5A track and field: Hills sets Colorado record in long jump to highlight big day

LAKEWOOD – Brandon Hills heard a clap before his last attempt in the long jump Friday afternoon, but he heard deafening applause afterwards.

Those gathered in the far corner of Jefferson County Stadium got to witness the Vista Ridge senior make history when he used his last jump to break a Colorado all-classification record that had stool for more than three decades.

Hills already had the Class 5A state championship sewed up, but he popped a final jump of 24 feet, 8 inches, to put himself atop the all-time recordbooks. His effort took down the mark of 24-7 1/2 of Montbello’s Chris Sanders set back in 1990, as well as the state meet record of 24-5 1/2 set by another former Montbello athlete, William Henderson, in 1995.

“My coaches talk about it a lot, that it was an old record and a far record,” Hills said. “Being to break that record today was a blessing.”

Hills came into the meet in the hunt for several state championships and he got his first one in style.

He already had jumped over 23 feet in prelims — something nobody else had in the field had done — so he was confident that the title was wrapped up and he could try to go further.

Hills did just that on his last attempt in the finals as he soared through the air and knew he 

“I got the clap going, I got a lot of energy going and I just felt a lot of adrenaline going into that last jump,” he said. “Once I hit the board, I knew it was a big jump and once I saw the mark, I just freaked out. It was just crazy. I am blessed to go that far.”

It also set him up for big weekend, as he is qualified for Saturday’s finals in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and is part of a Vista Ridge 4×100 meter relay team that had the fastest qualifying time in Friday’s prelims of 41.71 seconds.

Cherokee Trail has designs on winning the state team championship — it is tied with Valor Christian for second place, three points behind Mountain Vista after two days of competition — and a state championship in the 4×200 meter relay was a needed boost.

Sophomore speedster Peyton Sommers — who will go head-to-head with Hills in both sprint events — anchored the team of Kaelan Kombo, Kahari Wilbon and Jaylon Moore that finished with a time of 1:25.65, which was just a touch behind the state meet record of 1:25.59 set in 2007.

Kombo opened strong, Wilbon improved the team’s standing in his leg and Moore got the baton safely to Sommers, who blew down the final straightaway to give Cherokee Trail a significant win over runner-up Brighton (1:27.08) and third-place Erie (1:27.81).

“Once I got the baton, I knew the race was over,” Sommers said. “They (his teammates) did all the work, I just took it in.”

Sommers did not run on Cherokee Trail’s 4×400 meter team in the prelims as he did at the Centennial League Championships when the Cougars set the Colorado state record in the event, but Cherokee Trail still posted the second-fastest qualifying time. He has plenty of work to do on the final day as he is qualified for the finals of the 100, 200 and 400 meters.

Valor Christian remained in the title hunt with some quality performances in the distance events from senior Drew Costelow, who won the 800 meters, as well as junior Dane Eike, who took the 1,600 meters by holding off the Mountain Vista duo of Benjamin Anderson and Tyler Downs to the finish line.

It was the second state title in as many days for the Eike family.

“It was cool to win one with my twin sister,” Eike said, referring to the high jump title won by his sister, Farrah, on Thursday.

On the girls side, Emma Stutzman picked up a big win when she captured the girls 3,200 meter run.

The Pomona senior took advantage of the graduation of Cherry Creek star Riley Stewart to get a title in a time of 10 minutes, 12.68 seconds, as she held off a challenge from Air Academy’s Bethan Michalak and let out a scream as she crossed the finish line. Read more about Stutzman’s title here.

Eaglecrest won the 4×200 meter relay for the second consecutive season as half of last season’s team returned in senior Bianca Gleim and sophomore Jaylynn Wilson.

Senior Kiara Garcia led off the race for the Raptors, got it to senior Maya Walters, who got the baton to Gleim and Wilson finished off a victory over rival Grandview as Eaglecrest clocked a 1:41.63 to the runner-up Wolves’ 1:42.29.

The Raptors had some extra fire in the race after they had the lead going into the final leg of the 800 meter sprint medley, only to see Valor Christian surge to the victory.

“We took our anger out on this race,” Gleim said. “This meant a lot more to us and to get to the top of the podium was great.”

Valor Christian leads the team standings going into the final day with 40 points — ahead of Eaglecrest with 28 and Grandview with 25 — and grabbed the first relay title of the day in the sprint medley when the team of junior Madi Proctor, sophomore Josie Krekeler, freshman Elli Londo and senior Peyton Holmes ran its top time of the season of 1:46.99 to best both Grandview (1:48.26) and Eaglecrest (1:48.34). 

Holmes broke the race open as the anchor leg as she took a small advantage and forced the rest of the field to chase her to the finish line.

Denver East’s Rosie Mucharsky had a smile on her face for the entire afternoon in light of her performance in the 800 meters, in which she held off Stutzman to capture a state title.

The sophomore crossed the finish line in a time of 2:09.57 with Stuzman going 2:11.32 to edge Valor Christian’s Jocelyn Millican (2:11.39) for second.

“It’s amazing, I was just thinking coming down the stretch that I could win a state championship,” Mucharsky said. “It’s just a really cool feeling that you can’t replicate anywhere.”

In the field events, Erie’s Myla Wilkes claimed the championship in the long jump to cap the day. She tied with Rock Canyon’s Petra McGowan with a top jump of 17 feet, 11 1/2 inches, but won the title on criteria.