Sierra Lutheran boys track team wins crown

The small school that could is what can be said about Douglas County's Sierra Lutheran boys track team who turned in a top notch performance over the two-day Northern 1A meet to win the title at Lowry over the weekend.

Sierra Lutheran won with 116 points, outdistancing second place Eureka, which had 93. The Falcons got off to strong start on Friday in the 200 meters, with Nick DePaoli winning in 24.83 seconds. The streak continued when the boys 4x800 relay team consisting of Michael Kubel, Levi Grabow, Chris Bergstrom and Andrew Deterding as they came in 9:33.18.

Taylor Love then cam in third in the 1,600 in 4:56.06 as he used his finishing kick to beat out Zack Dayton of Sage Ridge by .27 seconds. Robert DePaoli took fourth to qualify for state in the high jump at 5-6.

Saturday began well too with both Bob and Nick DePaoli qualifying first and third for the 100 final but Nick was disqualified from the finals after a fals start. Bob, though, went on to win in 12.45 seconds.

Levi Grabow and Chris Bergstrom then took second and fourth respectively in the 300 hurdles as both finished in personal best times of 49.10 and 49.45. Love again showed his finishing kick, taking second in the 800 in 2:11.35.

Preston Lyons won the 400 for Sierra Lutheran in 57.30 and Nathan Conover took fourth and Ryan Jackson was seventh to give the Falcons valuable points.

The race for the team title was still close when Michael Kubel took third in the 3,200 in a personal best of 10:48.42. Sierra Lutheran sealed the title by winning the 4x400 relay. Grabow gave the Falcons a big lead on the opening leg which was expanded by Conover, Lyons and Love on the anchor as the team finished in a season best 3:54.01.

Sierra Lutheran would have won by a larger margin had it not dropped the baton in the 4x200, an event it was also leading by a large margin.

Tori Swearingen was the only girl to compete for Sierra Lutheran and she scored 19 points to finish 10th by herself out of 14 teams in the girls event. Swearingen qualified for state in three events.

Swearingen took fourth in the 100 in 14.07, fourth in the 200 in 29.61 and second in the 300 hurdles in 52.12.

Sierra Lutheran's athletes will compete in the NIAA 1A State meet this Saturday at Damonte Ranch.