This week, Moffat County High SchoolMoffat County High School track and field teams caught a tiger by the tail to assert their dominance headed into the state finals. track and field teams caught a tiger by the tail to assert their dominance headed into the state finals.

Moffat County High School track and field teams caught a tiger by the tail to assert their dominance headed into the state finals.

MCHS girls won the Grand Junction High School Tiger Invitational Thursday and Friday, beating out a field of 4A and 5A schools, including Palisade, Glenwood Springs, Durango and the hosting Junction team, among others.

Highlights for the girls included Kayla Pinnt breaking another of her own records in a first-place finish in the 200-meter dash at 24.49 seconds, the Tiger Invite’s lone gold level Elite Performance, according to running site MileSplit. Her Thursday preliminary time of 12.23 in the 100 dash was also deemed worthy of an Elite silver, though the sprinter took a false start in the finals.

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However, another girls record was shattered when Kayla, Ary Shaffer, Selena Hernandez and Emma Samuelson ended Friday by winning the 4×400 relay, complementing the victory earlier in the day in the season best 4×200 time by Shaffer, Hernandez, Samuelson and Kayla’s younger sister, Quinn Pinnt, who also took third in the 800 sprint medley relay with Samuelson, Josie Timmer and Madysen Cramer.

Quinn Pinnt and Bailey Lawton each also raced for the 100 in the prelims, though just missed, Bailey hitting her best time so far.

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Hernandez also broke her own school record in the 100 hurdles at 15.72 seconds, placing third, while Shaffer was second in the long jump and Timmer was fifth in triple jump with her best distance so far at 32 feet, 6.75 inches.

In the girls’ longer running events, season bests were achieved by Cramer in the 800 run; Mattie Jo Duzik and Allie Dilldine in the 1,600; and Emily Womble in the 3,200, finishing fourth, second, sixth and second, respectively.

While the girls didn’t run the 4×100, the 4×800 relay was fifth, comprised of Dilldine, Cramer, Timmer, and Duzik.

In discus, Morgan Lawton placed second, Charli Earle fifth and Morgan Nelson ninth, while the girls shot put saw Lawton take sixth, Nelson ninth and Tiffany Hildebrandt 20th.

While the boys struggled to win on points alone against larger schools, wins like Keenan Hildebrandt’s new personal best of 147 feet, 11 inches in the discus were crucial, followed by Toryn Hume and Jesse Earle in 15th and 17th place. Hildy also took 10th in the shot put, with Zane Shipman 23rd and Hume 27th.

Shandon Hadley further trimmed down his best time in the 100 dash, now 11.47, as did Elias Peroulis and Eddie Smercina, though Hadley was the only MCHS guy in the finals, finishing fifth.

Hadley, Mikinzie Klimper, Kaden Hafey and Smercina took fifth in the 4×200, and the grouping of Smercina, Victor Silva, Peroulis and Hafey were seventh for the season best time in the 4×100.

Hadley, Connor Scranton, Klimper and Hafey also took eighth in the 4×400, while Riley Allen, Carter Severson, Connor Scranton and Garrett Flint were fifth in Thursday’s 4×800.

Just as Grant Wade hit his best time in the Thursday 400 dash preliminaries, in which he, Isaac Trevenen and Colin Jensen missed the cutoff, Jared Atkin saw his best time in the prelims of the 110 hurdles, though he was unable to advance in either that or the 300 along with Nate Baker, though Klimper took sixth in the 300 hurdle finals. Cale Scranton was in all the field jumping events, 11th in the triple jump, 18th in the long jump and tied for 15th in the high jump. Colby Beaver also competed in the triple, taking 17th.

Carter Severson led the Dog pack in the one-mile run, sixth place in the 1,600, followed by Riley Allen at ninth and Connor Scranton 23rd, and the 800 saw Isaac Chacon, Flint and Brandon Beason go 18, 23 and 30.

Beason also went for the 3,200, taking 18th and Tyler Driggs 20th.

The final results for athletes competing in the state championships, held next Thursday through Saturday at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood, will be submitted by teams this weekend with heat sheets released by Colorado High School Activities Association to follow.