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Photo by Hans Hallgren

MCHS senior Myiah Bengston competes Friday in the girls shot put at the Clint Wells Invitational. Bengston finished second in the shot put and won the discus event.

It happened so fast, Megan Knez didn't get to think about it, but when she crossed the finish line in first place, it was the first and the last time she would do that at her home track.

"It was pretty cool," the Moffat County senior trackster said. "But there wasn't a tape for me to break."

Knez ran the final leg of the 1,600-meter relay at the Clint Wells Invitational in Craig on Friday. She was scheduled to be the third leg, but head coach Todd Trapp switched Knez from third to fourth with fellow senior Alicia Nelson as the second runners in the relay were making the final turn.

"I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've finished first as the anchor of a relay," Knez said. "It's kind of sad that it was my last meet."

Knez had surgery in the middle of the track season on a cyst on her knee and said she was just excited to be back.

It was a good meet for Moffat County athletes to gain some confidence and experience. The Bulldogs were the only varsity Class 4A team at the 10-team meet.

"We expected for our top athletes to dominate, and we thought some of the others with less accolades to compete well today," Trapp said.

The Bulldogs did just what Trapp expected. The girls in particular had a dominating day, winning more than half of the events.

Sophomore Lauren Roberts had stayed away from open sprinting events because of a leg injury this season but returned to the 200 for the first time Friday.

She also picked up her first varsity victory with a time of 18 seconds.

"I looked at the times going in and thought I had a good chance to win," she said. "It was a good way to get back into the 200. I'm going to check and see where I'm at in the region when I get home."

Other individual winners for the Bulldogs were: Nelson, 400 (1 minutes, 1.09 seconds), 800 (2:27.66); senior Erin Urbanoski, 100 (12.61), long jump (17 feet, nine inches); senior Myiah Bengston, discus (100 feet, three inches); Maddy Jourgensen, 1,600 (5:41.22). The spring medley team of Ubanoski, Nelson, Roberts and freshman Adrie Camp 1:54.58 started off the meet with a season's best 1:54.58.

"The sprint medley is a team we think can qualify for state," Trapp said. "We are right on the bubble right now."

Nelson and Urbanoski finished their stellar careers with seven first-place finishes at their final home meet.

Junior Corey Wojtkiewicz earned his first varsity track victory with a win in the mile in 5:12.20.

"The wind was pretty tough," he said. "But after the second lap, I knew I had a pretty good chance of getting the win."

"Wojo" was joined by junior Brian Ivy as a winner for the boys team. Ivy continued his undefeated streak on the Western Slope in the triple jump with personal best leap of 44'1"

Wojtkiewicz was a member of the only winning boys relay team, the 3,200 relay. He teamed with sophomore Dustin Carlson, junior Alex McCoy and freshman Miguel Molina for a time of 9:16.67.