2A track and field: Splashy debuts, multi-event champions highlight opening day

Timnath High School may not have any juniors or seniors yet, but the Fort Collins-area school that opened in 2022 now has a state track championship to its credit.

The program’s initial title came in its first foray into the Class 2A state track meet Thursday at Jefferson County Stadium, when the team of freshmen Jensen DeAngelis, Emily Bakke, Addy Geraets and sophomore Natalie Washburn earned a win by nearly seven full seconds in the girls 4×800 meter relay.

The Cubs came into the meet seeded third, but dropped a time of 10 minutes, 14.83 seconds, to finish comfortably in front of Banning Lewis, the No. 1 seed, which ran 10:21.65.

“For us, this is really big,” Timnath coach Matt Miltenberg said. “We’re a new school, so our kids have had to take a lot of risks. They had to take a risk to decide to come to our school. For some of these girls, this is the first time they’ve ever run track, so they took a risk playing a new sport. They took a risk trying new events and they’ve all kind of come together and dedicated it to each other. It’s really special that they were able to do this for our school.”

The winning team was bookended by runners who are in their first seasons in track (leadoff DeAngelis and anchor Washburn), while Bakke and Geraets — who did the work in the middle to put the Cubs in position to win — also played soccer for Timnath this spring.

Geraets has also qualified for the 100 meter hurdles, which is set for Saturday.

The Cubs have a chance for a lot of relay success at the meet as they earned the final qualifying spot for the finals in the 4×200 relay and still have teams qualified to run in the Friday prelims of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.

The Heritage Christian girls also made an early splash in their debut in 2A after moving up from 1A, which they won by a whopping 47 points last season.

The Eagles picked up 31 points on Thursday, with 19 of those alone coming in a dominating performance in the 3,200 meter run.

Freshman Mikaela Kendall came is as the top seed in the event by 41 seconds, but the gap was not that way when it came to winning the championship as Lake County’s Keira King made Kendall work for the title.

King was the fourth seed, but ran 27 seconds faster than her seed time and crossed the finish line in 11:49.62, while Kendall was waiting after she ran 11:46.99.

Heritage Christian swept the Nos. 6-8 places from freshman Faith Lee, junior Ainsley Stanton and freshman Sadie Robinson to pick up big points in the event.
Just three points behind Heritage Christian is Dayspring Christian with 28, aided by a two-championship day for junior Eboselulu Omofoma.

Omofoma won last season’s 2A crown in the high jump and repeated when she finished with a top effort of 5 feet, 1 inch, which put her an inch in front of Cedaredge’s Hadash Payne. The winning mark was 4 1/2 inches less than what it took her to win the 2022 title.

“There was one girl who used to jump with me, but she wasn’t here this year,” Omoforma said. “So the competition and the pressure at the higher heights wasn’t there. I’m just thankful I got over the bar. I felt like I was running around a lot this year because of how my events were scheduled.”

Indeed, Omoforma had a busy opening day as she also won the crown in the triple jump in a very close competition with Heritage Christian freshman Kristin Osborne.

Osborne was the top seed by less than an inch, but Omofoma’s PR of 36 feet, 5 inches, was an inch better than Osborne recorded.

On top of that, Omofoma ran the prelims of the 100 meter hurdles and was easily the event’s top qualifier with a time of 14.78 seconds, which was nearly two seconds faster than the next qualifier, while she is also the top seed going into Friday’s prelims in the 300 meter hurdles.

Byers and Telluride sit tied for third place with 11 points apiece, while Lake County is tied with Timnath with 10 after the opening day.

Heritage Christian is also the team leader on the boys side with a nearly double-digit advantage over Rangely (25-16).

The Eagles also thrived in the 3,200 meter run with two of the top three finishers in seniors Jack Nauman and Ryan O’Loughlin.

Nauman finished first and O’Loughlin second in last season’s 1A 3,200 meter run and the same sequence nearly happened this season, but Colorado Springs Christian’s Andrew Bel wedged himself between the two teammates and came in second behind Nauman (who ran 9:45.21) and in front of O’Laughlin.

Despite the distance dominance, the Eagles were unable to win the 4×800 meter relay, as they finished more than five seconds behind Peyton, which secured the championship with a time of 8:16.27.

Rangely got a boost with the discus championship of Kenyon Cochrane, while surprised even him.

None of the three athletes who had thrown 160 feet or better during the season — Cochrane, Wiggins’ Laith Ibrahim and Grand Valley’s Jacob Doyle — reached that mark at state, but Cochrane’s 157-3 earned him gold in front of Doyle, who threw 152-7, while Ibrahim checked in at 147-11.

“I expected to come in second or third, so this is really exciting,” Cochrane said.

Wray’s Ron Shay finished as the 2A pole vault runner-up last season, but went higher and finished higher than he did in 2022.

Shay wasn’t able to match his season-best higher of 14 feet, 9 inches, but he was the only vaulter to successfully clear 14 feet as he registered a top effort of 14-1 that put him in front of Meeker’s Casey Brink, who cleared 13-4. Yuma’s Nash Richardson finished third at 13-1.

In a tightly bunched field atop the triple jump, Sedgwick County freshman Brady Mollendor emerged as the state champion with a jump of 44 feet, 3 1/2 inches, that far exceeded his previous PR of 42-11 1/2 that came at the Mountain Range Invitational on April 15.

Mollendor needed nearly every inch of that to best Platte Canyon’s Tate Heineman, who made a move from the fourth seed and finished second at 44-1 3/4.