The Classical Academy sprinter Luke Northam was grateful that the snow didn’t start to fall until late Saturday morning, allowing him enough time to win the boys 100-meter dash final in an unofficial time of 11.52 seconds at Harrison’s Panther Invitational.

    Northam had extra motivation because of a bet he made with his mother. If the senior pre-qualified for the 3A state meet in the 100 dash, Northam would be able to visit colleges over spring break.    Otherwise, he would have to attend a relative’s wedding or a graduation. That would be enough motivation for many 18-year-olds.

    “My parents wanted to make sure that I pre-qualified today,” Northam said.

    He was one of the few to finish an event before officials postponed the meet to some time after spring break. Saturday’s completed results will be carried over. Official results were not available.    Falcon’s Wes Rickman won the 1,600-meter run in 4:28.

    “Our goal today was just to have fun,” Rickman said. “I was trying to pre-qualify and it was tough because it was cold and snowing.”

    St. Mary’s distance runner Kara Slavoski won the girls 1,600-meter run in a state pre-qualifying time of 5:15, beating defending state champ Kaitlin Hanenburg from TCA.

    “Kara has been running very, very good times in practice leading up to this meet,” Pirates coach Ed Latimer said. “We expected her to run very well. Our goal today was to pre-qualify and she had run a 5:28 last week in very cold weather. Today she exceeded our expectations and we’re very pleased.”

    Sierra hurdler Kelby Dias won the 110-meter event in 15.2 seconds.

    CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0250 or sports@gazette.com 

Crime scene technician Frank Negley in 2006 processed evidence at the crime lab for the Colorado Springs Police Department. Grant money has helped beef up capabilities in evidence gathering. Photo by (JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE FILE)