Weather cuts Liberty Bell short

Angie Mudd, Special to the Rocky

Saturday, April 26, 2008

LITTLETON -- The cold, blowing snow may not have lasted long, but it held on long enough to cancel half of Saturday’s Liberty Bell Invitational track meet at Littleton Public Schools Stadium.

While some of the events were completed Friday night and Saturday morning before the quick storm, teams were forced to skip six events for both the boys and girls competitors after the wind and snow picked up during the meet’s lunch break.

Canceled events included the 200, 400, 1,600, 300 hurdles, 400 relay, 1,600 relay, as well as the boys’ long jump and girls’ triple jump.

And competitors like Kelsey Williamson of ThunderRidge were disappointed because they didn’t get to continue after a strong start to the meet. Williamson, who finished third in Friday’s 800, won Saturday’s 100 before her other two events - the 200 and 400 - were canceled.

“It was pretty disappointing for me today because there was some really good competition that I really wanted to go against today,” she said. “I was really hoping to place high in all four events, so it was too bad we didn’t get to do it.”

Williamson said she was thrilled to win the 100, because she had not had a good start the last few times she has participated in the event. But on Saturday, she got a great start and won with a time of 12.57, edging out Heritage multiple-threat senior Taylor Baird (12.63) and Mullen powerhouse Laura Palmere (12.78.)

“The last couple of times I’ve run that race, I have not gotten out my blocks well at all, and today, I got that great start, so it felt really good because I think that was the key,” she said.

Williamson said the 800 was a little out of her comfort zone as far as distance goes, but said she was happy to get her fastest time in the event of 2:19.58, finishing third behind Chaparral’s Kirsten Lake (2:17.39) and Mullen’s Erin McCarthy (2:18.51.)

Lake, who finished second in the 800 in last year’s Class 5A state meet, said she wanted to run faster but was happy to get the victory Friday night before helping her team win the 3,200 relay Saturday.

“I was really hoping to pre-qualify for state, but hopefully I can do that next week,” Lake said. “But I was pretty happy to do well enough to win, but wish I could (have) done my other events.”

Lake said that even though she was disappointed to miss both the 400 and 1,600 relay, she was happy she didn’t have to fight the weather any longer.

“It may have been miserable waiting until the very end of the meet,” she said. “So I guess it all worked out OK.”

The weather wasn’t the only problem with the meet, as many teams and coaches were given an incorrect schedule for the two-day event, forcing some kids to miss their respective events. And some competitors were double-booked with both the Cherry Creek Invitational and Denver Public Schools Invitational scheduled for this weekend.

One competitor making up for lost time was Denver North’s Joseph Manilafasha. He hasn’t been spotted much this track season, saying that he has been focusing on his training and his schoolwork while skipping some of the big meets this season. But he was going to make up for it this weekend, as he was scheduled to run both the 1,600 and 3,200 in Saturday’s Denver Public Schools Invitational - a day after an impressive performance in Friday’s 3,200 victory at Liberty Bell.

Manilafasha, the 2006 Class 4A state cross country champion, took the lead from the first corner and never looked back in earning a winning time of 9:30.61, ahead of George Washington’s Matt Bell (9:39.50) and Smoky Hill‘s Matt Caldwell (9:39.62.)

“Running by myself was hard, but sometimes it’s something you have to do,” he said. “But it was a good race for me and I felt good. It felt really good to be out there tonight.”

LIBERTY BELL INVITATIONAL RESULTS

BOYS

100 - 1, Augustus Craigo, Arapahoe, 11.03; 2, Jordan Edwards, Heritage, 11.04; 3, Jonathan Gaye, Mellen, 11.12; 4, Greg Leeper, Heritage, 11.27; 5, Jerome Atkinson, Douglas County, 11.32; 6, Mike McPherson, Chaparral, 11.32.

