Berthoud High School’s (BHS) girl distance runners, coached by Jordan Jennings, won all the distance events last Friday night at the Max Marr Invite. Jaycee Williams improved upon her 1,600-meter school-record winning the metric mile in 5:06. Olivia Krueger won the 3,200 meters in 11:26, less than two seconds off of the BHS school record. Sydney Slauson won the 800 meters with teammate Josie Diffendaffer close on her heels. The four of these girls teamed up to win the 4×400 relay in 4:19. Slauson anchored the third placing medley relay, running with Gabby Staley, Maddie Kenner and Ellie Harper.

Photo by ACP Media – Berthoud sprinters Kameron Hosier (left) and Jayden Hedelius competing in the 100-meter dash at the Max Marr Classic last Friday at BHS. The Spartans turned in a spectacular showing with both the boys and girls teams taking third place in the 23-team meet.

The male distance runners had similar success as BHS placed second in the 800 meters with Scott Clark in 2:07 and Caden Leal-Midgett in the 1,600 meters with a time of 4:54. Derek Rennaker (800m) and Tate Bothun (3,200m) each placed fourth in their respective races. Wyatt Schmidle added a point to the team score with eighth place in the 800m. The 4×800 relay came in fourth with Clark, Afton Cooper, Schmidle, and Leal-Midgett.

When asked about the success of the distance crew, Coach Jennings replied, “Two things – team unity and summer (and) winter training. The amount of support that I see the athletes giving each other is allowing them to find success in their individual races. We are a family and like within any family structure, we are holding ourselves and other family members accountable through support and love. That’s truly the secret to our success. Our athletes are learning that you can still train at a high level and race well (every distance runner PR’d at Max Marr) if you have the summer/winter training behind you.”

Mil Santos’, Berthoud’s long and triple jump coach, jumpers always score well at home. Jayden Nohr won the long jump, currently placing him first in 3A with his 21 feet 10.75-inch jump. “Jayden made the one change that I asked him to this week, and he jumped a foot further than last week,” explained Coach Santos.

Anndee Davidson placed third in the long jump and eighth in the triple jump. Jayden Hedelius jumped 5’9” in the high jump for fifth, and Darin Davidson placed eighth in the triple jump. Jack Wingard was eighth in the pole vault.

Two freshmen hurdlers added to the team point totals. Brooke Nelsen placed third in the 100 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles. Jay Michaelis was fifth in both of his hurdle races. Both hurdlers ran on relays as well. Anndee Davidson did not have a smooth run and still finished eighth in the 100 hurdles.

Nohr, Kamron Hosier, Bowen Kasperbauer and Hedelius placed second in the 4×200 relay. Hosier, Kasperbauer, Hedelius and Michaelis placed third in the 4×100 relay. Michaelis also ran a leg on the sixth place 4×400 relay team with Derek Rennaker, Clark and Schmidle. Sydney Hardy, Nelsen, Harper and Adrianna DeGesualdo placed third in the 4×200 relay and DeGesualdo, Hardy, Harper and Kenner finished fifth in the 4×100 relay.

In the throws, Trevor Moore placed fourth with a personal best throw of 118’, 7”,  Izabelle Froien also set a personal best of 91’10” for seventh in the discus and Gracie Flores placed eighth in the shot put in her first meet of the season.

Loveland won the girls’ team title with Roosevelt in second. Roosevelt won the boys’ team title with Thompson Valley in second. Both Spartan teams finished in third place. Overall, 39 new personal records were set by Berthoud athletes.

Last week, Berthoud’s boys only scored eight points yet scored 78 this week. The girls also scored nearly 40 more points this week. One reason was that it was spring break and BHS had athletes on vacation.

“This week, we were able to enter more kids per event. We were able to have more kids contribute,” noted Head Coach Blaine Voth. When asked why the team chooses to compete against larger schools like Loveland and Roosevelt, Voth said, “We compete against bigger schools and tougher competition to get us ready for state. The stronger competition will prepare us for what the state meet will be like.” Voth was very thankful for the support received from the parents and the Berthoud community who worked the meet and supported the team.

“I’m very proud of the way the kids came out and ran on Friday. Practice on Monday and Tuesday were really cold. The kids put forth an excellent effort,” complimented Voth.

The next meet for the Spartans will be on Friday, April 1 at Erie High School. The events will begin at noon and are scheduled to last until 8:15 pm. Make it a nice date night and drive over to Erie to support the Spartans.