3A Girls Track and Field: Classical Academy Wins 12th State Title, First Since 2018

LAKEWOOD – It’s always a little more interesting when the team title comes down to the last race of the day.

The Classical Academy were a mere eight points in front of Berthoud going into the 4×400 meter relay on Saturday afternoon at Jefferson County Stadium and the Titans just needed to not drop the baton or finish last to hold on to the title.

The Spartans cruised to a victory to rack up 10 points, but 12 seconds later, the Titans crossed in fourth to pick up the necessary six points to win 88-84 and capture the Class 3A crown.

“They are a nervous little bunch and we spent a lot of time just saying, let’s go through our routine, let’s feel like we have energy and just tried to be positive in our words,” said TCA coach Tim Daggett of his foursome of Lillian Grothe, Makenzie Zachman, sophomore Ashley Korth and freshman anchor Jana Yuschalk that wrapped up the championship. “Let’s believe good things are going to happen and have courage instead of saying don’t be afraid.

“I really just told them, find peace, go fast and something we say all the time is sisters run faster and when they care about each other, they are going to dig a little deeper.”

The Titans were fantastic all day, and a school that is known for its distance prowess, showed its speed on Saturday. Junior Heidi Nielsen won both the 100 and 200 going away, and set a 3A state record of 24.04 in the 200, besting her prelims record of 24.08 the day before.

“She had an amazing year and that was super fun. I’ve always had years where I thought we might have a girl make the sprint finals and we have never really been a speed program,” said Daggett, who had Nielsen in his weight class as a freshman and watched her tear her ACL that same year in a basketball game. “Last year she was the soccer goalie and ran, so I really only saw her for only half of a practice twice a week.

“This year she decided to focus on track and she is such a hard worker and asks so many good questions. The physical talent is obviously there, but she is such a great kid.”

Nielson also anchored the Titans’ state-record-setting 4×200 relay team of Grothe, Skyla Delaney and Reese Blackwood as well as the second place 4×100 team. Add it up and she accounted for 38 of the Titans 88 points.

It was a big day for two 3A girls especially. Liberty Common senior Isabel Allori, who missed all of last year due to injury, returned to JeffCo on a mission. The Notre Dame-bound Eagles star set Class 3A records in the 800 (2:09.16), 1,600 (4:45.44) and the 3,200 (10:39.03) and to cap it all off, rallied in the anchor leg of the 4×800 to bring home her fourth gold of the day.

Peak to Peak senior Kourtney Rathke showed off once again in the field events. She defended her pole vault title on Friday with a state record jump of 13-feet, 10 inches. Then Rathke took home her second straight long jump title with a winning jump of 18-9. She completed the jumping trifecta with a victory in the triple jump, relegating defending champion Savanna Amack of Northridge to third with a winning jump of 36-9.75.

Others who successfully defended their titles were Eaton’s Andie Rasmussen in the 400 and Woodland Park’s Jaedyn Kohn in the discus. Kohn also captured the discus title for the Panthers.