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Bulldogs varsity runners Emily Mortensen, a junior, and Kelly Christensen, a senior, qualified for the state track while competing Saturday at the Palisade Invitational.

The state meet is slated for May 19-20 in Denver.

Mortensen ran to a first place finish in the 800-meter run and was clocked at a time of 2:24.91 to earn a spot at the "big dance."

"In the 800-meter run I just went out and ran a normal race," said Emily Mortensen. "I ran that time before, but I wasn't expecting to qualify for state at the meet."

Mortensen also helped the 4x400-meter relay team of freshman Laurel Mortensen, sophomore Charlotte Steele and junior Stephanie Hurd earn first place and qualify for state with a time of 4:11.19.

"We have a really strong relay team," said Emily Mortensen. "We are all pretty even."

Christensen paced the way for the boys team by running to a state-qualifying time in the 1,600-meter run.

His time of 4:36.16 was good enough for second place at the Palisade meet. Christensen also ran to a second place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:01.87.

"I was really pleased with the run in the 1,600-meter run," said Christensen. "I ran a personal best time and it was good enough to get me to the state meet. I am feeling really good about the season so far."

"Kelly (Christensen) ran like a warrior at the meet," said boys coach Gary Tague. "He also ran very tough in the 800-meter run. He was just unbelievable."

In the girls team standings, Fruita Monument claimed first place with 110.5 points.

Moffat County High School (MCHS) was a close second with 107 points.

Palisade came in a distant third place with 55 points and Glenwood Springs was fourth with 52 points.

"I was really pleased with the way the girls ran," said girls coach Gary Tague. "Overall, we did much better than I expected and the girls ran really well."

In the boys team standings Fruita Monument made it a clean sweep by winning the meet with 115 points.

MCHS finished in second place with 70 points and Glenwood Springs came in third place with 65 points. Cortez finished fourth with 58 points.

"I was real surprised that we finished in second place," said Christensen. "Everybody did a lot better than we thought we would."

Other MCHS girls to finish in the top spot were junior Heather Urbanoski in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.95 and junior Jill Adamek in the 200-meter dash at 27.19.

The 4x200-meter relay team of freshman Kate Schafer, Laurel Mortensen, Urbanoski and Adamek took first place with a time of 1:49.27 to round out the high-place finishers for the girls.

Senior Ben Kramer was the lone winner for the boys team, taking the triple jump with a leap of 40-feet, 4-inches.

"The kids came out and performed really well," said Tague. "We were really pleased. We didn't really score in a whole lot of field events. We really need to do a little better there. We will improve and get the kids in the right spot."

On Saturday, the Bulldogs will split up teams with the upperclassmen going to the Tiger Invitational in Grand Junction and the underclassmen taking part in the Meeker Invitational.