After some frustration from coaches around the state because of uncertainty by the Colorado High School Activities Association, the 2017 State Track and Field Championships made history this past weekend. For the first time since its inception, the three-day extravaganza was cut down to two days on Saturday and Sunday. Unlike the normal meet, all events were run as timed finals and the field events only allowed competitors to have four attempts. Despite several San Luis Valley teams spending two extra days in a hotel, they rose to the state competition occasion and performed well. In all, the Valley garnered 38 medals and four state championships on the weekend. Class 1A was able to get five while Class 2A earned 22 and Class 3A earned 11. Here are several storylines for the San Luis Valley. Flores’ monster leap earns school record; state title Monte Vista senior Jose Flores-Lauro took advantage of his four jumps as he used his final jump to win the state title and in the process, he broke the Monte Vista High School long jump record by more than three inches. His final jump was 45 feet, 7.5 inches while the previous best jump in school history was 42 feet, 2 inches. “I came out and gave it all I had, I have always wanted to break the school record,” noted Flores. “I came out and gave it all I had. I blocked out the pressure this whole year, it’s a tough event but I’m beyond words right now.” In addition to Flores, Sanford junior Brady Lenz earned a medal by finishing in fifth with a jump of 43 feet, 2.5 inches, just off his season best. Sanford senior Casey McDaniel finished a spot behind his teammate in sixth with a jump of 43 feet, 1 inch, six inches off his personal best. Creede’s Vondedenroth outlasts Harmon for 1A pole vault title By virtue of the least amount of misses, Creede junior Regnor Vondedenroth was able to outlast Pikes Peak sophomore Tommy Harmon for the Class 1A pole vault championship. The champion passed all the way until 11 feet, 3 inches and on his first attempt he was able to clear. He also cleared 11 feet, 9 inches, 12 feet, 3 inches and 12 feet, 9 inches on his first attempt. “I came out here and I’m happy to be here, everyone is so nice and I had a lot of help,” said Vondedenroth who set up a personal record. “It came down to the last two and we competed very much, I got some help from other schools, just four weeks ago, I was only able to clear 10 feet.” Harmon missed his first two attempts at 11 feet, 3 inches but the cleared the next three on the first attempt. Neither competitor was able to clear at 13 feet, 3 inches. DeLaCerda finishes third in 3,200 meter; fourth in 1,600 Alamosa senior Isaiah DeLaCerda has had a year to remember. After winning a third state cross country team title in the fall, he went on to win his third wrestling championship. This season in track DeLaCerda has taken advantage of his opportunities as earlier this season in the 2017 Pueblo Twilight Invitational, a meet known for fast times in distance events, DeLaCerda shattered a 32-year-old Alamosa High School record as he posted a 9:31.78. DeLaCerda culminated the 3,200-meter portion of his season on Saturday when he finished third. He finished with a time of 9:36.01 while his teammates, senior Caleb Palmer (10:06.86) and senior Caleb Berlinger (10:12.32) finished in 13th and 15th, respectively. The overall winner was The Classical Academy’s Tanner Norman, who won in a state meet record time of 9:14.54. On Sunday, he went on had another tough race but he battled through and earned a fourth place medal in the 1,600-meter run. He found himself trapped in a box after the first 200 meters. However, as the race progressed and the crowd started to thin, DeLaCerda found a way to draft out to the right and started slowly picking off runners until the final lap in which he put the hammer down and moved into fourth place and posted a four second personal record in the race with a time of 4:28.96. Caleb Berlinger was just off his personal record as he finished in 16th place with a time of 4:37.83. Del Norte relays capture three medals The 800 sprint medley relay proved how tough the state meet actually is as the Del Norte team that went into the state meet with the second fastest time, finished in seventh. The team that consisted of senior Destiny Patrick, senior Maxine Salazar, junior Emilee Haefeli and sophomore Lacie Jones, finished in seventh place in 1:55.01. In the 4x200 meter relay, the same group of girls moved up one spot and earned sixth place as they finished with a time of 1:50.51. The 4x100 meter relay was unable to make anything happen in their race as they finished in 16th place with a time of 54.30. In the 4x400 meter relay on Sunday evening, Patrick, Haefeli and Jones teamed up with sophomore Kiela Madrid and ran a 4:18.18 to finish in fifth.