Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Colorado State Meet featuring Markus Miller from Valor Christian HS

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BONUS: Colorado State Meet featuring Markus Miller from Valor Christian HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
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  In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
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  understanding around the country, we're going to be
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  running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
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  school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
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  DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
• 0:21
  state. We'll be talking with a local
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  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
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  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
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  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
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  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
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  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
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  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
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  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
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  run through each state with a local state expert.
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  So let's get started right now, Okay.
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  Now today, let's head over to the Centennial State where we
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  have the last couple of USTFCCCA conventions actually.
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  So I quite like this state. Let's head over to Colorado and
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  we've got Coach Miller with us to talk about the Colorado
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  Outdoor state track and field qualifying system.
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  Marcus, how are you? Why don't you start by giving us
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  kind of a 30,000 foot level introduction of yourself,
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  please? Yeah, sure.
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  Mike, good to be here. Thanks for having me.
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  So Marcus I. Coach at Valor Christian High
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  School. I moved to Colorado in 2018 and
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  have been a public school coach here for for only two years.
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  I was at Regis Jesuit High School last year and then got
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  the head coaching job at Valor in 2023.
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  But before that I had a track club, steadfast track Academy
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  that was kind of making waves and and coaching some some
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  really high level athletes and getting some good results from,
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  you know those kids from a a wide array.
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  Of events and disciplines, you know from the the hurdles, the
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  high jump, the 800, the 400, the two, the long jump.
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  You know we were going to good meets, big meets, national level
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  meets and and finishing well and it was it was truly a blessing
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  to be surrounded by those kids and and help them along.
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  And yeah it's it's been it's been really fun and that's
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  that's me right now. Awesome.
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  I love that you named two schools that just have to do a
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  quick plug in. Regis.
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  Regis or Regis. I can't remember Regis.
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  Regis Jesuit Quinn Pack. He's been on the podcast before.
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  I love him. He's my birder.
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  Any bird questions that's who I go to love him to death.
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  And then your current school valor Christian Brian Kula also
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  former podcast guest. So if you want to check those
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  two out check our back library out.
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  All right. Let's get to Colorado here.
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  So Marcus, let's start with some states.
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  Do a separate state meet for private schools and a separate
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  one for public. Some states, they're all
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  combined in the same under the same governing body.
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  What are we doing in Colorado? Yeah, so Colorado is pretty
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  simple, honestly. All schools, public or private,
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  compete together. There's no private school
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  division. It's all under the same
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  umbrella. And you know, my wife is from
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  Maryland, so they're different there.
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  They, yeah, they have a private school division and then a
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  public school division. So yeah, perfect.
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  I like simplicity. So I like Colorado so far.
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  We'll learn about Maryland in a few weeks here.
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  We're going to alphabetical order in our series here.
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  So it's perfect. Okay.
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  So we're all one governing body, no separate private.
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  So let's start with how many classes?
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  So how many state champs are awarded on a yearly basis?
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  What do we got? Yeah, We have 51-A through 5A.
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  Again, pretty simple. That's it.
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  And and they're called A, so it's 4A5A.
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  OK. That's right.
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  And which? Where do we go?
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  Big to smalls, 1A small 5A big? Yeah.
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  So one, a small and five is the biggest classification.
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  Yep, that's right. All right, so we got five state
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  meets. How do we qualify?
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  What's the first round? Maybe it's after the conference
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  meet. What's the first round of state
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  qualifying? Man, I'm going to be honest,
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  Colorado is is pretty simple. A big portion of the state kind
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  of lives very centrally and like the boulder down to, you know,
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  Colorado Springs area. You've got Grand Junction and
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  Greeley out there too. But for 2A through 5A they just
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  take the top 18 placers or the top 18 finishers at the end of
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  the regular season. So we have a league.
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  Championship that, you know, each school is divided into.
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  But you know, the league placing doesn't really matter.
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  It's just kind of bragging rights in a in a sense.
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  For all intents and purposes, that's 28 through 5/8.
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  They just take the top 18. They do advanced ties.
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  So yeah, from and then top 18 times and distances throughout
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  the season. Yes, throughout the season.
