The Grand County High School boys and girls track and field teams competed at the Matt Burr Invitational in Salina on Saturday, March 25, where the boys finished in second place out of 19 teams and the girls finished sixth out of 21. Grand’s Ryan Lewis won all three of his individual events, the 800-, 1,600-, and 3,200-meter races.
In his first race of the day, the 1,600, Lewis bested the field by almost 10 seconds, running a 4:41.78. Teammate Evan Ellison placed third at 4:53.88. Lewis ran the 800 in 2:07.92; Ellison took sixth at 2:17.80. Lewis and Ellison placed first and second in the 3,200, with Lewis running a 10:46.35 and Ellison running a 10:48.79.
Lewis was also the distance anchor to Grand’s first-place medley group, which also included Connor Guerrero, Nolan Ramirez and Trent Elmore. The quartet finished the race at 3:53.68. Ellison ran the third leg of the 4×400-meter relay, teaming with Ramirez, Dakota Johnson and Guerrero to finish third at 3:49.82, behind Carbon and Delta. Grand also had success in the 4×100-meter relay, placing second with Johnson, Guerrero, Kasey Kemp and Teddy Park running a 46.86.
Park had a strong day in the high jump, finishing second at 5 feet, 10 inches. In his only individual event to go along with the three relays, Guerrero placed fourth in the 300-meter hurdles at 46.02; Johnson placed eighth in the event at 47.54. In the 110-meter hurdles, Ruben Villalpando placed fourth at 17.06; he also placed sixth in the long jump at 19 feet, 7 inches.
Another Grand athlete who competes in events on both the track and in the field, Jarom Shumway, placed seventh in the 110-meter hurdles at 17.95 and eighth in the shot put at 40 feet, 3 inches. Elmore also scored individually for the Red Devils, placing fifth in the 400-meter race at 53.95. In total, Grand scored 100 points, 16 behind Delta’s 116 and 26 ahead of Emery’s 74.
The Lady Red Devils scored 41 points, finishing behind Carbon, North Summit, North Sevier, Delta and Manti. The highlight of the meet for them was a second-place 4:47.02 in the medley, ran by Jayelen Knowles, Auburn Jackman, Megan Pfnister and Kyha Gritts. Halli Stocks also had a second-place performance in the discus at 91 feet, 0.25 inches.
In three throwing events, Veda Gritts placed fifth in the discus (85 feet, 1 inch), sixth in the javelin (101 feet, 3 inches) and seventh in the shot put (29 feet, 11 inches). Knowles placed in the top eight in three distance running events for Grand, placing fifth in the 3,200-meters (13:30.53) and eighth in both the 1,600-meters (6:05.08) and the 800-meters (2:44.27). The girls also had a top-eight finisher in both hurdle events as Pfnister placed sixth in the 300-hurdles (56.44) and Baelie Pierce placed eighth in the 100-hurdles (18.71).
Grand was also scheduled to compete at a meet in Blanding on Wednesday, March 29. The Red Devils compete at the Hurricane Invitational on Friday and Saturday, March 31 and April 1.
Ryan Lewis takes first in three races
