4A boys track and field: Lutheran wins tight team race, Mead’s Underwood puts on a show

While Tavon Underwood stole the show, the Class 4A boys state track meet was good to the last race Saturday at Jefferson County Stadium.

Underwood, Mead’s senior star, set the meet abuzz when he ran the 400 meters in the top time in the entire country to put some extra shine on a meet in which he won three running events and finished second in a fourth, while Lutheran, Northfield and Niwot leapfrogged each other all the way until the conclusion of the meet-closing 4×400 meter relay.

With a big final day, the Lions did what they needed to do in the final relay to hold the Nighthawks at bay by a point and the Cougars by two.

Underwood’s performance was the most remarkable in that the Kansas State recruit came in with the ambitious goal of sweeping the 100, 200, 400 and 800 meter races. He was denied the 100 crown by Lutheran’s Joseph Ciccio, but turned in record-setting performances in the 200 and 400 Saturday after winning the 800 Friday.

“I’m not a big spotlight guy, but obviously I don’t mind,” Underwood said. “It’s good to get recognized and I appreciate it.”

The most recognition came after the 400 meters, when he got the crowd buzzing after just one curve of the race and continued his remarkable acceleration until he crossed the finish line in 45.36 seconds.

On a smaller scale, the time bettered the 4A state meet record of 46.71 set by Palmer Ridge’s Caleb Ojennes in 2016 and the Colorado prep record of 46.23 of Littleton’s J.T. Scheuerman in 2006, but it on a larger scale it lifted him past the 45.46 run by Sidi Njie of Westlake at Georgia’s state championship last week.

Northfield senior Zack Ryan, who finished second in a time of 46.79 seconds, which was the eighth-fastest in Colorado history, was pushed forward by Underwood.

“Tavon has been a great motivator all season,” Ryan said. “I’ve been watching his times all season and pacing myself off of him. He’s pushing me further than I thought I could go and I’m hitting so many goals I never thought I’d be able to get to. …I was just trying to keep pace with him during the race, but he pushed me really, really hard. Really grateful to have him in the race.”

Ryan also finished second in the 200 as Underwood ran a time of 20.93 seconds that established a 4A meet record (the previous one was a 21.05 in 2013 that belonged to Canon City’s Zac McCoy), while it just fell short of the Colorado prep record of 20.70 set in 2005 by George Washington’s Jeremy Dodson.

One of the other competitors to finish second to Underwood — Grand Junction Central’s Shalom Trowbridge, who was second in Friday’s 800 meters — got a championship Saturday when he captured the 1,600 meter title.

He still looked back on the 800 race as a highlight of the meet.

“I’m pretty happy with how state went this year,” Trowbridge said. “It was fun year, especially the 800. I was just happy to run with him (Underwood), it was fun to have someone at the line compared to the rest of the year when I was running alone. …It was an experience just to be able to run against somebody who is that good at running, it’s just fun as hell.”

The only runner to finish in front of Underwood during the meet was Ciccio, who popped a 4A meet record time of 10.53 seconds with Underwood next at 10.67.

It wasn’t he first time the two went head-to-head, but Ciccio got this meeting with a race that even surpassed his own hopes.

“I executed way better than I wanted to,” Ciccio said. “I had a great start and I knew Tavon was coming. I knew he was right behind me and I had to get out and I did just that. Me and him have been going at it for the last couple of weeks. I got him at Niwot and he got me back at St. Vrain, so I need to get him back and I did. I appreciate him for pushing me. …It really is crazy.”

As an added bonus, Ciccio ran the final with his brother, Trey, a senior who finished ninth.

Joseph Ciccio also finished third in the 200 meters and Trey Ciccio added a second in the 300 hurdles to go with a championship in the 110s —  in which he got to the line just 0.05 of a second ahead of Northfield’s Karamako Sacko — to help the Lions’ cause.

Sacko combined with Ryan, Amarion Richardson and Michael Doss to win the 4×200 relay on Friday and the same group captured the 4×100 relay Saturday with a win over Lutheran by 0.08 as the Nighthawks made a run at the team state championship that came up just a point short.

Niwot had the lead at one point as it attempt to join its girls team as state champions — aided by Eric Walker’s win in the 300 hurdles and the championship of the 4×400 relay team of Walker, Abraham Menjivar, Ben Classen and Rocco Culpepper — but came in two points off the pace and one out of the runner-up spot.

Grand Junction Central’s Daniel Baroumbaye completed a sweep of the throwing events with a 60-foot throw to take the discus, while Grand Junction’s Miller Jones popped a jump of 50 feet, 5 inches, to set the state meet record as he surpassed the 49-8 3/4 of Widefield’s Tony Carodine in 2012.

“I was in the hurdles as well and honestly I was thinking about the hurdles, but then my mind went blank and I went big,” Jones said of his triple jump.