Littleton – The organizers of the third annual Nike Littleton Invitational track and field meet didn’t panic like the airline officials at Denver International Airport.
Good thing, because nearly as many meet records were broken as airline flights canceled on what turned out to be a perfect Saturday at Littleton Public Schools Stadium despite unrealized predictions for an epic April weekend snowstorm.
“We did a lot of praying this week, I can tell you that,” Littleton coach Brian Kula said.
Fifteen boys records in 19 events and 12 girls records in 20 events fell during the nearly 40-team meet. George Washington won the boys and girls overall team titles, with the boys finishing ahead of Fort Collins and the girls edging Loveland.
Heritage junior Morgan Sedivec was a good example of what kind of day it was on the track and in the field. Picking up the javelin for the first time in competition, Sedivec surpassed the meet record by more than 11 feet with a toss of 113 feet, 5 inches.
“My coach just said, ‘Hey, come throw the javelin.’ So I did,” said Sedivec, who also won the shot put competition.
Though the meet is just 3 years old, these were not cream-puff records that were falling.
In the boys’ 1,600-meter run, Evan Appel of Dakota Ridge clocked a blazing time of 4 minutes, 21.21 seconds to set a meet standard. Nationally ranked distance runner Kristen McGlynn of Platte Canyon set a meet mark with a time of 5:03.31 in the girls’ 1,600.
According to her plan, McGlynn pulled away from Jen Webers of Conifer on the fourth and final lap.
“I’m not a strong kicker when it comes to a 200-foot race, so I like to get out a little sooner,” said McGlynn, who took first place in the 3,200 as well. “I’ve really been trying to work on pushing my last lap.”
George Washington’s boys and girls sprint relay teams scorched the track, with the boys’ 400 relay squad recording a time of 41.86, more than full second faster than the previous meet record and six-tenths of a second off the state record.
“That’s our best time now, but we want to get into the 40s,” said Terrence McGaughy, the fastest of a very fast Patriots team. “That’s a good time, but we want to do better by state.”
The George Washington boys and girls combined to win eight events, including Ashley Cruder’s victory and record in the 100.
Littleton’s Leigh Ann Ganzar represented the host school well by winning the 800 easily with a time of 2:17.37, five seconds ahead of the field. She also helped the Lions’ 1,600 relay team to first place, earning Ganzar athlete of the meet honors.
Brendan Ames, a senior at Cheyenne Central and currently the fastest 110-meter prep hurdler in the nation, won the 110s with a time of 13.64 and the long jump with a leap of 23-2, both meet records.
