Thornton – For an early-season meet, Eaglecrest sprinter James Lyday liked what he saw in his 400-meter relay team.
Lyday ran the anchor leg for the Raptors at the 18th annual Horizon Relays, a 25-team meet, Saturday at Five Star Stadium. He and teammates Derek Nettingham, Milton Cherry and Phillip Merriwether, all seniors, clocked a time of 43.54 seconds, and there are more than two months of meets remaining before the state tournament to shave off some time.
“I feel good about our team,” Lyday said. “We practice hard every day to get ready for the big race.”
Lyday was quick to point out more speed will be needed if the Raptors are going to overtake the high-velocity squad from George Washington, nationally ranked in the indoor 800 relay.
“George is the team to beat. That’s the one to look out for,” Lyday said.
George Washington’s top 400-relay team was not at the meet, but another foursome was, and it pulled off a fourth-place finish.
Terrence McGaughy, a threat in the 100 and 200 as well as the 400 and 800 relays, said Saturday’s performance was just a sneak peek of things to come.
“They ain’t seen nothing yet,” McGaughy said. “This is basically our B squad, or even our C squad. We’re way faster than what we showed today. We’re going to try to break the state record (in the 400 and 800 relays).”
The Smoky Hill boys and girls teams swept the team titles, with the boys holding off Littleton and Thornton, and the girls finishing well ahead of Littleton and Greeley Central.
The Buffaloes’ lone relay victory came in the 400, with Blair Gilkes, Brittanny Page, Stacey Graf and Rindy Herrick cruising to the tape with a time of 50.14 seconds. Herrick replaced Jennifer Johnson, now running at Colorado State, but the others are returning with hopes of bettering last season’s fourth-place finish at state.
“It’s been an awesome start so far. All of us have performed really well,” Gilkes said.
Four meet records were broken as the Eaglecrest boys 800 relay team and Littleton’s long jump group set marks, and the Fairview girls 3,200 team and Littleton’s 1,600 squad did the same.
Fairview’s record-setting team featured a veritable who’s who of prep distance runners with Sarah Cocco, Alexis Skarda, Meredith MacGregor and Anna Burger finishing in 9:40.15.
In other highlights, Jon Reed of Highlands Ranch posted the meet’s fastest time, 15.04, in the 110 hurdles, but he didn’t have any teammates running the race so his effort didn’t count in the team scores.
Reed found some fellow Falcons for the distance medley. Reed ran out in front of the pack during his second-leg 400 and it looked like Highlands Ranch would win the heat until Battle Mountain’s Tony Crisofulli kicked it in. Battle Mountain won the heat but finished second to Thornton.
