Regionals are looming this Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, for the Montezuma-Cortez High School boys and girls track and field teams at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction. What’s at stake is a berth in the Class 4A State Championships, set May 19-20 at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood.

At the Region 6 Meet, the Panthers will face teams from Moffat County, Steamboat Springs, Battle Mountain, Central of Grand Junction, Delta, Glenwood Springs, Montrose, Palisade, and Rifle. The Panther boys won the meet a year ago.

"As I view the meet, there are four or five teams which are all pretty close," MCHS head boys coach Bob Archibeque said. "I think we will be right in there challenging for the title. We could place anywhere from first to fifth. Every team in the field has their distinct strengths. Our strengths happen to be in the jumps, sprints, and relays. We have got to capitalize on that plus pick up some points for fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth if we are going to get over the hump and for us to have a chance for us to win it."

Moffat County, Cortez, Central, Glenwood Springs and Palisade all will challenge for the team title. The top three individual placers advance to State.

"We should finish about in the middle of the field," MCHS head girls coach Doug Anderson predicted. "I think Stefanie Allison has a good chance to qualify in the high jump and 400. The 4X200 and 4X400 relays both can qualify if they run well, but they will really have to run well. We have some ranked teams in our Regionals so it will be tough."

Anderson believes Moffat County will likely blow away the field. He said Central and Palisade will score lots of points.

The boys and girls ended the regular season by competing at Cheyenne Mountain May 6 in Colorado Springs.

"The field was really, really good," Archibeque said. "There were 10 Class 5A schools there and another 10 good 4A schools. We finished in the top half (all schools combined) of the field. Just to have them at this meet was special because they got to see what competition will be like in a couple weeks at State."

The Panthers got a couple good performances.

Jake Collett made a personal record in the long jump. He leaped 22 feet, 1 inch, which was a spectacular jump, according to Archibeque. He finished in second place of all classes combined. The wind gauges were not up and the leap did not count as a qualifier, but it should have. He also had a PR in the triple jump as he covered 40-10 which was good enough for eighth place.

Adam Williams just missed qualifying for the 100-meter dash finals. But Williams came back and qualified and placed fifth in the 200, (electronic time was unavailable because it had not been mailed). Collett just missed making the 400 finals in an excellent field. Sophomore discus thrower Colin Tansey threw well (no official distance available) which was good enough for sixth, according to Archibeque.

The 4X400 relay team finished eighth. He said just getting into the finals was a distinct honor in that meet.

A.J. Herman’s 20-foot jump caught Archibeque’s eye. He had been leaping around 17 feet.

Archibeque said he was pleased with some of his younger kids who are coming along. He cited Jeff Yarbrough in the jumps, Levi Hill in the hurdles, Nate Foster and Walt Pape in the 400, Derique Duran and Tansey in the weights, Matt Percy in the distance races, and Herman in the long jump.

Allison placed eighth in the high jump as she cleared 4-10. She came in fifth in the 400 with a clocking of 63.2, a personal best.