5A Boys Track and Field: Mountain Vista Lead Team Race After Day 2

LAKEWOOD – Two athletes usually aren’t quite enough to win a team state track championship, but Mountain Vista’s Benjamin Adams and Benjamin Anderson might make a run at it.

The Golden Eagles lead the team standings at the Class 5A boys state meet after two days of competition at Jefferson County Stadium and the talented distance duo is at the forefront of its title push.

On Friday, Adams finished atop a talented field that included his teammate and several other challenges to win the 3,200 meter championship with Anderson second as they made a statement for their Mountain Vista team.

“We just went into this and it was me and Benji and we wanted to get 18 points for the team,” Adams said, “Whoever won this race really wasn’t important, but this is my first of hopefully many. I’m really glad I was able to get a state championship.”

Adams, Anderson and teammates John Wakimura and Willam Wachter lost the 4×800 meter state championship on the opening day of the meet by a fraction of a second to up-and-comer Northfield, which stoked the competitive fire.

It wasn’t going to be that way again when it came to the 3,200 meters, as the Mountain Vista duo paced the field the entire way. Adams won the title in 9 minutes, 7.93 seconds, while Anderson was next at 9:08.60 and Heritage’s Benjamin Wolff crossed the line six seconds later.

“We were wanting to take it from pretty early on,” Adams said. “He (Anderson) would take a few laps and I would take a few and then he waved me on with three laps go to and wanted me to take for a bit. We wanted to control it from the start and not leave it up to chance again.”

Later in the day, Anderson added a third-place finish in the 800 meters, while Adams placed seventh and both will have the potential to score big points in Saturday’s 1,600 meters as well. The point haul for the day helped Mountain Vista take the team lead after two days with 37 points. Right behind is Eaglecrest, which has 31 ahead of the final day, while Fountain-Fort Carson in third with 25. Two-time defending 5A state champion Cherokee Trail has 21 points and is currently in sixth.

The 800 meter title went to ThunderRidge junior Ben Lee, who defended the title he won last season with a comfortable victory over a field that included runner-up Tanner Kaufman of Frederick and Cherokee Trail’s Dylan Smith, who took second and third, respectively.

Lee felt a little daunted by the competition he had to go against, but he was able to overcome it. He kept himself in good position, made his move with 200 meters left and finished.

“I was pumped, I was super excited,” Lee said. “There was a lot of pressure to defend and honestly I felt more pressure than last year and the competition was stiff than last year. There was a lot of pressure coming into it, but I tried to let it go and go out there and have some fun.”

A good performance during the 4×800 relay on Thursday gave Lee the mental boost and confidence he needed to complete his title defense.

One title defense that was not successful was in the 4×200 meter relay, where Cherokee Trail won last season and ended up fourth this season with a group that did not include senior Peyton Sommers, who is hindered with an injury.

That left the title up for grabs and it went to another Centennial League program in Cherry Creek, which ran a smooth race and finished with a comfortable victory in 1:25.57.

The team of Jayden Fox, Maxwell Lovett, Michael Cai and Wachemo Mindlin-Leitner kept Fountain-Fort Carson (1:26.09) and Ponderosa (1:26.48) at bay to win the title, the second of the meet for the Bruins. Soren Shinofield took the shot put on the opening day of the meet.

The last championship of the second day came in the long jump, which went to Fountain-Fort Carson senior Joseph Barlow III, who came into the event as the No. 9 seed.

Barlow is a hurdler by preference — and is headed to Saturday’s finals in the 300 meter hurdles — but he added an unexpected gold in the long jump. He came in with a best jump of 22 feet, 8 1/2 inches, and added three inches to that with his title-winning jump of 22-11 1/2, which came on his second jump of his preliminary flight. Barlow edged top-seeded Darrell Ishman of Castle View (22-10) with Cameron Bell of Eaglecrest in third at 22-7.

“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, you know, it’s kind of like a bittersweet feeling because on one hand, I’m super glad I won state, but now I feel like I have to prove myself that I can do it in the hurdles as well,” said Barlow, who was part of the Trojans’ second-place finish in the 4×200 meter relay and placed seventh in the 300 hurdles prelims on a busy day.