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  So if I run 10 flat in March, Yep, I'm going to the state cuz
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  I'm assuming 10 flats gonna be the top eighteen.
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  Yeah, yeah right. Hey, there's some fast guys from
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  Colorado man. You know that I've yeah.
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  Recently for sure. All right.
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  So top 18, so we do a descending order list from the the very
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  first outdoor meet through the conference meet, top 18 going to
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  state and all events, pole vault, relays etcetera.
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  Correct, Correct. SO1A1A is a little different,
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  yeah. How are we doing 1A?
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  Yeah, one is a little different. There's just not a lot of you
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  know depth there in one A. So they they have their state
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  meet structured a little different.
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  They qualify the top 9 finishers or or or at the end of the
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  regular season in the straightaway races.
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  So they take the top nine in that top 12 in the distance
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  events and the relays and what else they do.
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  The top ten in the field events and the field events are are 4
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  attempts, no finals. And the one a meet is actually
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  pretty exciting because you know, like I said they will take
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  ties. Still they'll take ties and
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  they'll advance those people through, but they run multiple
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  heats but it's all straight finals.
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  So you go to the state track meet and it it's kind of cool
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  because you know 2A through 5A they've got prelims going on.
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  But one A when it when they hit the track like it's it's go time
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  because it's straight finals. It's pretty exciting.
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  I do like that there's a few states that are that are like
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  that that do some kind of time final or final only no prelims
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  and semis and what have you. So for one A we're taking that
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  descending order the same as the two through 5.
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  It's all season. So if I do it in March I'm good.
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  If I'm in the top nine and I go to state and I'm running 11,
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  heat of the 100 for the 1A, all for the marbles.
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  Whoever wins that heat, you're the state champ.
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  That's right. Love it.
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  Now something interesting you said we we add more to that in
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  the distance in the relays we do 12.
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  So are we doing, I mean I guess like in the mile and two mile or
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  16 or 32 hood which we'll learn here in a second.
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  You're doing one heat of that but for the relay you're
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  probably doing two time finals or two time heats for a final
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  there. OK.
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  Now something interesting, you said they're on the field events
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  though. So we're not doing a 3 + 3 type
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  of thing. We're doing 4 throws, 4 jumps,
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  winner. Except for the high jump in pole
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  ball. We're doing that.
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  Maybe I'm going to do, I'm doing air quotes here.
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  Normal. We're doing that all the way
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  through. OK, all right, so 1/8 field, so
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  long jumpers, you got 4 attempts and then we crowned in the
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  champion Big Daddy. All right.
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  I like that. I like simplicity.
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  What about two through 5 that we're taking 18 to the state
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  meet. Are we doing a more traditional
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  for the, excuse me, long jump shot puts?
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  Are we doing a more traditional everybody gets 3 throws and the
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  top eight or nine get three more?
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  Yep. They take the top 18 and the top
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  nine advance to the finals and then they get three more.
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  Got it? So the more traditional route,
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  the 3 + 3 is what I end up calling that.
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  Okay. Yeah, it's good. 5 divisions, 5
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  state champions for the teams for the boys, 5 for the girls.
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  How are we doing the state meet? Are we at college facility?
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  Do we rotate amongst high schools or other facilities?
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  How? Where are we at?
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  Are we all in one place? Are we, you know, do 123 do it
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  one place and 4-5 do another place?
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  How we doing it there? Yeah, yeah.
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  No, it's a good question. Honestly.
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  Since I've been here since 2018, it has been hosted at a.
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  Jeffco Public Stadium is is what it's called.
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  It's it doesn't belong to a specific high school, definitely
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  not a college. It belongs to the county and we
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  host the state track meet there. I don't know if they have plans
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  to move it. I don't think they do for a
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  while as far as I know. I could be wrong.
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  Again, I don't speak for for, you know, Chassa, but yeah, as
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  far as I understand it's it's there and it has been there for
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  a very long time and all five are going there.
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  All five go on at the same time. It's a three day meet, yeah.
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  So it starts on Thursday and concludes on Saturday.
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  The structure is kind of kind of interesting.
