5A Boys Track and Field: Northfield Leads Team Race After Opening Day of State
By Courtney Oakes
Photo: Wallace Photography
LAKEWOOD – Northfield’s move up to the Class 5A has gone pretty well thus far.
At the end of the opening day of the state track meet at Jefferson County Stadium, the Nighthawks sat in first place in their new classification after they claimed two of the four state championships handed out.
Junior Ayuub Hassan anchored Northfield’s 4×800 meter relay team to an early title and senior Matthew Kwong later grabbed the triple jump in a 20-point opening day that has the Nighthawks with a four-point team lead going into the second day of competition.
In the 4×800 relay — the only championship decided on the track on the first day of the three-day meet — Northfield was in a see-saw battle with defending champion Mountain Vista and a few other teams after three exchanges of the baton. Hassan stayed on the hip of Golden Eagles’ star Benjamin Anderson, then outkicked him to the finish line.
“We knew we were the underdogs, everybody was doubting us, so we came and showed out today,” Hassan said.
Ian Larkin opened the race for the Nighthawks and handed to Jack Sheehan, who got the lead as he handed off to Bridger DeCamp and finally the baton came to Hassan, who was right on the hip of Anderson and see-sawed with him until the end.
Hassan surged toward the finish line and got there 0.10 of a second ahead of Anderson — who won the 5A state cross country championship in the fall — as he lost his feet and fell as he crossed the line.
“I just heard his footsteps getting closer and he caught up to me and passed me a little bit and I just couldn’t let that happen, so I just took it,” said Hassan, whose team finished in 7 minutes, 51.26 seconds, which is five seconds faster than its best coming into the meet. “Honestly, that was the funnest last 100 of my life and I could just not let him get away.”
Kwong’s win was highly improbable given that he tore his hamstring just prior to the opening meet of the season, which forced him to miss six weeks of competition. Last season’s 4A state champion was cleared in time to compete at a last chance meet, at which he got into state with a top effort of 43 feet, 10 1/2 inches.
That brought him into state as the 17th seed out of 18 qualifiers in a field that saw Castle View senior Darrell Ishman come in as the favorite. He was “conservative” in his three jumps in his preliminary flight and got the 10th and final spot in the finals, which he finished with a jump of 46-3 3/4 that landed the title.
“In the those last three jumps, I just told myself to go for it and it paid off,” said Kwong, who earned 10 points for Northfield when he was projected to not score at all. “I was nervous about my hamstrings in the previous jumps, but I just let go of that and just went for it. It definitely worked out.”
Ishman’s jump of 48 feet, 1/2 inch at the Legend Track Clash still stands at the top effort in the state, but he finished fifth at the state meet with a top successful jump of 45-7 1/2. Pine Creek’s Elijah Roy finished an inch behind Kwong in second, while Eaglecrest junior Bryson States jumped 46-1 1/2 for third.
In the high jump, Legacy senior Devin Shea was another somewhat dark horse candidate to win the title, as he came in with a top mark of 6-5 1/2 with a lot of jumpers seeded in front of him.
But in the end, it was Shea who rose above the field with a top effort of 6-9 that brought a happy end to a trying season in the event.
“This feels really good,” Shea said. “I was a little worried coming into it because I hadn’t done so well in the outdoor season. I was struggling, but I brought it back today with a huge PR. I rested a week, I’ve been taking care of myself and coming in here, I knew it was my time.”
Fort Collins’ Finn Conway Reiser cleared 6-7 to place second, while Arvada West’s Mason Lusche finished third at 6-5.
The state meet hadn’t been a place where Soren Shinofield had performed his best in prior years, but the Cherry Creek senior put that behind him with his showing in his final state shot put competition.
Shinofield came in as the top seed in the event and he led it wire-to-wire with a throw of 56 feet, 3 1/2 inches, that earned him the title by nearly two feet over Rampart’s Camden Bruns (54-5), while Fountain-Fort Carson’s Andre Henry (53-8 1/4) claimed third.
Shinofield had been on an upward trajectory throughout the season and his season-best effort of 56-5 came last week at the Centennial League Championships. He recorded what turned out to be his winning throw at state on his first throw of prelims and matched it with his last throw of finals.
“It’s very exciting, my last two state performances here have been way below my PR, so getting one this year is great,” said Shinofield, who was sixth last season and 10th in 2023. “I was getting a little nervous because all my warmups were under 50 feet, but my first throw was 56 and it gave me more confidence the rest of the way.”
Fort Collins tallied 16 points and sits in second place, while Legacy and Cherry Creek are tied for third place thanks to their respective state champions. Two-time defending 5A state team champion Cherokee Trail scored eight points on the opening day of the meet and is in a five-way tie for fifth place.
