Prom may have had to settle for second place.
Undoubtedly one of many belles of Bayfield High School's annual spring ball, senior Jessica Cusick gave herself extra reason to celebrate last Saturday night by achieving a definite personal track-and-field season objective:
A new BHS-best in the 800-meter run.
Pacing both current Wolverine Bridget Goddard and former Wolverine Aubree Lorenzen - now rocking 4A Durango's red-and-white - Cusick clocked a 2-minute, 22.17-second effort and bettered Ashley Hahn's 2:22.51 set in 2000. Lorenzen's was second on Saturday with 2:38.42, and Goddard's 2:43.57 clocked in at third.
Goddard, just a sophomore, laid down a winning 6:06.33 in the 1,600 and helped Bayfield amass 96 team points and finish second at the 2015 BHS Quadrangular. The huge DHS 4A team racked up an uncatchable 189.
BHS' 4x100 (senior Morgan Allred, sophomore Amber Johnson, senior Amy Roach, senior Jessie Roukema) and 4x200 (sophomore Jade Sanders, sophomore Miranda Talbot, freshman Bri Marr, freshman Courtney Bayles) relays also prevailed, in 52.38 seconds for the former and 2:00.97 for the latter.
Roukema was second in the high jump (4'11"), Talbot likewise in the 300-meter hurdles (57.68s), Johnson as such in the triple jump (30'1"), and junior Katie Hawkins was second in the pole vault (8'0") and discus (95'2").
Johnson also scored top-three status in the 200-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 29.64 seconds, and Allred was third in the pole vault after also topping out at eight feet up. Freshman Tiarra Christensen was third in the shot, with a best heave of 27 feet, 1.5 inches, and fourth in the discus with a maximum of 77'7".
Johnson was fourth in the 100 meters (13.95s), Sanders fourth in the triple jump (27'2") and junior Tori Tate-best in the triple with a longest of 31 feet even-was fourth in the long jump (14'8.25"), a discipline in which Durango senior Miranda Gallegos (17'5") and sophomore Alli Davis (17'3.5") both broke the previous WCS record, on the books since '03, by at least three-quarters of an inch.
Next up on the schedule for Bayfield will be the Abel Velasquez Invitational tomorrow (9 a.m.) in Ignacio.
