Two Pagosa Springs High School (PSHS) Pirates nabbed state titles within a matter of minutes on Friday, May 16, at the state track and field meet in Lakewood.
Abigail Nehring is the 3A state champion in discus, and Creede Dozier is the 3A long jump champion.
“My heart was just racing,” coach Connie O’Donnell relayed to The SUN in an email. “Abi was the first to win. I had just enough time to give her a hug and run back to the long jump with happy tears streaming down my face. Creede was the last jumper in finals. When the athlete before him had his last jump and didn’t pass Creede’s distance, we all just started cheering and I cried some more. What a couple of unbelievable moments packed into a short amount of time. Both Creede and Abi are just two talented individuals that put in a ton of work to reach a state championship.”
O’Donnell notes she can’t remember the last time Pagosa Springs brought home two state champions, but estimated it’s been about 20 years.
The coach added the events were close enough together that the coaches and spectators could go back and forth between the events.
“It made it really exciting to know that they both had a good chance at winning their events,” she said.
Nehring took the title with a throw of 141 feet, 3 inches in the discus, and Dozier won the long jump with a distance of 21-6.00.
But Nehring’s and Dozier’s titles weren’t the team’s only successes at the state meet, which ran May 15-17 at Jefferson County Stadium.
The majority of the team’s 14 qualifiers brought home medals, O’Donnell highlights, with the boys’ squad taking 13th in 3A and the girls’ squad placing 10th.
In addition to her title in discus, Nehring took fourth in the shot put with a throw of 35-1.50.
Joining Nehring on the podium in the discus was Malorie Morton, who took seventh with a distance of 119-00.
Dozier also made the podium with a fifth-place finish in the high jump after he logged a height of 6-3.00. Jeremiah Jones joined him on the podium with an eighth-place finish and a height of 6-1.00.
Rylie Carr finished sixth in the girls’ 100-meter dash with a time of 12.56 seconds.
Sienna Rose took seventh in the girls’ 400-meter run with a time of 59.77 seconds.
Colton Lucero notched eighth in the boys’ 100 with a time of 11.04 seconds after fighting an injury, O’Donnell indicates.
Lexi Campbell took ninth in the girls’ triple jump with a distance of 33-0.675.
The girls’ 4x100-meter relay — including Rose, Molly Washburn, Campbell and Carr — finished seventh with a time of 51.05 seconds.
The Pirates also competed in other events, but fell short of advancing to the finals or making the podium.
Rose ran a time of 12.92 seconds in the 100, placing her 16th in the preliminaries.
Carr took 14th in the prelims in the girls’ 200 with a time of 26.39 seconds.
Dozier finished 14th in the boys’ triple jump with a distance of 39-08.25.
The boys’ 4x100 relay team — Jeremiah Dean, Tommy Nigro, Alex Pacheco and Jonathan Baker — finished 17th in the prelims with a time of 46.14 seconds.
The Lady Pirate relay team took 11th in the 4x200-meter relay prelims in 1:48.39.
Lucero did not run the boys’ 200, with O’Donnell explaining that Lucero began feeling hamstring tightness at the final regular-season meet, with O’Donnell then pulling him from the remainder of his events in Pueblo with the hopes it would be better by state.
“He ran the 100 prelims fast enough to qualify for finals, but it was painful,” O’Donnell wrote about the state meet. “So, I took him out of his other events with the hope that he could recover enough to run the 100 finals. He placed, but it was kind of sad because he really had a chance to be a state champion in both the 100 and 200 if it wasn’t for the injury.”
O’Donnell indicates the season was a fun one for the team.
“Overall, this season was a crazy, fun ride,” she wrote. “Our athletes broke 5 school records and 13 boys and 14 girls made it onto our all time top 10 list for PSHS.”
The Pirates will lose nine to graduation from its record-breaking team, according to O’Donnell: Carr, Nehring, Rose, Davian Coss, Tristan Frame, Jayslynn Perea, Jaxten Schiel, Jesus Serratos and Honestye Sweet.
O’Donnell points out that Carr, Nehring, Rose and Sweet were on the team all four years of high school.
“Even with the loss of so many seniors, we should be competitive at the state level again for both boys and girls,” she wrote. “We have the goal of getting more distance and mid-distance runners out next year. There are still kids that are walking our halls at the high school and not involved in a spring sport that could really help us. We will be doing a small summer program that involves practice a couple of days a week and going to a few meets.”
randi@pagosasun.com
