HomeBy Mary Rice
The Grand County High School Red Devil track teams took second place at the Uinta Big Red Championship track meet Saturday, April 27, earning a total of 266 points behind host school Uintah High, a 3A school.
Once again, Grand was unable to field a full team due to scheduling conflicts, but multiple Red Devil athletes took top honors at the meet.
Grand took home several first or top-five places in the sprint events. In the 100-meter hurdles, junior Tiffanie Whipple took first with a time of 16.96 seconds.
Three Grand County boys placed in the 110-meter hurdles event. Junior Andy Bathemess once again took home the gold with a time of 15.93, while fellow juniors Wade Kemmsies and Jordan Bryant took fourth and fifth place, respectively.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Bathemess placed first with a time of 40.66, while Bryant placed fourth. In the 100-meter dash, freshman Kwincey Wells took home the gold with a time of 13.57. In the 400-meters, sophomore Kasey Betts placed fourth for the girls, while Kemmsies and junior Jackson Knowles placed second and fifth in the boys’ event. Kemmsies also placed fifth in the 200-meter dash.
Grand’s distance runners also made an admirable showing. In the 800 meters, Knowles placed third. In the 1,600-meter run, sophomore McKinleigh Barney placed fifth in the women’s event, clocking a time of just over six minutes. Knowles took first in the men’s run with a time of 4:52.80. In the 3,200-meter run, Barney repeated her previous feat and placed third overall. In the boys’ race, Knowles took home a second gold medal with a time of 11:31.70, while sophomore Tyler Hugentobler was third.
Grand’s field athletes, particularly the girls, also contributed significantly to the team’s final score.
In the long jump, Whipple placed first with a jump of 16 feet, one-half inch, while freshman Sydney Lema placed second. Betts placed first in the girls’ high jump with a height of 4 feet, 11 inches. Junior Madi Stocks continued to impress in the girls’ shot put, placing fourth, while junior Edgar Gomez also placed fourth in the boys’ competition. Stocks earned the gold in the girls’ discus with a throw of 92 feet 4 inches, while fellow junior Kayeley Wells was second. Freshman Brittnee Lewis rounded out the event with a fifth-place finish.
In the boys’ discus, Gomez placed fourth. Sophomore Richie Cordero placed second in the boys’ javelin.
The Red Devils also gave a strong performance in the relays. Grand’s girls medley relay placed second, while the boys placed third. The girls’ 4x100 relay placed second, and the boys 4x100 team placed third.
In the 4x400 meter relay, the girls placed second. The boys’ 4x400 meter relay team of Bathemess, Bryant, Kemmsies and Mason Tranter, placed first overall, clocking a time of 3:39.08, a full four seconds ahead of the second-place finishers.
Overall, the girls’ team took second place with a total of 135 points, while the boys’ team took second as well with 131 points. The combined team took second overall with a total of 266.
The Red Devil teams also did well in recent meets, including second place showing at the Blue Mountain Invitational in Blanding on April 20 and a first-place finish at the Last Chance Meet at Kayenta, Ariz. on April 24. Grand’s track teams will next compete May 3 and 4 at the BYU Invitational at Brigham Young University in Provo, followed by the Region 15 meet in Richfield on May 8. The state track meet will be on May 17 and 18 at BYU.
GCHS won the boys 2A track title in both 2011 and 2012; the Red Devils are hoping to contend for a possible three-peat.