Sat Apr 9-The Cougar girls track team won the sixteen team John Tate Challenge Cup Invitational track meet at Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo with 131 points over 2nd place FFC’s 113. The blowout victory was helped along by five wins from all areas of the track and a slew of top three finishes over the two day competition.

Winning for the first time in her career, Alena Wroe, 10, took the pole vault title with a leap of 7-6. Shortly after, the girls 4×800 took top honors by only half a second over Canon City; Taylor Dutton, 10, Chloe Cassens, 10, Madeline Morland, 9, and Madison Brown, 12, held on at the end for the win in 9:58.79. In the last event on Friday night, Faith Roth, 9, won the 3200 run in her first attempt at the event in high school. Her time of 12:19.70 was good for a four second win.

The real story of the winners, however, was Celia Smith, 11. Last year’s 8th place finisher at the State Meet in the high jump won that event at 5-0 and just missed setting a meet record at 5-2. Her second win of the day came in a new event to her. Last week at the Palmer Terror Invitational, Smith won the long jump in her debut at 17-3. This week, Coach Christensen tried her in the triple jump for the first time; they practiced once during the week and Christensen said, “You should have seen her!” At the meet, Smith jumped 37-3 1/4 on only her second attempt-good enough for a meet and school record. The previous school record had been set by Tatianna Clanton, currently jumping for CSU Pueblo, in 2014 at the State Meet.

The Cougars boasted many other top finishes in the meet. Newcomer Emily Ambuul, 12, placed second in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes; Jaelynn Hershberger, 10, was second in the triple jump and long jump; Morland was second in the mile. Three third place finishes, good for 18 points, secured the win for the girls in their 18 point win over FFC and the rest of the field: Elana Muzzy, 10, in the 3200, Maddison Wilson, 9, in the 100 hurdles, and Lindsey Murray, 10, in the 800.

This is the second meet championship for the girls team this season. They head to Monument on Sat Apr 16 for a meet at Palmer Ridge.

On the boys’ side, the Cougars finished 2nd, just behind defending 5A State Champions FFC. The lone win for the boys came from Nic Vai, 12, in the 3200 where he came back from over 100 meters behind in the last two laps to charge past Canon City’s Jamison Smith on the homestretch for the win in 10:00.90. The sprints, powered by Marquis Arrington, 12, in 2nd place in the 100, provided a boost of points, as did jumping newcomers Eli Stauffer, 12, and Joey Callan, 11, throwing powerhouse Charles Broomfield, 10, and distance veterans Gerrit Ralston, 12, and Michel Swanson, 12.