By Dan Karpiel

The Surveyor

By any measure, last weekend was a wildly successful one for the Berthoud High School (BHS) girls track and field team. Competing at Longmont High School in the Tri-Valley Conference (TVC) meet, the Lady Spartans took second place with 120 team points and saw strong performances from up and down the roster.

Alyssa Bailey was one of the brightest stars for Berthoud on the weekend. The junior jumper and sprinter took third place in the 100 meter dash and fifth in the 200; Bailey’s time of 13.37 was her season-best mark. The junior also posted her season-best mark in the triple jump, recording a 34’6.75” mark to finish in third place. To round out her stellar performance on the weekend Bailey cleared 17’ 5.0” in the long jump to win the conference championship in the event.

“This year I’ve been really just focusing on having fun, and it’s helped me extremely,” Bailey explained. “If there’s competition I can get stressed, so I usually try to go last or towards the end in jumps because that way I really just focus on competing against myself. She continued, “If I’m having fun, I do well and when I do well it just makes it even more fun.”

Cailey Archer also turned in a strong performance for Berthoud, as has become the norm for the soon-to-graduate senior, scoring points for the Lady Spartans in the 800 run as well as in the high jump. Archer placed third in the 800 with a time of 2:26.89 and sixth in the high jump, clearing 5’ 0.50”. The senior also ran on Berthoud’s 4×400 relay team, which placed third, and on the 4×200 team that claimed sixth place at the conference championships.

Berthoud also saw some outstanding performances from a pair of freshman. Long-distance runner Ally Padilla claimed fourth place in the 1600 run, breaking the BHS freshman record formerly held by Kiah Leonard, with a time of 5:36.70. Padilla kept it going, taking third place in the 3200 with a time of 12:05.64 in the two-mile race. Fellow-freshman Anndee Davidson turned in excellent performances in both hurdles events, taking fourth place in the 100 hurdles with a time of 17.97 and claimed third place in the 300 hurdles, finishing with a time of 49.69.

“My form still isn’t that good, and I’ve had pain in my feet and in my knees and it’s kind of stopped me a little, but my speed has helped me,” Davidson said, calling track her favorite sport. Right now Davidson needs to trim half a second off her times to crack the top-18 and qualify for state.

Berthoud racked up points in the throwing events as well. Junior Celsey Selland took second place in the shotput, hitting the 34’9.00” mark. Senior Kailey Berry took second in the discus throw with a toss of 116’ 2.0” and Emily Cavey placed fourth, hitting the 109’ 8.0” mark.

While the Berthoud boys did not enjoy the same level of success as their female counterparts, a number of strong performances were turned in by the Spartans, who finished in ninth place with 43 team points.

Junior Dawson Visger continues to turn strong performances in the field events. Visger claimed the silver medal in the discus throw, recording a toss of 132’ 10” and took10th in the shotput (38’ 5.50”). Eli Greenslit finished in fifth place in the 3200 endurance race, clocking a time of 10:29.17, while Siler Stein took seventh place in the same race, crossing the finish line in 10:37.22. Senior Kade Leonard took sixth in the one-mile (1600) long-distance run, clocking in at 4:41.94.

Berthoud will get back at it this Friday when they return to Longmont for the large St. Vrain Invitational. That meet will be the final opportunity for Spartan athletes to punch their tickets to the state meet that will take place in Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood May 16-18.