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With the best track and field athletes in the Intermountain League on display, Montezuma-Cortez High School held its own in the Centauri Invitational.
The boys team collected a number of high-end finishes Saturday in the invitational, which doubled as the IML championships, to take third. The girls finished fifth.
Topping the all-league performances for the boys, junior Zander Cruzan consolidated his place on a short list of state title contenders, blowing away the field in 100-meter dash and achieving a personal best with a time of 10.89 seconds.
Cruzan wasn’t done. He also took the league crown in the long jump, dashing down the track and launching himself 20 feet, 11 inches.
Freshman Tay Wheat also emerged with an all-league finish in the long jump, taking third with a leap of 18 feet, 11 inches. Junior Austin Wood hit a season best and matched the bronze finish in the other horizontal jump – the triple jump – with a mark of 38 feet, 1 inch.
Senior Anon Plemons cleared 10 feet, 2 inches in the pole vault for second place, and the 4x800 relay team headlined three relays events, taking second in 9 minutes, 40.07 seconds.
The Panthers were third in the 4x100 relay (45.25) and fourth in 4x200 (1:37.51).
In the hurdles, the Panthers picked up points, with junior Raul Soto’s seventh place in the 300-meter hurdles (49.12), just ahead of teammate Dawson Stubby (49.94). Stubby also took sixth in the 110 hurdles (21.23).
Rounding out the Panthers scoring, senior Dallin Lanier ran to seventh place in the 100 meters (12.03), and junior Isaak Lewis took eighth in the 800 meters (2:22.30).
M-CHS took third as a team behind league champions Alamosa and runner-up Centauri.
On the girls side, junior Sophia Shepard provided the highest Panthers finish, taking third in the triple jump (30 feet, 7 inches). She added an eighth-place mark in the 200 meters (29.47), as well.
M-CHS earned solid finishes in the distance events, as sophomore Savannah Hasselroth ran to fifth place in the 800 meters (2:52.14), while senior Kalea Hunt was eighth in both the 800 (3:24.39) and 1,600 (7:22.57).
Hasselroth also cleared 4 feet, 4 inches in the high jump for sixth place to wrap up the M-CHS scoring.
M-CHS finished 10th in the meet and fifth among IML competitors. Alamosa ran away with the team title.
