pine River Invitational. Toni Everett took third in the 800 and second in the 400, Justin Fecteau placed fifth in the discus and sixth in the shot put, Dustin Gilstrap placed fifth in the long jump, Ragland took third in the 100, Jennifer Trevillian third in the 100 and sixth in the high jump, the girls 4X800 took sixth and the 4X400 fifth, boys 4X200 grabbed third and 4X400 sixth.