Fossil Ridge JV track athletes wrapped up their seasons at the JV Championships track meet on April 24 at French Field stadium. This meet has always been competitive for athletes to push themselves against some of the best JV athletes in the area.
With Fossil’s team of over 150 students, there is a huge depth of athletes. Many athletes will run both varsity and JV events throughout the season, and the JV Championships meet proves to be a perfect way to bring great competition for a wide range of athletes.
“JV Champs gave Fossil the opportunity to show how much depth we have on our team,” said senior athlete Diana Hunt. “Especially on the girls side, not only does varsity sweep meets, but so does our JV team.”
The athletes took this opportunity and made the best of it with Fossil’s girls team winning with 258 points and Rocky Mountain girls taking second place with 123 points. Fossil boys placed second as a team, behind Fort Collins, with 146 points.
“Our girls team has such a strong community and it’s awesome how well we work together,” said runner Oakley Pringle.
The meet was met with many event winners as well. Fossil girls won first in the 4×800 relay, 4x200m relay, 100m hurdles, 400m dash, 800m run, 200m dash, high jump, and triple jump. Fossil boys won first in the 1600m run, 3200m run, triple jump, high jump, and long jump.
“Winning the 800m one last time allowed me to feel a lot of closure with track,” Hunt said. “I got the chance to run with my teammates and cheer them on in their races as well. I was really grateful for the chance to finish off the season with more support from friends and family.”
Unlike most JV track meets, this meet had official timing and all finishing times were uploaded to MileSplit. This is a big opportunity for these athletes, especially sprinters, because official times are needed to qualify for state and meet time standards in order to compete in some varsity meets.
“JV Champs has computer timing, so it feels professional and exciting,” said athlete Elias Bustamante. “The meet also has a super positive atmosphere. Everyone wants to win, but people will still be cheering for you regardless of whether you’ve met them or if they’re even on your team.”
The meet also ran all distance track events, which was different from most of the season’s meets that alternated distance events with ‘A’ and ‘B’ schedules. This allowed JV distance athletes to run multiple distance events in one meet, a common occurrence for varsity athletes, and provided a great learning experience for racing.
“It is a good opportunity for us as athletes to be exposed to meets that have a full schedule as it lets us compete in the races we like in a more competitive setting,” said distance runner Ayden Barron.
The meet was not met without its challenges. Right before the boys 1600m run began, the lightning alarm went off and the meet was postponed for almost an hour. During this time athletes were sent inside Rocky’s gym or to their cars.
“Sitting and waiting sucked, but everyone was still able to get on the line and have a good race,” Quenton Saunders said. “Many kids broke five minutes for the first time and I was still able to win the race by five seconds.”
The meet continued to run without any weather alerts, until the final event of the night: the boys 4x400m. The third storm alert of the night went off right before the boys were about to race and finally canceled the last event of the meet.
“I was sad they canceled it,” said Max Barlow, a member of the 4x400m race. “I felt like they should have done it because it was my last race of the season and I wanted a personal record.”
Though the final race was unfinished, the JV season had concluded. With the time off, many athletes will participate in other sports or other ways of training, but will be returning to the track and field next spring season.
“I’m super excited, hopefully I can make varsity next year,” Adrian Ayers said. “But next season will be great either way.”
