Adrian Hernandez was lost in the trees for most of the race.
Tangled up in a cluster of bodies, the five-foot-four Mancos senior was nearly invisible during the opening lap of the Class 2A 4x800 meter relay on Thursday evening in Lakewood.
But, hidden within the pack, and with 300 meters remaining – he made his move.
Hernandez shot out of the bunch of championship-hopefuls on the backstretch and continued to pull away from the group in the final 100 meters.
He finished the opening leg with an unofficial time of 2:03, and by the time he handed the baton off to the Blue Jays’ number-two runner, Simon Kearns, Hernandez had given Mancos a 10-meter advantage over the second-place Byers Bulldogs.
Upon receiving the baton, Kearns said that the only thing he thought was, “I’ve got to keep the lead.”
And while Byers gained some ground, Kearns kept Mancos in first, running an unofficial time of 2:07 and handing off to Jake McKie just before the Byers’ runners exchanged.
Byers’ third leg, James Linnebur passed McKie early, pushing Mancos back into second place, but McKie chugged along patiently, finally making his move with 200 meters left.
“Coming around I started gaining on him and passed him, and then he came back and it was basically neck-and-neck at the end,” described McKie.
Byers made its exchange first, but McKie was just steps behind, handing off to senior Ro Paschal for the final leg.
The Blue Jays – who entered the state meet seeded in fourth with a qualifying time 24 seconds behind top-seeded Lyons – were surprisingly just strides out of first with two laps to go.
“I don’t know that I came out here thinking that they were going to win it all,” said head coach Brady Archer. “But I knew that they could be close and that all that they needed was for those three front guys to get us close and then for Ro to close.”
Hernandez’ opening leg was more art than sport, and Kearns and McKie had both run under their goal times of 2:10 to put Paschal in second place, sandwiched between fellow anchor legs Jack Lindgren of Byers and Paul Roberts of Lyons.
Paschal accelerated as soon as he received the baton in an attempt to catch Lindgren, and finally, with 100 meters remaining, he pulled even.
Going stride for stride with Lindgren down the home stretch, Paschal turned his head right – toward the stands – and then left, toward Lindgren on the inside of the track.
After the race, he explained that he was looking for Roberts, who was kicking hard in third, but there was not enough real estate left for him to catch either Lindgren or Paschal, leaving the two of them alone to fight for first.
After surveying the field, Paschal grimaced as he gutted out the final 50 meters, slowly pulling away from Lindgren with each stride to finish steps ahead with an unofficial split of 1:58.
“I knew if it was close that I could beat anyone in 2A,” Paschal said after the race. “So I was just waiting to see where we came in after three legs and all the guys did an awesome job running PR’s and just a great race from everyone.”
Together, Hernandez, Kearns, McKie and Paschal finished the 4x8 in 8:19.01 – a new school record and 23 seconds faster than their qualifying time – to claim the Class 2A State Championship for the Mancos Blue Jays.
