5A Girls Track and Field: Rock Canyon Wins State Championship for First Time

LAKEWOOD – Rock Canyon track coach Dan Davies crunches the numbers ahead of meets, seeking to see if his team will have a chance to win.

Going into the Class 5A girls state meet, Davies believed that 70 points could be the total it would take to come home with the championship trophy and he knew he had the depth to make a run at that number.

When the final race concluded Saturday at Jefferson County Stadium, the Jaguars bettered that number — by one — as they accrued 71 points on their way to the program’s first state championship. The program’s previous best finish came in 2018 when it finished in fifth place, so bringing home the big trophy marked a big step forward.

“We didn’t have a superstar who would get us 30 or 40 points, but we knew we cover a lot of events and we could nickel and dime it here and there,” Davies said. “We knew we would battle it out with about five other teams. Coming out of the league meet, we were confident and we told them, ‘Don’t be superhuman, just give 100 percent,’ and we knew we could be successful.”

Rock Canyon scored in every relay event — which included a state championship in the 800 meter sprint medley — and finished atop a tight pack that saw Fossil Ridge finish second with 62.5 points (doing so without a single state champion) and Mountain Vista (which won the 4×800 meter relay) 58.

While the Jaguars did it with depth, junior Petra McGowan was a big piece as she won a state championship in the high jump on Friday and also placed third in Thursday’s long jump.

Grandview senior Gabriella Cunningham bid adieu to the state meet in style, as she went out as state champion in both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles. She had to hold off Cherokee Trail’s Sanaai Hancock in the 100, while she won her favorite race — the 300 — by a good margin.

“Honestly I was really tired, but it wrapped up a beautiful last high school season,” said Cunningham, who is headed to Louisiana State.

While the 5A boys had a sprint triple-crown winner, the 5A girls had three different winners of the 100 meters (Valor Christian’s Ellie Londo), 200 meters (Heritage’s Zone Welling) and 400 meters (Chatfield’s Aspen Webb).

Welling felt redemption when she won the 200, as she had a false start in the prelims of the 100 and didn’t get a chance to make the finals.

“It felt awesome coming back (from the false start) to win the 200,” Welling said. “I think all these girls push me to be my best.”

Londo clocked a time of 11.73 seconds to take the 100, while Welling clocked a 24.15 to take the 200, with Rampart’s Cydnee Taylor second in both races. Webb claimed the 400 crown with a time of 55.25 seconds.

Air Academy’s Bethany Michalek collected a second championship, as she took the 1,600 meters to add to the 3,200 meter crown she secured on the opening day of the meet.

The Eaglecrest team of Tatum Gratrix, Anaya Ewing, Jaylynn Wilson and Zenobia Witt claimed the 4×200 meter state championship on Friday and the exact same group teamed to win the 4×100 on the final day.

Only one field event got decided in the classification on the final day — the triple jump — and Cherokee Trail’s Kaeli Powe claimed that as the only jumper to go past the 40-foot mark. Powe’s 40-6.25 landed her the crown.

Castle View closed out the meet in exciting fashion as the team of Olivia Clarke, Vivian Mann, Logan Baker and Eva Dellorco edged Mountain Vista by 0.03 of a second.