Photo by Will Cornelius
Sophomore Jayce Newbill mid air during the high jump at the Max Marr Invitational at Berthoud High School on Mar. 9.

By Kristi Leonard
The Surveyor

It is only the beginning of the season but the Berthoud High School track and field team is already breaking school records. In early season meets, coaches tell athletes not to expect too much—just get back into the routine and faster times will come.

However, no one seemed to tell that to Spartan junior Brooke Nelsen who took down the school’s 100-meter hurdles record last Saturday at the Max Marr Invitational. She finished nearly a full flight ahead of the competition, posting a time of 15.27 seconds, breaking the record of 15.61 set in 1994 by A. Doane. Nelsen, a two-sport athlete, then rushed off to play in a volleyball tournament later that day.

Berthoud’s first home meet of the season was postponed from last Friday to Saturday for more favorable weather, with several Spartans not yet competing this early in the season.

“It’s a long season,” explained Jordan Jennings, the distance running coach, “These early meets come up fast.” Many of the athletes who did not compete during the indoor season have just started getting into racing shape.

Jennings mentioned that gaining confidence and figuring out an effective warm-up and warm-down routine for races is important at this point. Athletes who played basketball or did not attend the off-season practices are working through soreness trying to get in shape quickly.

“I think we did pretty well for our first meet. For the girls team to still perform as well as they did with all of the girls sitting out was pretty impressive. The boys did great too!” Head Coach Blaine Voth stated.
The boys team finished in third place and the girls placed fourth as a team.

Some of the athletes who competed in indoor track during the winter have made the transition to outdoor smoother. Jaycee Williams built upon her indoor success by placing second in the 1600-meter run and then jumping into the 200-meter dash for a little speed work.

She placed fifth in the sprint race and anchored the girls 4×400-meter relay with Gabby Staley, Sydney Slauson and Paige Farnam. Their time of 4 minutes 14 seconds is now the fourth-best in the state across all classifications. It was a strong day for Berthoud’s relays. Staley, Farnam, Bella Priddy and Sydney Hardy won the sprint medley event and finished third in the 4×200-meter relay. All of the points for the Lady Spartans came on the track except for two from sophomore Audrey Gravestock who placed seventh in the discus.

On the boys side, Jayden Michaelis uncharacteristically hit a hurdle in the 110-meter race and ended up placing fourth with a time of 15.97 seconds. Michaelis was just six-tenths off his personal best time in the 300-meter hurdles, placing second.

Junior Alex Pygott posted a personal best time of 53.20 in the 400-meter dash, placing eighth. He also placed sixth in the 200-meter dash. Berthoud placed second in the 4×200-meter relay with Jayce Newbill, Aidan Malherbe, Michaelis and Pygott.

To prepare for another track meet this past Tuesday at Roosevelt High School, Jennings entered many of his distance runners in the 800-meter run at Max Marr over the weekend for some speed work. Tate Bothun, Aiden Malherbe, Afton Cooper and Ben Clopper placed fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth respectively in the 800-meter event.

Junior Scott Clark added points in the 1600-meter run, placing sixth. The distance runners finished off the meet by capturing eighth place in the 4×400-meter relay.

On the field side of things, Darin Davidson, Newbill and Weston Peatrowsky tied with five other athletes in the high jump who all cleared 5-feet and 9-inches. Ties are broken based on misses, giving the senior Davidson fourth, Newbill sixth and Peatrowsky seventh. Davidson also placed sixth in the long jump. Andre Chingren and Tennyson Grimditch placed fourth and fifth in the pole vault.

Brandon Callies placed second with his first-ever throw over 40 feet in the shot put, with a toss of 41-feet and 7-inches. Trevor Moore placed third in the discus with a throw of 138-feet and 7-inches.

For Voth, it was a great start to the season. “For the boys, Pygott ran 53 (seconds) in 400 (meters), 23 in 200. That was pretty impressive. Michaelis ran 39 in the 300 hurdles. The high jumpers went 5’9”. That was a nice surprise. Long and triple jumpers just need to improve there a little bit. They’ll get there. It’s just a matter of doing a little work,” he stated. Voth also said he was impressed with many of the younger athletes, like Brody Hall, Jaden Bernhardt, Jacob Perry, Sam Whitaker, Jude Knowlden and Milo Cordova.

“For the girls, we did a lot of subbing in the relays and they did well,” Voth commented. He also highlighted a senior who exceeded expectations. “Cemryn Pickett jumped 14-feet 3-inches in the long jump and threw discus 70 feet the first time she has tried the events.”

On Tuesday the team competed in the NOCO Early Qualifier at Roosevelt where they featured a special 4×400-meter relay team of Newbill, Michaelis, Pygott and Malherbe. The group of underclassmen has the potential to break the school record of 3:21 set in 2000. At Johnstown the team finished in first place with a time of 3:30.