Eagle Valley boys track team wins third-straight league title

The Eagle Valley boys track team won its third-straight 4A Western Slope league championship over the weekend in Grand Junction. Even without one of their best athletes, the Devils accumulated 169 points at Stocker Stadium over the two-day meet to finish well ahead of runner-up Glenwood Springs (92) and third-place Summit (88).

“It was an absolutely herculean team performance for the boys keeping the three-peat WSL dream alive,” Eagle Valley distance coach Charlie Janssen stated in an email. Even without the services of Tyler Blair, who ran a 4:18 in the 1600 earlier this season, Janssen said the boys team rallied.

“The boys had no trouble overcoming adversity,” he said. “The team chemistry is similar to last year in that they feed off each other’s energy and successes and help each other when there is a shortcoming.”

Tyler’s twin brother, Dylan, led the distance crew with a new in-state school record in the 3200-meters. The junior — who clocked a 9:03.22 in the 2-mile at Nike Indoor Nationals this winter and posted a 9:07.93 in the 3200 at the Arcadia Invitational in California in April — ran 9:23.00 to finish second behind Summit’s Josh Shriver (9:17.49). That broke current Fort Lewis runner Cooper Filmore’s mark of 9:28 set at the state meet last May. Filmore’s younger brother, Jackson, delivered a 12-second lifetime best, running 10:06.94 for third to help the Devils pick up 14 points in the eight-lap event. Shriver (4:18.84) and Blair (4:21.19) went 1-2 in the 1600 as well, with Blair’s 13-second lifetime best coming within 0.07 seconds of Jake Drever’s school record in that event as well.

Filmore joined Thornton and Holden Kron — who also scored a silver in the triple jump — and Henry Martin to win the league title in the 4×800 with a time of 8:36.

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Janssen said the warm weather couldn’t stop every boy and girl on his mid-distance and distance crew from securing at least one lifetime best, including Ginger Reilly, who sang the national anthem before proceeding to post personal records in the 800 and 1600.

As expected, the Devils owned the sprint events. Robert Sanders, Kingston Clous and Blake Anderson swept the podium in the open 200 and teamed up for a dominant win in the 4×100 (43.00) as well. Clous and Sanders also went 1-2 in the 100 and Clous finished second in the long jump (21-05.5) to his teammate, Tiago Horruitiner (21-07.5) — who also won the high jump (6-03). Anderson ran 50.23 to win the 400 as well.

Lillian Brueck and Sara Marino turned in big weekends on the girls side for Eagle Valley, accounting for 50.5 of the Devils’ 85 total points. Brueck was second in the 300-meter hurdles (46.57) and third in the 100 hurdles (with teammate Zakia Shreeve coming in second) and won the open 200 (26.48). Both Brueck and Shreeve were part of the runner-up 4×200-relay team as well as the Devils finished fourth in the team scoring. Marino was runner-up in the 3200 (11:55.58), 1600 (5:19.41) and 800, running significant lifetime bests in all three events. The first-year runner has committed to compete next year at George Fox University, Janssen said.

Battle Mountain’s Sawyer Willis and Ky Gosnell finished first and third, respectively, in the pole vault and Caden McCommons placed second in the shot put (44-08) to lead the Huskies to a fifth-place team finish.

On the girls side, Tyler Heimerl was second in both the triple jump (34-01.75) and long jump (16-11) and won the high jump (5-01) as Eagle Valley school record-holder Allie Braun (4-11) tied for second. Lilly Beaumont picked up silvers in both the 100 and 200 on the track as well for the Huskies, who placed third as a team, four points ahead of their I-70 rivals.

Teams across the state will make their final state-qualifying attempts at regular season meets this weekend before the state meet kicks off next Thursday at Jeffco Stadium.