5A Girls Track and Field: Fossil Ridge Wins First-Ever State Championship

Fossil Ridge led the Class 5A girls state meet virtually the entire way at Jefferson County Stadium and finished it off with a strong final day.

The 4×100 meter relay team of Ellia Anderson, Katie Feldman, Ava Hurlbut and Addyson Smith won the only individual event title of the three days of competition, but the SaberCats picked up points in many different areas on the way to 97 points, which produced a 25.5-point win over Cherry Creek (71.5), with Eaglecrest third with 68.

Fossil Ridge had a four-point lead after the first day on the strength of its performances in jumping events and 4×800 meter relay, upped the advantage to 16 with success in distance and relays on the second day and put the finishing touches on the title with a strong final day.

“We were so deep all over the place, so hats off to those kids, they’ve working really hard for it,” Fossil Ridge head coach Ray Bozmans said. “All my coaches have been locked in trying to get all those different event groups here. We got them here and the kids took over and did their thing. It was special.”

The SaberCats finished second behind Rock Canyon last season, but had plenty of points to spare on the way to the program’s first all-time state title.

Smith had lost both the 100 and 200 sprint titles to Heritage sophomore Zona Welling by fractions of a second, but she anchored Fossil Ridge’s 4×100 team that was determined to finish it off. Anderson, Feldman, Hurlbut and Smith clocked a time of 46.62 seconds to come in nearly a second ahead of Eaglecrest.

Cherry Creek’s runner-up finish came with distance strength led by junior Emily Cohen, who was twice an individual champion and also once with a relay.

Cohen combined with Caroline Laughlin, Mattie Sheehan and Kinley Wolfe on the opening day to win the 4×800 meter title, then she claimed the 3,200 meters on Friday. On the final day of the meet, Cohen turned in an impressive finish to cross the finish line in 4:52.07, which put her in front of Mountain Vista’s Keeghan Edwards (4:52.46) and Denver East’s Rosie Mucharsky (4:54.48), who was looking to add to her haul after winning the 800 meters the previous day.

The Bruins finished in front of Eaglecrest in the meet-closing 4×400 relay to keep the Raptors at bay in the chase for the second-place trophy.

Welling laid claim to title of fastest sprinter at the meet with her state titles in the 100 and 200 meters.

She took the 100 in a photo finish over Smith (winning in 11.75 seconds to Smith’s 11.76), while she later successfully defended the title she won a year ago in the 200. Welling again outlasted Smith by a scant 0.12 a second.

“I didn’t know it was that tight, I was just thinking I’ve got to lean, she’s right there and then looking up to the board and seeing my name on the board was great,” Welling said after the 100. “I love races like that where anybody can win and especially that photo finish it just feels awesome.”

A battle between Ponderosa’s Payton Becker and Fountain-Fort Carson’s Alexa Queen in the hurdles ended with each claiming a state championship and the other finishing as runner-up.

Becker was 0.2 of a second faster in the 100 to win the opening event of the day (13.79 seconds to 13.99), while Queen edged her by .14 of a second in the 300 (41.66 to 41.73) to take that title.

“I’m super excited, this is the goal all season and to execute it under so much pressure is exhilarating,” Becker said after her 100 hurdles victory. “Alexa has been the person I’ve been competing against the most and I made sure to keep her in the corner of my eye and was like ‘I don’t want you in front of me’.”

Capping the track titles on the final day of the meet was the Mountain Vista 4×400 relay team of Ariana Akey, Juliet Frum, Brynn Smith and Payton Mathelier, who overcame the elements to pose a three-second victory over Fossil Ridge, which edged Cherry Creek for second.

In field events, Riverdale Ridge’s Addison Bartlett — who was the runner-up in the shot put — claimed a title in the discus with a top throw of 140 feet, 5 inches.

In the pole vault, Castle View senior Sienna Boughen won the state crown as one of four vaulters to clear a top height of 12-1, but she did so in fewer attempts than Arapahoe’s Tatum Gobble, Cherry Creek’s Renata Bergstrom and Castle View’s Macy Billinger, who finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively.