GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Mother Nature must have it out for Chase Cooper. Be it rain, sleet or snow — Saturday it was just overcast skies, cloudy and a threat of rain — all have slowed the Smoky Hill senior in his quest of breaking 17 feet in the pole vault this season.
He didn’t even come close to that at the Cherry Creek/Grandview Invitational at the Stutler Bowl. But victory was never in doubt.
Only Lewis-Palmer’s Joshua Christman threatened, and it was over by the time Cooper landed his meet-winning jump of 15 feet even on his second attempt. But when Cooper pushed the bar to 16- 3/4, whether it was his feet clipping the bar after he was over or starting his descent too far back, the state’s best pole vaulter wasn’t able to push through.
“My run wasn’t real crisp today. I didn’t get much practice because there’s a pretty big field of guys,” said Cooper, who beat out the field of 32 and easily broke the previous meet record of 13 feet set last year by Rampart’s Josh McMillan. Cooper couldn’t eclipsed his personal and season best of 16-9 1/4, but took it in stride: “Yeah, there’s some disappointment, but, you know, that’s the pole vault. You get some and you don’t, have to wait for next week.”
That, and the state meet set for May 14-16 at Lakewood’s Jefferson County Stadium, is all he has left in his varsity career. By then, he’s hopeful he not only will get back to his 16-9 clip, but surpass that. His goal is 17- 3/4.
So what is it going to take to achieve it?
“Nice weather and good warm-ups,” he said.
Cherry Creek’s Olivia Anderson didn’t need good weather, just a little confidence. That, and a quick start proved to be just enough to score an upset in the girls 300 hurdles.
Anderson lunged past Arapahoe’s Stephanie Gerber to win in 45.23 seconds. Entering the race — the final of five heats — the Bruins freshman wasn’t even sure she would be in the race.
Her pre-race times suggested she was the fifth-best competitor in the field, but, in her mind, she wasn’t so sure she was deserving of racing against Smoky Hill’s Vanessa Samuels and Gerber. Her effort proved otherwise.
“I was kind of surprised that I was in the last heat to tell the truth. I was just hoping to run well,” Anderson said. “I got off faster than I normally do. I felt great from the start, so I think that really helped with confidence as well.”
Samuels, the defending 5A state champion who entered the meet with the state’s best time this season at 44.48 seconds, finished fourth. She also took fourth in the 100 hurdles, which Gerber won.
While Anderson wasn’t sure if she belonged, Mullen’s Andrew Berberick knew he did. He just had to go out and prove it. Berberick, who hadn’t run in the 3,200 meters all season while trying to qualify for state in as many events as he could, ran away with a first run of 9:36.72.
“I just wanted to break 10. I haven’t been able to do the two-mile all year, and seeing all these great times — Walter Schafer, Evan Appel, Dart Schwaderer, Henry Cowhick doing great — I had to get myself up there,” Berberick said.
Arapahoe’s boys and Cherry Creek’s girls took team honors.