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  So the upper classifications, 3A through 5A, they go in the
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  morning on Thursday and then on afternoon on Thursday is 1A
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  through 2A and that continues on Friday and then Saturday is just
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  all straight across the board. Everybody's mixed and that the
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  schedule kind of fluctuates. But yeah, so it's it's a good
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  mix. So do all the team titles get
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  awarded on Saturday then? All of them do.
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  Yeah, that's cool. I was hoping, I was like hoping
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  like one day was on Friday and then two through five was like
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  that's cool. To have like a day of Champions,
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  the all team title, 10 team titles, that's cool.
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  I like, that's right. That's really cool.
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  And you said a three day meet. Some states have a tradition of
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  after the state meet, they take all these five classes and maybe
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  the top two in each event going to a meet of champs, any kind of
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  meet of champs going on in Colorado.
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  Unfortunately, not that I know of.
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  I'm from New Mexico, born and raised, and we had a meet of
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  champions meet actually in the middle of the season.
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  It was kind of weird, but we would take the top eight.
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  It's called the Maryland Sepulveda at the University of
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  New Mexico. And we would take the top eight,
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  you know? Invited only athletes in each
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  event and run it at like on like April 9th or something.
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  But in Colorado we don't really have a meet of champions that
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  I'm aware of. I would love that.
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  I think that'd be so cool. We have some great talent across
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  the board 1/8 through 5A here. Honestly, there's a lot of
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  parity between 4A and 5A. So now this is the next question
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  is always kind of a tough question because I'm going to
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  ask you any unique events, but if you're doing them, you don't
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  necessarily think they're unique.
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  So if you think about we're pretty standard on the 124 and
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  eight, do we do bile 2 mile or do we 16132 hundred, what do we
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  do there? Yeah, we're 16132 hundred Okay.
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  That's our distance races. Yep, 4 by 1 for sure. 4 by 2.
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  We have the four by two and we run in lanes, like I said, from
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  New Mexico. We did.
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  We did the four by two. In New Mexico, you get to cut
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  in. I don't know if they still do
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  that, but when I was in high school there we got to cut in I
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  think after like #2 which was which was crazy.
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  So four by two, that's pretty unique.
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  That's not every state for sure 4 by 4 you for sure are or you
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  just you're not really doing track and field.
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  So we know you're doing that one kind of another one that not
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  every state does, but it seems more states are adding up here
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  recently, 4 by 8. We have a four by eight, yeah.
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  What about any kind of Sprint Med, distance Med?
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  I haven't found anybody doing that yet.
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  We don't have a DMR, but we do have a Sprint Med on the girls
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  side only. So the girls, sorry, the girls
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  Sprint Med here in Colorado has a pretty rich history of some
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  crazy times and crazy performances.
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  Sadly, they kind of have like a. Part of the agenda every year is
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  like, do we want to keep it because it kind of bloats the
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  state media a little bit and you know it kind of maybe takes away
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  because our Sprint Med is 1124, which is, which is pretty
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  interesting. So yeah, we have a we have a
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  Sprint Med only on the girls side, only the girls side.
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  Is there an event that is only on the boys side?
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  No, I don't think so. And that's that's another reason
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  I think they they have a conversation to maybe chop it.
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  But yeah we got the long jump, triple jump, do we have triple
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  jump? That's not everybody we have
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  triple jump. OK good.
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  Obviously shot putting disk is pole vault and high vault.
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  Anything else that we're missing there for the State Meet series?
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  Yeah, no shot disk, pole vault, high jump, triple jump.
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  We don't have the jab. One.
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  No job. OK, yeah, that's good, good.
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  No job. You need to add that.
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  That's a great event. Yeah, I love the job.
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  Some states I mentioned that meet of champs.
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  Some other states, we'll do what we call it unofficial state Meet
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  of the Hammer or the Javelin. Some do the Multis.
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  They'll have a heptathlon or decathlon, anything like that in
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  Colorado. Again, not that I know of, I I I
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  I would love that. I think there's obviously we've
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  had some great multi talent come out of Colorado and Nana Hall a
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  little, yeah. And and some other people.
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  But no, not, not that I know of. All right, well, you know, you
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  said from the beginning, Colorado keeps it simple.
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  So they're like, Nope, state meet.
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  We're done. We ain't doing this other stuff.
