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Young Basalt High track team looks ahead after difficult state meet

Basalt sophomore Megan Maley competes in the final leg of the 3A girls' 4x100-meter relay on Sunday at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times |

LAKEWOOD — Not everything went the Basalt High School track and field team’s way over the weekend during the state meet at Jeffco Stadium, but struggling is every bit as important as winning when the athletes are young.

“We came, we accomplished. We had a few downfalls, but not many disappointments,” said BHS track coach Allyson Decatur. “I’m proud of everyone. The team really came together when we faltered and it’s part of being a team. You take care of each other when the times are tough.”

The weekend highlight came Saturday with a podium from the girls’ 4×800-meter relay team. The other two relays struggled, including a 16th-place finish from the girls’ 4×100-meter relay Sunday. The situation wasn’t ideal for the relay teams, as sophomore Megan Maley had to run in all of them — the third being the 800-meter sprint medley Saturday — with Nicole Alvarado, the team’s best sprinter, having missed state because of a death in the family.



“Missing Nicole, who is the anchor in both (400×1, medley) of our relays, was kind of tough to get everybody to come together and believe in each other,” Basalt junior Morgan Ash said. “I think by the end of it we did, and I’m just super, super, super proud of all of us, even myself, for making it here and having fun, especially. That was a big accomplishment for us, just to come and have fun.”

Ash, who competed in four events for the Longhorns, had one of the most difficult weekends. She was part of the medley team’s 13th-place finish Saturday and settled for 12th-place in the 3A high jump later that day.




On Sunday, she took 15th in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles (18.01 seconds) before also taking part in the 4×100 relay.

“I’m going to admit that the nerves got to me, for sure. Freshman year and sophomore year in high jump, they didn’t really get to me very much,” Ash said. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of training and a lot of mindset training, especially. I just plan to come out as strong as I possibly can at the beginning of the season senior year and give everything I have from the start to the finish.”

Only an hour after the 4×100 relay Sunday, Maley competed in the 3A girls’ 400-meter dash, taking 12th in 1 minute, 1.21 seconds. It was her first time competing at state.

Junior Noah Williams was 17th in the 3A boys’ 100-meter dash (11.37 seconds) on Sunday, putting to bed his first season competing in track. In the team’s final event at state, senior Miles Levy finished 12th in the 3A boys’ high jump, where he cleared 5 feet, 9 inches.

The difficulties faced by the Longhorns over the weekend look to aid them next spring, when it’s expected they’ll have most of the team back.

“I’m excited for next year,” Decatur said. “(State) was kind of all over the place. We came in prepared and excited and we had some awesome celebrations. The 4×800 (Saturday) was tremendous. Those girls had a huge (personal record) — four seconds off the school record. It was impressive. That’s something we can bring to next year. They are young enough.”

acolbert@aspentimes.com