State track: Lauer-Duarte breaks his coach’s 10-year-old records

LAKEWOOD – Records are meant to be broken, but you had to wonder if the numbers that Alex Mead put up at the Class 3A state meet 10 years ago were ever going to fall.

Enter Mead’s – who yes, went to Mead and is now the head coach at Platte Valley – star protege Devyn Lauer-Duarte. The Broncos senior bested his coach’s time in both events and will leave the 2022 Colorado state track and field meet as the fastest boys runner regardless of classification. Lauer-Duarte beat Mead’s 100 record (10.62) on Thursday in the preliminaries with a 10.61, won the title with 10.74 on Sunday and then defended his 200 title with a record setting time of 21.33.

“He has always pushed me, he’s always wanted me and he’s just a great competitor too,” Lauer-Duarte said of his coach. “Records, like you said, are meant to be broken, and that’s exactly what he was pushing me to do.”

Said Mead: “The credit goes to him. It was my record and he wanted it and this was an accumulation of four years and had he had his sophomore season (lost to COVID-19), he probably would have broken it last year.”

And perhaps Lauer-Duarte’s best competition he saw all year long was in his own practices against his coach. Sure, the pupil gave his coach a 10-meter head start – and still beat him for the record – but those lessons on how to rally came in handy on Sunday at Jefferson County Stadium in the finals of the 200-meter dash.

Lauer-Duarte, who came into the event as the top overall seed with a time of 21.55, was seeded second in the event behind Holy Family’s Grayson Arnold, who broke Mead’s record on Thursday, in the prelims with a 21.53. And at the turn for home on Sunday, Arnold appeared to be in full control of the race. But Lauer-Duarte found another gear and rallied in the final 20 meters to post a 21.33 and beat Arnold’s 21.44.

“I was supposed to see Grayson a couple of times this year, but I was injured early on and I didn’t see him in Windsor the first time and then Roosevelt got canceled,” said Lauer-Duarte, who will play football this fall at Colorado School of Mines. “I raced him last year and I told him how proud I am of him because you just don’t see people progress that much from one year to the next.

“It was great to have him as competition, because we don’t run those times without each other.”

Mead was equally as impressed with Arnold, knowing his senior needed that extra little push to climb back to the top of the podium.

“Grayson is a heck of an athlete, especially coming off of what he did last year,” Mead said. “Not too many people jump up seven places like that and we have a lot of respect for him and after Devyn, the credit for all of this goes to him.”

The numbers simply don’t lie, Lauer-Duarte and Arnold have had the fastest times in the state regardless of classification in both events all year long, and it was Lauer-Duarte who was the fastest when it mattered most.

“More people need to keep and eye on 3A, because this year the classification, with Grayson and I up there all year long, just shows that 3A doesn’t mess around,” said Lauer-Duarte, whose Broncos squared off with Holy Family one more time in the finals of the 4×100 relay. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you work hard and you have the heart, you’ll get it done.”