Yuma High School’s track and field athletes are sprinting toward the finish line of Season D, with an eye on some big prizes.
The Indians are at the Wiggins Invitational on Saturday, then will host the LPAA Meet on Tuesday. (The league meet was supposed to be at Wray High School, but the wet weather has delayed work on the track at Powell Field.) They then have another week of meets before the state meet at the end of the month.
YHS track and field athletes had another great showing last week, this time at Platte Valley on Friday.
The girls won the team title, and the boys took third.
Plus, junior Clay Robinson ran the 200-meter dash faster than the Class 2A record. However, he still finished second with a time of 22.16 seconds, as Platte Valley’s Devyn Lauer won in 21.61 seconds, which was faster than the 3A record.
Neither actually set their classification’s record, though, as that has to come during the state meet.
As for the school record, Ryan Black still holds that in the 200 dash with a time of 21.9 seconds.
Still, it was a great race, and both are in line to maybe do it again at the state championships.
Yuma’s girls claimed yet another team title with 114.33 points. Eaton was second with 103.5 points, Brush third with 89, Holyoke fourth with 82, and Wiggins fifth with 53.5.
The Tribe ran and jumped its way to the team championship.
Julissa Garcia won the 100-meter dash in 12.96 markets, while Fatima Duran was fourth in 13.77, and Caddis Robinson eighth in 14.42.
Lea Richardson won the 400 dash with a time of 1 minute, 5.81 seconds. Hailey Eyring ran the 1600 in 6:21.32 for third and Ashley Ibanez was fifth in 6:30.08. Shelby Blach was fourth in the 800 in 2:44.34. Jordan Glanz ran the 300-meter hurdles in 1:00.72 for fourth, and Liddy Day was fifth in 24.47.
Lyndsey Mekelburg triple jumped 30-foot-7 for second place. Fatima Duran cleared 7-10 for second in the pole vault, while Day was seventh at 6-10. Abril Montes de Oca and Glanz both cleared 4-0 in the high jump, placing third and fourth, respectively. Nuvia Vega placed sixth in the long jump with a distance of 13-1.5.
Yuma’s girls racked up plenty more points again in the relays.
The 4-by-100 foursome of Mekelburg, Duran, Garcia and Richardson had a winning time of 52.87 seconds. Duran, 
Yuma’s boys were third in the team standings with 98.5 points. Eaton won the boys team title with 127 points, while Resurrection Christian took second with 103.5.
Besides the 200, Robinson also took second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.05 seconds.
There were several other top efforts by the Tribe.
Daman Thornton was second in the 400 in 55.03 seconds, Ethan Goeglein fifth in 56.89, and Trey Stegman seventh in 59.47.
Beau Tate ran the 110-meter hurdles in 17.14 seconds for third place, and took fourth in the 300 hurdles in 43.17 seconds.
Kail Cooper and Braden Smith both cleared 12-4 to finish second and third in the pole vault, respectively, while Nash Richardson cleared 11-4 for sixth.
Richardson was fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 36-4, and Thornton was sixth in the long jump at 18-2.5.
Yuma won one relay, and placed second in the other three.
The 4-by-200 team of Javier Duran, Thornton, Cooper and Alex Lozano had a winning time of 1:35.02. Duran, Tate, Cooper and Lozano were second in the 4-by-100 in 44.48 seconds. The 4-by-400 foursome of Cooper, Thornton, Jesus Ross and Duran placed second in 3:38.31. The 4-by-800 team of Duran, Ross, Kevin Orona and Smith took second in 9:33.73.
