Colorado Dominates Distance--And A Few Other Things--At Great Southwest Indoor


Carley Bennett took a late lead in the mile, surrendered it, and then got it back again. 

Okay, so it was kind of expected that Arria Minor would dominate the girls sprints. And Minor did nothing to dampen expectations.

What wasn't nearly as clear going in was how Colorado would fare in the distance events. 

Brock Helvey had a mile title from last year to defend. He defended it with an exclamation point. It was a dusty in New Mexico, and Helvey threw up lots of dust for his competitors in the mile field to cough and gag over. Jon Fuentes of Clovis made it close before the end, but Helvey had built himself enough of a margin that his lead never really seemed in danger.

Helvey's Douglas County teammate, Lina Corrales, seemed to have won the girls mile, but there was another heat to contend with. In that other heat, Lakewood's Carley Bennett battled hammer and tongs with Eva Jess of Texas and just prevailed at the finish line, 5:16.14 to 5:16.27. That left Corrales' 5:22 in third.

At the 3200 meter distance, contested when most sane people had already turned in for bed, Colorado got a sweep out of Soleil Gaylord and Michael Long. Gaylord's 11:10.92 fires a warning shot to all of 2A. Long's 10:02.86 doesn't quite send the same magnitude of shock waves but is worth paying attention to all the same.

There's much more to report on here, but my eyes are demanding some shut time.

Look for a more complete article and a full photo album sometime tomorrow--quite possibly later in the day. Look for a favorite images album from the meet on Monday. It's all coming...