Mingus Union High School’s top track and field athletes turned in noteworthy performances when the team hosted the Mingus Invitational on Friday, April 7.
With the state championship meet less than one month away, the Marauders showed that they are still continuing to make progress. Overall, the girls were third with 94 points while the boys finished sixth with 65.33 in the nine-team field.
Senior Auli Hanks made her return from injury, and while still not fully healthy according to head coach Yancey DeVore, appeared to hit the ground running.
Hanks took second in the 100-meter dash in 13.93 seconds.
“Auli peformed in all of her events,” DeVore said. “She’s not at full strength but she’s at least getting there. I was impressed with her performances.”
Junior Katelyn Prouty and senior Mackenna Jung took fourth and sixth, respectively. Hanks also tied for first in the high jump [4-08] and finished second in the long jump [15-05].
Prouty, Jung and Hanks, along with junior Hannah DeVore, took first place in the 4×100-meter relay. DeVore had a standout day as well, setting two personal best marks. She claimed first in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles events, with respective times of 17.17 and 48.47 seconds.
“I feel pretty good, I’m having a really fun season,” Hannah DeVore said. “God blessed me with a good season … [but] I’d like my time to drop. I’ve gotten better this season but I’m not where I was at the end of last season.”
Sophomore Meg Babcock was sixth in the 400-meter dash and 1,600-meter run. Babcock, Jung, Prouty and senior Maria Meacham reached an automatic state qualifying time in the 4×400-meter relay in a season-best 4:22.26, good for third. Meacham tied for third in the high jump [4-06] and was fifth in the triple jump [30-10].
On the younger boys side, junior Jonathan Jung and sophomore Colby Fanning were third and sixth in the 100, respectively. Fanning took 10th in the 200-meter dash and Jung seventh in the 400.
Senior Keegan Cain was third in the 800 with a time of 2:11.60. Four Marauders placed in the top nine in the 1,600: sophomore Dallin Gordon, senior Ryan Alexander, junior Jon Ulibarri and freshman Lucas Doerkson were fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.
Yancey DeVore pointed out that one of the strengths of the boys is their youth; they will continue to get better in the coming years.
“We’ve got some good 800 runners who are pushing each other for slots in the relay,” Yancey DeVore said. “We have a lot of younger kids who are good athletes. We’re really young, we don’t have a lot of experience but that’s definitely where our strength is at.”
In the field events, sophomore Kendrew Streck was runner up in the shot put [43-02.50] and discus [124-07.75]. Jung tied for first in the high jump [5-10].
