Photo by Will Cornelius
Jaycee Williams continued her hot start to the track season, winning the 400-meter dash at the NOCO Early Qualifier on March 12 in Johnstown.

By Kristi Leonard
The Surveyor

Roosevelt High School was set to impress, hosting their first track meet of the season at the new track stadium in Johnstown on Mar. 12. But it was the athletes from Berthoud High School who stole the show at Roosevelt, crossing the finish line in first place in close to half of the running events.

Last Tuesday, the Spartan track team traveled across Interstate 25 for the NOCO Early Season Qualifier, hosted by Roosevelt, a small, seven-team early-season track meet. Despite the modest number of teams, those in attendance were some of the strongest 4A and 3A track and field teams in the area, including, Roosevelt, Thompson Valley, Mountain View, Resurrection Christian, Lutheran and Windsor. Berthoud, along with Resurrection Christian and Lutheran compete in the 3A classification.

Throughout the day, Spartan athletes placed first in 11 events on the track, from 25 total races. Berthoud put up points in every event, except the girls 800-meter run, girls pole vault and the boys 3200-meter run where they had no entrants.

Not long after the first shot of the starting gun, the Spartans posted their first win in the girls sprint medley relay, with a team of Myla Albillar, Grace Baumann, Sydney Hardy and Gabby Staley that cruised to victory. Shortly after, Brooke Nelson won the girls 100-meter hurdles. Then, Jayden Michaelis won the boys 110-meter hurdles.

Paige Farnam won the 200-meter dash while Jaycee Williams finished fourth. The two senior runners, Williams and Farnam then placed first and second in the 400-meter dash, beating the rest of the field by five seconds. Marie Cabrera came in sixth behind the dynamic duo.

In the 100-meter dash, Ellie Harper finished third before joining Farnam, Williams, and Sydney Slauson to dominate the field by over 11 seconds in the 4×400-meter relay.
Nelson and Michaelis repeated their dominance in the 300-meter hurdles as both captured first again. Aiden Malherbe won the 400-meter dash by a lean with a time of 52:30. Slauson took the top spot in the girls 1600-meter run. The boys 4×400-meter relay team of Jayce Newbill, Malherbe, Michaelis and Alex Pygott won with a time of 3:30, also gaining a top-four state ranking in the event.

Other point-scoring performances on the track came from Harper and Hardy, who finished third and eighth in the 100-meter dash. Junior Bowen Kasperbauer also added to the points total, with a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash. Pygott placed third in the 400-meter dash and Newbill third in the 300-meter hurdles. Brady Fenderson, Eric Mellott and Hugh Shadle finished fifth, seventh and eighth respectively in the 800-meter run. Mellott also captured sixth in the 1600-meter event, while Cabrera and Jordan Jones finished fifth and seventh in the girls 1600-meter run.

Berthoud’s relays are always a strength and Head Coach Blaine Voth loaded up the relays to see how they would fare this week. Three of the relay teams placed second at Roosevelt, including the boys 4×800-meter (Scott Clark, Tate Bothun, Afton Cooper and Ben Clopper), boys 4×200-meter (Kasperbauer, Michaelis, Newbill and Pygott) and the girls 4×200-meter (Staley, Nelsen, Harper and Farnam) lineups. Staley, Hardy, Nelsen and Sophia Sigg finished third in the 4×100-meter relay, while the boys 4×100-meter relay team of Darin Davidson, Kasperbauer, Cole Bialek and Pygott struggled with handoffs but still managed to finish in fourth place.

While the Spartans did not win any field events they came second in several. In the discus, sophomore Audrey Gravestock broke the 100-foot barrier with a 100-foot and six-inch toss. Ryker Moore leapt 39-feet six-inches in the boys triple jump. Newbill cleared six-foot in the high jump, Tennyson Grimditch recorded 10-feet six-inches in the pole vault and senior Trevor Moore flung the discus 136-feet four-inches.

In the long jump, Sigg nearly hit the 18-foot mark with a 17-foot 11.5-inch leap, good for second place and nearly a school record. Sigg, only a freshman, has her sights set on the school record of 18-feet and a quarter inch, set by Courtney Mills in 2012.

Other Berthoud athletes of note include freshman Libby Wilson who captured third in the high jump and triple jump, Andre Chingren with a third place finish in the pole vault, Brandon Callies who took fourth in the discus and shot put and Ethan Hoffmeister who placed fifth in the triple jump and seventh in the long jump. Freshman Kiera Harris was a busy girl for Berthoud, finishing fourth in the 300-meter hurdles, fifth in the discus, sixth in the shot put and eighth in the high jump.

As a team, the Berthoud girls placed second in scoring and the boys finished third. Spring break will change the lineup for the Spartans at their next meet, the Grizzly Invitational in Greeley on March 23. After that Berthoud will host a home meet again on March 29 with the Spartan Spike Meet. Voth said he is looking for volunteers to help at the meet, to help contact him or the high school for more information.