Delta coaches Luis Meza, center, and Clayton Curtis congratulate 152-pound senior Hunter Brasfield after an upset win sent him into the 4A Region 4 semifinals.
Hotchkiss senior Joe Boyle controls Ruben Chagoya of Basalt to win a 3A Region 1 title. He is one of 7 Hotchkiss state qualifiers.
Hotchkiss and Paonia boys will square off this week on the basketball courts. Both are 6-4 in league play.
Delta senior Brooke Taylor scores two of her 12 points against Summit after grabbing an offensive rebound.
Paonia 195-pounder Tyler “TK” Kendall sets Rangely’s Drew Collins up for a pin.
Paonia freshman Bo Pipher sets TJ Richard of North Park up for a pin in Saturday’s regional semifinal round. He is one of 13 Paonia wrestlers headed to state!
Surrounded by coaches and his dad, Conner Beard signs Letter of Intent to play football for the University of Nebraska Kearney.
Hotchkiss' Jacobe Galley signed a Letter of Intent to play football and study engineering at Colorado Mesa University.
Hotchkiss senior Cody Bartlett signed his National Letter of Intent to run cross-country for Hawaii Pacific University.
Photo by Wayne Crick Delta senior Callie Gafford clears an early height in the high jump during competition at last week’s Delta Invitational Track Meet. Gafford cleared 4-11 to win the event and help her Lady Panthers win the team title with 137.5 points.The first major track meet in which team scores were kept was a successful event for the Lady Panthers of Delta. Delta outdistanced a 13-team field to score 137.5 points to win going away.
Next in line was the team of Cedaredge with 121 points. The top five teams also included Paonia (75.5) and Hotchkiss (59). The Lady Eagles finished third and Hotchkiss was fifth.
On the boys' side, Palisade earned the top team award with its 140 points. The next three places went to Delta County schools with Cedaredge placing second (123), Delta third (115), and Hotchkiss was fourth with 68 points.
Paonia's Eagles were sixth with 38 points.
Delta Girls
Delta's 800m sprint medley relay team started the day with a win to get the Lady Panthers started on their team-title run. Seniors Patti Chapman, Erin Zunich, and Skylyn Webb teamed with sophomore Haley Millard to post a time of 2:07.88 and claim the win.
Hotchkiss finished fourth in the sprint medley with its time of 2:14.58.
One of the day's most pleasant surprises came from freshman Mykayla Music who won both the 1600 and 3200m runs. Music was also a member of the second-place 3200m relay team that placed second. The freshman runner recorded a time of 5:44.57 to win the 1600m and had a most respectable time of 12:50.34 to win the grueling 3200m run.
Senior Skylyn Webb continued her strong running ways with a win in the 100m dash in a time of 13.31 just ahead of Cedaredge's Summer Herman. Webb was also a first-place winner in both the sprint and 400m relays.
Delta, with the team of Chapman, Callie Gafford, Zunich, and Webb had the best time to win the 100m relay. Their winning time was 52.71.
Delta's Lady Panthers performed well in field events with Bryanna Music winning the shot put competition with a record-setting 38-7 effort. Music finished second in the discus throw with a distance of 95-1.
The distance races are not complete without the mention of Delta High School's Whiting sisters. Even though they did not win an individual title last Saturday, their presence on the 3200m relay team is without a doubt a key component for success in 2013. Clarissa starts the race and Cleo finishes the tough 3200m relay.
In one of their specialties, the 800m run, both Clarissa and Cleo were edged by Crested Butte Community School's Amber Scott. Scott finished in a time of 2:29.40 while Cleo posted a 2:29.66. Clarissa was third in a time of 2:31. Expect the two talented senior runners to be near the top in all the races they compete in this season.
Other third-place finishers for the Lady Panthers included Kaylee Dunham in the 3200m run and Chapman in triple jump.
Delta Boys
Delta picked up five first-place finishes on its way to a third-place finish in last weekend's Delta Invitational track meet. Palisade (140) and Cedaredge (123) finished ahead of the Panthers who had 115 points. Hotchkiss had 68 points to finish fourth, Crested Butte Community School was fifth and Paonia was sixth with 38 points.
Photo by Wayne Crick Delta’s Eian Baier soars through the air as he competes in the triple jump. Baier was fifth in the event and placed sixth in high jump. Delta scored 115 points to place third in the boys’ division.The Panthers had three individual winners in the boys' division. Zach Decker's circuit of the oval took just 53.44 seconds to earn first place. Dustin Ownbey took four trips around the oval to win the 1600m run in a time of 4:59.94 and Chris Black upset Cedaredge's Dante Markley in the 300 intermediate hurdles to win with a time of 41.63. Markley had a time of 41.98.
Ownbey also had a second-place finish in the 3200m run and Black was second in high jump competition behind Cedaredge's Reid Gates. Black cleared 6-1 and Gates set a new meet record with a leap of 6-6.
The 800 and 1600m relay teams also placed first. Decker, Bodie Giron, Johnny Ponce and Robert Williams took 1:37.65 to make two trips around the track to win the 800m relay. The team of Jake Millard, Williams, Douglas Hawkins and Decker teamed up to win the 1600m relay.
Another second-place finish for the Panthers belonged to Dylan Brattain for his throw of 39-3 in the shot put throw.
Finishing fourth for Delta was Hawkins in long jump and Williams in the 100m. Tyler Rolf, Ponce, Giron and Williams combined talents to place fourth in the competitive 400m relay and Jonathan Kinderknecht, Jacob Davignon, Cullen Wear and Ownbey placed fourth in the 3200m relay.
Fifth place finishes went to Eian Baier (triple jump) and Brattain (discus).
Lane Dillingham was sixth in shot put competition and Baier was sixth in high jump.
Both the girls' and boys' track teams are slated to participate in the Mickey Dunn Track Meet on Saturday, March 23, at Stocker Stadium. Field events are set to begin at 9 a.m. with running schedules to commence soon after.
