LAKEWOOD – With eight runners who have ran the 800 meters in less than two minutes this season, the Niwot boys track team has plenty of talent to choose from when putting together a 4x800m relay team. 

On Thursday, the first day of the state meet at Jefferson County Stadium, the Cougars fielded a team that had never run together, but that didn’t matter. The foursome selected by coaches posted a blistering time of 7 minutes, 43.92 seconds to set a Class 4A state meet record and claim the title.

“I mean, it’s super exciting,” junior Gavin Engtrakul said. “It’s just kind of like a culmination of all the work we put in this season so far. To come out here and get a new 4A class record and then also run a super fast time, as boys it really means a lot to all of us and then the supporters as well.”

Niwot won the relay for the second year in a row, but it wasn’t easy. Second place Thompson Valley (7:47.47) and third-place Coronado (7:48.18) also broke the previous 4A meet record of 7:48.55, set by Durango in 2019.

“Yeah, I’d say it felt fast,” Engtrakul said of the race. “We’ve all been training super hard and I mean, I feel like it just felt good. It felt good to come out here and run fast.”

Engtrakul teamed with fellow junior Cole Mazurana, sophomore Rocco Culpepper and freshman Quinn Sullivan for the Cougars. All four rank among the top 14 in state in the open 800, with Culpepper first.

“It’s pretty competitive (on the team), but we’re all working towards an end goal,” Engtrakul said. “As teammates, we’re all happy for each other when we get the spots. We all come out here and work as hard as we can. We work for the guys that didn’t get the spots and we work for ourselves.”

In the 110-meter hurdles prelims, Karamoko Sacko set a new Colorado prep record and 4A state meet record with a time of 13.45 seconds. The previous all-time record in the state was 13.61, set by Wilbert Smith in 2004. The previous 4A record of 13.68 was set in 1998 by Ricardo Moody.

Sacko also qualified for finals in the 100 and 200 meter sprints on Thursday.

In the shot put, Golden’s Montrey Strickland won the first state title at his school in several years, posting a top throw of 59 feet, 4 inches. Trevor Hill of Montrose was second, at 54-4.

“I missed my two first years of track because of COVID and then transferring (in 2022), so winning was a big goal of mine this year, so I got it,” Strickland said.

A year ago, Strickland was top five in the shot put (fourth) and discus (fifth) and winning Thursday has added to a great senior year.

“It means a lot because I just got named the 4A overall Jeffco boys athlete of the year, so I’m just super proud of myself for it and winning is a super big accomplishment of mine,” said Strickland, who is heading to Northern Colorado to play football.

Northfield’s Matthew Kwong won his first state title, in the triple jump, posting a personal-best leap of 47 feet, 7.75 inches. Dylan Jessop of Montrose was second, at 47-4.

“It feels amazing,” said Kwong, a junior. “I’ve been just trusting my training and my coaches but it finally came down to state and I executed.”

Kwong set a personal record by nearly eight inches on his first jump, but Jessop topped that.

“He beat it, so it kind of gave me motivation to beat him more on my fifth jump,” Kwong said of his winning jump.

Prior to that winning jump, Kwong’s fellow competitors encouraged him to get the traditional rhythmic clap going.

“Once I got the clap going – I’ve never had the clap before – I kind of like was forced to focus and that helped me too,” he said.

In the high jump, there was a rare three-way tie for the title between Standley Lake’s Asher Serlen, Severance’s Jaden Hoffman and Conifer’s Benson White. All three went 6-5 and all three had five misses along the way.

“I was like, senior year this is the last time I’m gonna be out here for high jump and I just had to go all out,” said Hoffman, who was 10th last year and will head to Fort Lewis to play football. “At my school, it’s gonna say, ‘Jaden Hoffman, state champ.’ That’s all you really want out here, especially senior year.”

Overall, there were six competitors who went 6-5, including 2023 champion Wyatt Turner of Canon City, who placed sixth.