LAKEWOOD – With each passing school year, Dove Creek continues to produce student-athletes prepared to stand out among the brightest stars in small-school competition.
At the Colorado 1A Track and Field State Championships this weekend, all six Dove Creek qualifiers came home with at least one medal in hand, as the Bulldogs finished near the top of the field in every event they entered.
Junior Chorbin Cressler capped an impressive junior year, quarterbacking the Bulldogs football team to the state semifinals and rounding out the year with four All-State efforts on the Jefferson County Stadium track.
Cressler missed out on an individual state title in the 100 meters, where he took sixth place with a time of 11.76. DeBeque’s Wesley Ryan took gold with a time of 11.52.
He later took fifth in the 400 meters, running a time of 54.81, and added an eighth- place mark in the 200 meters, finishing in 24.18. Cressler was the only athlete in the field to qualify in all three of the individual sprinting events.
Cressler also anchored the 4x100 relay of sophomore Kade Hankins, freshman Gage Buffington and freshman Colten Fury, and the quartet finished sixth in a time of 47.20.
Hankins also took fifth in the 110 hurdles (17.72) and sixth in the long jump (19 feet, 10 inches).
For the Lady Bulldogs, senior Kobie Beanland and sophomore Trista Barnett earned two all-state performances apiece.
Beanland’s top effort came in the 300 hurdles, where a time of 52.09 earned her fourth place in the event. She also propelled herself 14 feet, 5 inches in the long jump to take eighth overall.
Barnett ran hard in both the 400 and 800 meters to place in both events, as she took eighth in the 400 meters (1:07.07) and ninth in the 800 (2:38.03).
Dove Creek’s girls scored 11 points to tie for 23rd in the field as a team, while Heritage Christian posted 144.5 points to win the 1A girls title. Meanwhile, the boys earned 24 points, good for 13th place, while Heritage Christian captured the boy’s crown with 141 points.
