Ryan Vomacka takes top honors in his heat (and second overall) in the Great Southwest Decathlon 400. Photo by Alan Versaw.
Colorado had a handful of athletes in competition on Thursday, but you had to go outside the borders of the state to find them.
For most of the day, it was seven multis athletes laboring under the Albuquerque sun. Mercifully, it was about 10 degrees cooler today than either of the last two years for the first day of multis at Great Southwest.
More Colorado-like temperatures, however, didn't translate into surging to the top for any of Colorado's athletes. Four of the seven competing, however, are holding their own in the middle thirds of the packs.
Colorado's top heptathlete for day one, freshman RaeAnn Queener, has compiled 2372 points with a 16.67 in the 100 hurdles, a 5-2.25 high jump, a 30-2 shot put, and a 29.07 200.
Three Colorado boys occupy roughly similar territory at the end of day one's five events of the decathlon. Jay Shuman leads the Colorado contingent with 3106 points, Ryan Vomacka comes next at 3038, and Kyle Rex is keeping both in his sites at 2971.
The trio has been spreading top performances out between them, with Shuman running the fastest 100 at 11.59 and posting the biggest long jump at 21-0. Rex took local honors with the shot put at 37-5.25 and in the high jump at 6-0.5. Vomacka's signature event, the 400, gave him his opportunity to take Colorado honors at 50.73.
A couple of states away, Lexi Reed got her second opportunity of the season to run a low-altitude mile. Reed shaved a couple seconds off her PR at 4:54.78 and ended up fourth in a field of 15.
More Great Southwest reports should be coming tomorrow, and a complete recap of the meet following the completion of the competition.