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ALTAIR – The 3A schools of Colorado County along with some schools from surrounding areas met up in the county to compete in one of the final meets before district championship season begins. Both Rice and Columbus had some strong performances with a number of medals from a variety of events. On the boys’ side, the Raiders had some of the top performances, taking third place overall as a team. The Cards came in with a top five finish as a team as well with fifth place overall. The ladies finished in reverse order as the Lady Cards placed in the top five with a bronze team medal, and the Lady Raiders finished in eighth place ahead a trio of teams that secured no points from the meet.
Rice
The Rice boys took their top three finish as a team after some impressive performances in the longer distance races. The team of Jon Woods, Kejun Wilson, Norris Gage and Jace Upson took the team’s lone gold medal in the 4X400m relay race. The Raiders had a number of silver medals as well to go along with their relay win. Woods took second place in the individual 400m race, and Wilson finished with the silver medal in the 800m race just ahead of Jael Serrano-Valles who claimed the bronze in the same event. Tamarian Turner continued his strong season in the triple jump event by adding another silver medal. There were many competitors who just missed out on a medal placement but still contributed to the team’s score. Serrano-Valles took on the 1600m run and finished in fourth place behind a trio of East Bernard runners. Payton Engelbrecht faced the even longer 3200m run and claimed fourth place as well. Gerrin Flowers placed fourth in the shot-put throw, and Woods just missed out on a top three spot in the triple jump event.
The Lady Raiders were represented solely by Tatianna Mills who gained their only team point with a top five finish in the 100m hurdles.
Columbus
The Cards secured their topfive placement led by an impactful day by Ty’Vone Whitehead. Whitehead claimed first place in the 200m dash for Columbus’ lone gold medal on the boys’ side. He also took second place in the 100m sprint and then went on to team up with Devin Wood, Jayden Dillard and Xavier Woods to take second place in the 4X100m relay. Whitehead finished his day off with a bronze medal in the triple jump event. The Cards had plenty of top performances from competitors outside of Whitehead’s outing. Cory Lewis had one of the top finishes of the day for the Cards with a silver medal in the 300m hurdles. Xavier Woods took a bronze medal in the high jump competition as well. Carson Beettner and Josafat Galvan claimed top five spots in the 200m dash and 3200m race respectively.
The Lady Cards had an impressive day on the track as they claimed their best performances in those events. Chloe Ross had the top outing of any Cardinal competitor with gold medals in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m races. Kaylea Foster came in just behind Ross with a silver medal in the 3200m run and took a bronze medal in both the 800m and the 1600m. The relay team of Scarlett McClelland, Ti-Yana Celestine, Mariah Woods and Taylor Morrow claimed the silver medal in the 4X100m sprints. Woods teamed up with Kaitlyn Torres, Treasure Upson and Kloee Woytek to claim the bronze medal in the 4X200m relay race as well. McClelland also notfched a bronze medal individually in the 200m dash and nearly placed in the top three for the triple jump after placing in fourth place just ahead of Morrow. Kloee Woytek had the Lady Cards’ best performance in field events, taking the silver in the long jump competition.
