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Rams win first title since 1998
MONUMENT - Devin Mohn and a trio of distance runners led the Rampart boys to their first regional championship since 1998, as the Rams beat Palmer 148½-101 in the Class 5A Region 3 track and field meet Saturday at Don Breese Satdium.
"You're trying to build a program where they understand that team winning is important, so we said, ‘Let's win a regional championship,'" Rams coach Randy Barringer said. "With the weather and everything, it's hard to keep that focus but they did a great job with it."
Mohn won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes and anchored the winning 400 relay team. Jeff Cook won the 3,200, Nick Saulnier took the 1,600, Brennan Jarvis took third in the 800, and the Rams won the 3,200 relay.
Along the way, the Rams qualified for the state track meet Thursday in Denver in seven events, adding to the four pre-qualifiers during the season.
The top three in each event qualified for state.
Palmer qualified seven. Brendan Jackson won both hurdles and Maurice Blackledge won the long jump.
Lewis-Palmer qualified for five events, led by Gabriel Patterson in both hurdles and Theodore Thompson in the shot put.
Doherty's Carly Allen won the 300 hurdles, long jump and triple jump and placed third in the 100 hurdles to qualify in four events and lead her team to the title, 120-102 over Palmer. Teammate Lynnea Sjoerdsma won the 800 and placed second in the 1,600 to qualify.
The Palmer girls kept up with the boys, qualifying in seven events, including three distance runners - Annie Whitford in the 1,600 and 800 (third in both), Emily Smith in the 1,600 (second), and Meg Rudy in the 3,200 (third).
"To me the most important thing is getting kids qualified for state," Palmer coach Nancy Pellow said. "Everything else is a bonus. We've got 18 kids going and that's awesome."
Sand Creek's Jen Bremser won the 1,600 and took second in the 3,200. Air Academy's Gabby Quirao won the 400 and finished third in the 100, joining Allie McLaughlin, who won the 3,200, at state.