110 HIGH HURDLES - 1, Jon Reed, Highlands Ranch, 15.23; 2, B.J. Burton, Mullen, 15.28; 3, Evrin Farris, Smoky Hill, 15.66; 4, Brien Hopkins, Douglas County, 15.69; 5, Marcus Pierce, Arapahoe, 15.83; 6, Jeff Hahl, Arapahoe, 16.06.

800 - 1, Henry Cowhick, Wheat Ridge, 1:58.04; 2, Kyle Lyons, Arapahoe, 1:59.96; 3, Andrew Barthel, Mullen, 2:00.20; 3,4, Josh Sabey, Arapahoe, 2:00.22; 5, Jeff Warren, Mountain Vista, 2:00.79; 6 Nate Guthals, Littleton, 2:01.42.

3,200 - 1, Joseph Manilafasha, Denver North, 9:30.61; 2, Matt Bell, George Washington, 9:39.50; 3, Matt Caldwell, Smoky Hill, 9:39.62; 4, Garret Wilson, Highlands Ranch, 9:53.39; 5, Jackson Brainerd, Arapahoe, 9:54.17; 6, Chris Holt, Arapahoe, 9:56.11.

800 RELAY - 1, Arapahoe, 1:31.19; 2, Heritage, 1:31.52; 3, Hinkley, 1:33.25; 4, ThunderRidge, 1:34.100; 5, Durango, 1:35.05; 6, Evergreen, 1:35.48.

3,200 RELAY - 1, Arapahhoe, 8:10.99; 2, Chaparral, 8:18.30; 3, Douglas County, 8:20.27; 4, Mullen, 8:23.48; 5, Durango, 8:26.75; 6, Highlands Ranch, 8:35.67.

HIGH JUMP - 1, Dylan Pierpont, Arapahoe, 6-6; 2, Michael McNulty, Arapahoe, 6-4; 3, Mike McPherson, Chaparral, 6-2; 4, Brien Hopkins, Douglas County, 6-0; 5, Clark Parra, Mountain Vista, 6-0; 6, Ben Nappier, Smoky Hill, 5-10.

DISCUS - 1, Cole Carveth, Pomona, 166-2; 2, Mark Sparks, Smoky Hill, 158-0; 3, Kyle Major, Heritage, 150-7; 4, (tie) Hayden Hunsucker, Pomona, 147-0; Ryan Duman, Pomona, 147-0; 6, Joe Caprioglio, Highlands Ranch, 142-5.

TRIPLE JUMP - 1, Andrew Shumake, Douglas County, 42-7-¼; 2, Hayden Loudenslager, Faith Christian, 42-7; 3, Dylan Pierpont, Arapahoe, 42-6; 4, Sheldon Slater, Arapahoe, 42-0-¾; 5, Mike McPherson, Chaparral, 41-1-½; 6, Clark Parra, Mountain Vista, 41-1-¼.

SHOT PUT - 1, Will Hunsaker, Durango, 58-2, Mark Spark, Smoky Hil, 54-1; 3, Cole Carveth, Pomona, 51-10-½; 4, Kyle Major, Heritage, 50-7; 5, Joe Caprioglio, Highlands Ranch, 48-6; 6, Derrick Schmitz, Littleton, 48-8.

POLE VAULT - 1, Luke Biewick, Littleton, 13-6; 2, Andrew Schultz, Heritage, 12-6; 3, Phil Bourgeois, Arapahoe, 12-0; 4, Patrick Brovsky, Arapahoe, 12-0; 5, Dylan McKie, Yuma, 12-0; 6, Kyle Warren, Arapahoe, 11-6.

GIRLS

100 - 1, Kelsey Williamson, ThunderRidge, 12.57; 2, Taylor Baird, Heritage, 12.63; 3, Laura Palmere, Mullen, 12.78; 4, Tierra Shumpert, Highlands Ranch, 12.97; 5, Lindsay Bodenhorn, Highlands Ranch, 13.10; 6, Kait Boisnard, Wheat Ridge, 13.11.

