The Grand County High School boys and girls track and field teams traveled to Hurricane to take part in the Hurricane Valley Rotary Invitational on Friday and Saturday, March 31 and April 1, where they ran with competition of mostly the 3A variety. They placed ninth out of 16 teams in the boys division, while not scoring in any girls race, placing 16th out of 16 teams in the girls division.
Other 2A teams near Hurricane competed, such as Kanab, Parowan, Beaver and Enterprise, along with Grand, but every other school at the meet was of at least 3A qualification. The Red Devil boys scored 32.5 points for ninth place in the meet, which was dominated by host Hurricane (137.5 points) and nearby Cedar (113 points). Wasatch was third with 53 points and Pineview was fourth with 46 points. Grand was only 6.5 points away from fifth-place Panguitch (39 points).
Grand’s Ryan Lewis contributed to Grand’s score in all four of his events, placing fifth in the 3,200-meter race (10:11.28), sixth in the 1,600-meters (4:37.09) and seventh in the 800-meters (2:07.16). Lewis teamed with Nolan Ramirez, Connor Guerrero and Dakota Johnson to place second in the medley relay (3:45.30).
Other individual scorers for Grand were Ruben Villalpando, who placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (16.84); Teddy Park, who tied for fifth in the high jump (5 feet, 10 inches); Jarom Shumway, who placed seventh in the shot put (42 feet, 1 inch); and Trent Elmore, who placed eighth in the 200-meters (23.83). Elmore, Johnson, Ramirez and Guerrero teamed up to place fifth in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:42.48.
The girls team was thin in numbers in Hurricane, bringing just a handful of competitors to the meet, about half of whom were freshmen or sophomores. Senior Jayelen Knowles and junior Abby Mason both had 12th-place individual finishes, the closest Grand came to scoring. Knowles finished 12th in the 3,200-meters (13:03.73), while Mason placed 12th in the long jump (14 feet, 6 inches). Knowles also competed in the 800-meters (23rd place, 2:40.37) and the 1,600-meters (24th place, 5:57.41), while Mason also competed in the high jump (4 feet, 6 inches). Megan Pfnister placed 17th in the 300-meter hurdles (54.35) and 21st in the 100-meters (13.95).
In throwing events, Halli Stocks placed 18th in the discus (68 feet, 10 inches) and Delaney Olsen placed 28th in the javelin (71 feet, 2 inches).
The Red Devils are next scheduled to compete at the Temple View Qualifier in Manti at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 7.
Red Devil boys run middle of the pack in meet of mostly 3A schools
