Jenna Pinto doesn’t mean to be selfish, but the Heritage sophomore has her reasons.
Last year, Pinto, who also plays soccer, qualified for the Colorado track and field championships as a member of the Eagles’ 400-, 800- and 1,600-meter relay teams. She spent most of her season working on stretching and handoffs during the week before running on the weekends. It’s the same this year, but, as she did Saturday at All-City Stadium, Pinto has progressed to running in more individual events.
The results are paying off.
Despite a late charge from 400 favorite Shilay Willis of Rangeview, Pinto held on for a personal-best time of 57.35 seconds to win Saturday’s race at the George Washington Patriot Invitational. The victory helped to propel Heritage to 150 team points and the overall girls title. George Washington finished second with 92 and Littleton was third with 65. In the boys meet, Sierra won the title with 120, Heritage was second with 109.5 and Rangeview was third with 56.
It wasn’t easy, but Pinto knew that would be the case.
“I knew it would be really close at the end, but you just have to finish strong,” Pinto said.
She did that, calling the last 50 meters the turning point from scoring a victory and a second-place finish. Considering the field she faced, with Willis on one side of her and Montbello senior phenom Kayla Fisher-Taylor on the other — she didn’t have a choice but to finish strongly.
“I was notified about lane 4 and lane 8 on the outside,” Pinto said. “That’s who I kept my eyes on and had to stay with them.”
Considering the spring-time weather brought a downpour and patches of snow in the Denver area just 24 hours earlier — forcing the cancellation of the shot put and discus — the competitors had more than just their opponents to worry about. But by the time the delayed meet started those fears were unfounded.
“I was definitely coming to win, but we were worried about the wind on the backstretch and being rainy and stuff,” Pinto said.
Sierra’s Chris Sterling knows the feeling.
“At first I was scared for a little while there, he said. “I thought I would be too stiff there (because of the cold weather). It turned out to be better.”
And just in time for his own win in the 400. His time of 49.61 was more than enough to hold off Rangeview’s Jordan Medina, who took second in 50.32 seconds. Sierra teammate Eddison Mason was third in 50.51.
