1A Boys Track and Field: Crowd Energizes Champions on Day 2

LAKEWOOD – Coming from Swink, a town with a population in the hundreds, Javin Summers draws energy from the atmosphere at Jefferson County Stadium when it’s filled with several thousand people for the Colorado track and field state championships.

On Friday, that extra energy pushed him to a new achievement, as Summers jumped 45 feet to win the Class 1A boys triple jump state championship.

“You never see that where I’m from. There’s so many people in the stands, a ton of teams and the best athletes in the state. It’s a really cool experience,” Summers said. “The atmosphere of being up here is really nice. There’s definitely a lot of people cheering you on and the competition is the best in the state. It’s really tough and it helps you push and go further.

“I did a lot better this year in triple jump that I thought I would, which is a nice surprise, I’d say,”

In the 1A boys high jump, Elbert’s Ethan Tesman won the title by clearing 6 feet, 3 inches.

“It’s awesome. It’s an amazing feeling,” Tesman said. “I work all year for it and just to put in all the hours and for it to pay off, it’s just an amazing feeling like no other. The wind was a little bit of a problem and I didn’t get a PR today, but all that matters at state is that you’re better than everyone else and that’s what happened today.”

In the 1A boys 800-meter run, Springfield’s Parker Arbuthnot took home the gold with a time of 2 minutes, 1.81 seconds. It was his second state title of the weekend after winning the 3,200 on Thursday.

In the 1A boys 4×200 relay, Haxtun – Carter Imhof, Chase Goddard, Zach Statz and Colin Cone – won gold with a time of 1 minutes, 33.71 seconds.

In the 1A boys 4×800-meter relay, Merino – Aidan Sherman, Reb Heller, Jacob Frank and Coen Schmidt – finished first with a time of 8:38.77.