The East Tribute Run for 2006 honored Jim Spank Blasing, longtime track and cross country coach for Pueblo Junior College, Southern Colorado State College, and USC where he was also Athletic Director.
There was a fine turnout for the middle school race which most middle school coaches expected to start at 7:45 but which was held up till 8:30 because of a revised schedule sent to high school coaches. Boys and girls ran together and I estimate at least 50 runners completed the 2 mile course. Troy Davenport coaches Craver Middle School and Cravers Kipp Castanha sat back for most of the race then moved in the last half mile. He finished 3rd in 14:11, and then went to Springs for a soccer match. The young man who led the race with great confidence and control ran 13:27 with second 13:44.
The boys high school race was dominated by Dean Gray of Palmer who was content to cruise for the first half of the race and maintain pace as one by one his rivals fell back. Blacks time on a stretched version of the course, which was probably the full 5000 meters, was 16:41. Bartlett from Peyton was second in 16:59. The top Pueblo area runner was Cisco Castillo of Central in 17:36. He won the Canon City race Tuesday in 17:13.
Boys team scores: Falcon 52, Palmer 88, Peyton 91, Monte Vista 98, Central 132, South 157, Mesa Ridge 202, Alamosa 217, Rye 221, East 230, Harrison 242, Pueblo County 286
Other area individuals: Aaron Levinson E, 14 18:07, Brandon Hruby R 16, 18:12, Mike Deltondo C 17, 18:27, A.J. Hernandez E 18 18:33, A. Rabskof S 25, 18:58, Jaques Metoyer C 26, 19:02, Aaron Berndt R 27, 19:04, D. Bolonas S 28, 19:05, M. DeHerrera S 31, 19:16, Keith Dugan PC 33, 19:32, A Huerta S 35, 19:35, Adam Martinez C 36, 19:41, D. Lake S 38, 19:46, Ross PG 43, 20:09, Caffey S 44, 20:19, Borjon C 46, Richardson R 51, 20:47, Comden S 53, 20:49, Valdez R 57, 21:13, Roybal E 61, 22:20, Griego C 62, 22:37, Parker PC 67, 25:02.
Lindsey Sowards of Alamosa, who won her home meet at the wire, led the whole race once the field spread out. She finished first in 20:13, 34 seconds ahead of Arellano from Harrison. Nikki Reid of East who finished 5th in 21:14 was the top area finisher.
Girls team scores: Palmer, 40, Harrison 69, Alamosa 95, South 105, Peyton 147, Falcon 155, Rye 213, Pueblo County 221, East 227, Mesa Ridge 257, Central 270.
Other area individual: ODorisio S 13, 22:25, Crawford R 13, 22:26, Bishop S, 22:35, Davidson S 21, 23:30, Collie C 24, 23:37, Arrieta PC 25, 23:55, Bowers PC 26, 24:01, Kemm 27, 24:12, Khosla S 29, 24:16, Gersick S 32, 25:01, Berndt R 40, 25:52; Yoder R 42, 26:32, Sheehan S 46, 27:06, Parker PC 51, 30:25, Barnes PC 52, 30:26.
Since Centennial and Pueblo West were not at this meet and it is unlikely that all the area teams will be gathered anywhere before the City Meet October 12, its only a matter of speculation which teams and individuals will rise to the top. If the City Meet were held next week, I predict that Centennial and Pueblo West would battle for the girls team title with Lauren Dorsey-Spitz of Centennial and Anna Marshall of Pueblo West in a close race for first individual. Look for Reid and Kelci Johnston of West to battle for third. In the boys team race I think that Pueblo West may have a slight edge over Central. An interesting individual race could develop between Castillo and Wests Mike Schmidt.
Since there will be a half-dozen meets before City, including the big Central Invitational on September 23rd, more information will come in. You can make your own predictions.