4A girls track and field: Shults, Northrup and depth put Niwot atop 4A girls standings for fourth straight year

The Niwot girls track team did enough work in the first two days of the Class 4A state track meet that Saturday could just be for kicks.

The Cougars put more than 100 points between themselves and the next closest team in 2022 and came close to a similar margin by the time competition concluded at Jefferson County Stadium, as they piled up 154 points to 67 for a small, but potent Mesa Ridge team.

Senior Madison Shults won the 400 meters and anchored the 4×400 meter relay team that finished the meet in style, while senior Kimora Northrup swept the hurdles and coach Maurice Enriques’ team again displayed absolutely overwhelming depth on its way to a fourth consecutive title.

“This day was just to have fun, do your best, but overall make sure you have fun, hype everyone up and have a good time,” Shults said of Niwot’s final day.

The Stanford-bound standout certainly added a large number to the huge final point total as she won the 800 meters on Friday — her third straight victory in the event — and coupled that with the 400 crown Saturday.

Following the 4A boys race in which Mead’s Tavon Underwood recorded the top time in the country this season of 45.36 seconds, Shults went out and finished in 55.76 seconds for nearly a two-second win over runner-up Ophelia Pulley of Northfield.

“Tavon is incredible, I’m not surprised he got a national mark,” Shults said. “That definitely hyped me up and got me thinking, today is a good day, everyone is running fast.”

Shults capped her meet and career by anchoring the team of junior Julia Rudolph, sophomore Simocea Esquibel and junior Mia Prok to the 4×400 meter relay title.

Northrup, a Texas Christian University signee, captured two titles on the final day of her prep career and she had to hold off Northfield’s Justice Ephraim to do both.

To open the day, Northrup took the 100 title in a time of 14.43 seconds to the 14.85 recorded by Ephraim, while she later finished the 300 in 43.05 seconds with Ephraim checking in at 43.43.

“It’s been a bit of a rough season mentally and physically not being where I wanted to be,” she said. “But I said today was going to be my day and I just tried to be present with my teammates today and enjoy the sacrifices we’ve made over the last four years.”

The only events Niwot didn’t score in during the meet were the 100 and 200 (plus the high jump, long jump, triple jump and pole vault), while a whopping 30 came from the 800 (where the Cougars had five of the top seven finishers) and 23 more in the 3,200 won by freshman Addison Ritzenhein Thursday.

Runner-up Mesa Ridge had a small, but point-packed group in seniors Rimari Facey, Danaya Kinnard and Janise Everett and sophomore Olivia Clay.

The Grizzlies set the 4A state meet record in the 4×100 meter relay of 47.21, which eclipsed the mark of 47.85 set back in 2013, which was the cherry on top of a meet that saw Everett take home four gold medals.

Everett won the 100 and 200 meters and anchored the 4×100 meter relay Saturday and also the 4×200 on Friday.

“This has been my goal since freshman year and it’s amazing that I finally reached it and was able to do it with my team,” said Everett, who won the 100 in 12.07 seconds and the 200 in 24.87 seconds.

Kinnard finished third in the 200 and Facey third in the 300 hurdles on the final day to help the Grizzlies finish in front of every other team except for the massive one from Niwot.

“We came in with a lot less people than Niwot, so the fact that we’re going to finish up them is amazing,” Facey said.

Other winners on the final day of the meet were Summit’s Ella Hagen in the 1,600 (which she ran in 4:54.35) along with Longmont’s Ella Pears in the triple jump (with a top effort of 37-3 1/2).