100 HURLDES - 1, Taylor Baird, Heritage, 14.40; 2, Sara Webb, ThunderRidge, 15.18; 3, Madison Riggins, Mullen, 15.34; 4, Stephanie Gerber, Arapahoe, 15.67; 5, Tori Tillquist, Littleton, 15.75; 6, Taylor Johnson, Highlands Ranch, 15.93.

800 - 1, Kirsten Lake, Chaparral, 2:17.39; 2, Erin McCarthy, Mullen, 2:18.51; 3, Kelsey Williamson, ThunderRidge, 2:19.58; 4, Morgan Mosby, Mullen, 2:20.11; 5, Addie Johnson, Mountain Vista, 2:21.50; 6, Lisa Allen, Heritage, 2:23.25.

3,200 - 1, Eleanor Fulton, Highlands Ranch, 11:05.35; 2, Dominique Gerard, ThunderRidge, 11:16.65; 3, Lindsay Schaefer, Highalnds Ranch, 11:45.94; 4, Megan Chipman, Mountain Vista, 11:49.16; 5, Sophie McNeely, Arapahoe, 11:49.92; 6, Marrie Patton, Heritage, 13:09.18.

800 MEDLEY RELAY - 1, Douglas County, 1:52.16; 2, Mullen, 1:52.41; 3, Chaparral, 1:53.53; 4, Littleton, 1:55.48; 5, Evergreen, 1:55.55; 6, ThunderRidge, 1:58.25.

800 RELAY - 1, Smoky Hill, 1:47.20; 2, Douglas County, 1:47.79; 3, Chaparral, 1:50.31; 4, Highlands Ranch, 1:51.08; 5, Durango, 1:52.50; 6, Yuma, 1:55.41.

3,200 RELAY - 1, Chaparral, 9:50.96; 2, Arapahoe, 10:17.70; 3, ThunderRidge, 10:21.27; 4, Heritage, 10:21.39; 5, Durango, 10:37.71; 6, Air Academy, 10:399.24.

LONG JUMP - 1, Alyssa Amack, ThunderRidge, 17-2-¼; 2, Andie Slouka, Heritage, 17-1-¾; 3, Becca Carlson, Mountain Vista, 17-0; 4, Blair Bilkes, Smoky Hill, 16-10; 5, Kelsey Grimm, Chaparral, 16-7; 6, Katie Helf, Evergreen, 16-4.

SHOT PUT - 1, Morgan Sedivec, Heritage, 41-7-½; 2, Julia Costin, Chaparral, 38-1; 3, Megan Glandon, Littleton, 35-10; 4, Lettow Adrienne, Faith Christian, 34-6; 5, Morgan Spencer, Yuma, 33-10; 6, Katie Evans, Durango, 33-0.

POLE VAULT - 1, (tie) Emily Lubbers, Yuma, 10-0; Elizabeth Yovich, Chaparral, 10-0; Jenna Adams, Littleton, 10-0; 4, (tie) Larissa Hartman, Denver South, 9-6; Brandis Hughes, Chaparral, 9-6, Emily Zeise, Arapahoe, 9-6.

HIGH JUMP - 1, Devin Steininger, Douglas County, 5-3; 2, Emily Lubbers, Yuma, 5-0; 3, Kendra Schwein, Arapahoe, 4-10; 4, Annie Kunz, Wheat Ridge, 4-10; 5, Becca Carlson, Mountain Vista, 4-10; 6 (tie), Savannah Dederick, ThunderRidge, 4-8; Haley Jennings, Heritage, 4-8.

DISCUS - 1, Julia Costin, Chaparral, 116-3; 2, Morgan Sedivec, Heritage, 114-4; 3, Brooke Jackson, Littleton, 114-11; 4, Sam Casey, Chaparral, 103-3; 5, Kelsey Wheeler, Mountain Vista, 96-1; 6, Alyssa Orndoff, Littleton, 94-8.