Led by gutsy performances from runners Josephine Bush, Rachel Hampton, Emy Ludwig and Lindsey Stindt, the TNT girls’ team blasted into third place overall. Meanwhile the boys’ team, anchored by highly decorated runners Ty Williams and Colten Rogers, and with Jeff Williams and Nathan Loomis, landed in fifth place overall as a team.
According to coach Keith Hampton, TNT’s 2011 state meet performance was evidence of this team’s breadth and depth.
“The team was really excited with their performance; nearly everyone posted a personal best at the state meet – which is what you want,” he said.
Leading the Telluride-Norwood team with 19 individual points was the inexorable Jo Bush, who not only placed in the top five in three events but also set school records in each event. Her jump of 16’ 9.25” was good enough to put her in third place, and her sprint of just over 59 seconds in the 400 meters won this speed-seeking athlete another bronze. She also placed fifth in the 200 meters.
Rachel Hampton followed suit with two more school records broken at the Jefferson County stadium, placing second in the 1600 meter and third in the 3200 meter with times of 5:25.22 and 11:38.95, respectively.
Perhaps one of the most thrilling TNT performances of the weekend emerged when the tough-fighting girls joined forces for the 4x800m and 4x400m relay events. Both relay teams placed second, with runners Hampton, Bush, Jessie Hild, Sierra Sandoval, Shelby Brier, Emy Ludwig, and Lindsey Stindt contributing to the relay team effort.
Ludwig and Stindt were unstoppable in the hurdles, contributing 28 points to the TNT effort.
Stindt was second in the 100 meter high hurdles in a season best time of 15.88; Ludwig wasn’t far behind with her personal best time of 16.28 to take third.
In the 300m hurdles, Ludwig ran a personal best time and new school record of 46.73 to qualify into the finals. In the finals Stindt eeked out a third while Ludwig was on her tail in fourth.
The girls team finished the two days of competition with 81 points; an extremely strong finish that may have been enough to win in previous years, coach Hampton noted. “However, Lyons and Akron fielded extremely strong teams that proved too deep for the TNT squad,” he said.
The boys unveiled a gritty effort on the state meet stage as well, with Williams giving his all in the 3200m with a personal best time and school record of 9:30.88, putting him in second. He earned another silver, this time in the 1600m, narrowly missing the gold with the race coming down to a final lean at the tape.
THS senior Colten Rogers also broke out the big guns for his 1600m race, obliterating the school record as well as his own personal best time by ten seconds to take third behind his TNT teammate. Rogers got tripped up at the start of the 800m, but raced back to take sixth.
Rogers and Williams lent their legs to the boys’ 4x800 team relay effort, in which the TNT squad (also comprised of Jeff Williams and Nathan Loomis) was a mere .08 seconds behind the ultimate winner, Lyons.
Sophomore standout Loomis also added to the scoring for TNT with an eighth place in the 3200. His time of 10:34 was a personal best by over 20 seconds. Finally, sophomore Ty LeFramboise had an outstanding performance in the shot put with a personal best throw of 43’ 05.25” for sixth place, bringing the boys’ points total to 41 for fifth place overall.
The 2011 season ended on a high note for TNT, thanks to its members digging deep in every event. Said Hampton of the future of the young and dominant TNT squad, which will lose only a few of its state-going seniors this year: “The whole sense of where we’re at as a team has been elevated this year. The kids really believe they are among the best in the state, and they’re committed to working with that expectation in mind.”
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