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  I like it. It's quite simple.
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  All right. Help us settle a debate and
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  argument here in the culture of Colorado or at least in your
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  culture of your team and teams. Are we qualifying for the state
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  meet or we qualifying for states?
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  Well, I say state meet. I say state track me my wife
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  again from Maryland, she said states when I met her and I was
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  like. That's kind of weird, but I I
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  think I brainwashed her, She says state now.
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  So I've heard. I've kind of heard both here.
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  I think it depends maybe on your team.
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  But my team, we say state qualify for the state meat.
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  Now you just said two different things.
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  Are you qualifying for state or state meat?
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  That's it. That's a distinction.
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  Yeah. Like does does the whole meat
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  get wrapped into if you just say state, you know that means the
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  state meat, you know that's that's that's where kind of this
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  argument goes on whether it's states state, meat, a couple of
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  people have said state, so you're not completely out of the
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  rocker. Here that's true.
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  I I mean, I always say state. I always say we're going to
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  state. That's right.
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  Yeah. And some people add S for some
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  reason. And I'm.
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  I think I'm an S guy. I think I'm a state guy.
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  So you call me weird. Cool.
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  Marcus, okay to wrap us up here, man.
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  After calling me weird, that's quite okay.
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  Me people have called me much worse.
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  So I'm quite happy with just weird.
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  If you had a magic wand there, Marcus, and you could change one
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  thing in the state qualifying series, what might that?
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  Be That's a good question. I think anybody that knows me
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  knows how much I don't love the the we have a we have an
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  allowable wind reading and the allowable wind limit for the
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  Sprint races here of plus 2.0 meters per second which is
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  standard right. That's that's a pretty standard
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  you know wind allowable wind reading.
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  But Colorado is a windy state in the spring, man, and it it gets
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  very tough to. You know, justify that we I had
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  a kid when I was at Regis who you know was a 10/6 kid but he
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  had only over the wind reading, you know hundreds up until the
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  league championship which was, you know, two weeks before the
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  state meet or with the week before the state meet or
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  something. And we were just praying for for
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  Wind legal and he got the time. Thank goodness and and the wind
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  was. Perfect.
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  But that's happened the last two years where I've had an athlete
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  who you know, is a top caliber athlete that's like, you know,
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  going to a last chance meet and just praying for wind.
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  And I just feel like it's kind of unnecessarily punitive in
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  this state just because it is so windy.
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  And you know, you could look at the mile split results and I
• 15:51
  don't think it's an exaggeration to say maybe half of them are,
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  you know, over the wind reading, but you know.
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  Not not my decision, but I think that that is something that they
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  visit Chasa visits every every single year on their agenda is
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  like, do we want to increase it? I know they were talking about
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  putting it to, I think 3.0. Some states don't have one.
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  I know I don't think Arizona does and Arizona is a pretty
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  windy state. New Mexico doesn't.
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  I don't know. I don't want to.
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  Speak for them. But yeah, that's, that's my
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  magic wand. Yeah, that's one thing.
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  That's a tough one, right? Because you have to set it
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  somewhere right where you set it at three or four and there's
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  going to be someone who gets caught up in the three or four.
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  I do appreciate that Colorado high school coaches are using
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  wind gauge that it's not just yeah, it doesn't matter whatever
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  happens. So you get a hurricane, great,
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  you're going to knock some heck and 1A, you're going to knock
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  one of those top nine people out because you're that.
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  So I do appreciate love that Colorado leads the way in wind
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  gauge for some reason. I love that.
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  Maybe the 3.0, maybe he's a little, little strict for the,
• 16:51
  the weather pattern there in Colorado.
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  Marcus, my man, you did a great job of representing Colorado.
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  We appreciate you stepping up and representing this great
• 16:59
  state that we have out there and being involved in this series of
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  just going through every state 1 by 1 alphabetical order, finding
• 17:07
  out their uniquenesses. And we certainly learn some from
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  here in Colorado today. So, Marcus, thank you so much.
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  Join us tomorrow. We're going to have another
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  state. We're just going to keep going
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  through all 51. That's right.
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  I got DC in this thing too. Thanks, Marcus.
• 17:18
  Yeah. Thank you.