LAKEWOOD – High jump has always been Troy Sowards’ love.

So while the Centauri senior was headed to Jefferson County Stadium for the state championships on Thursday, he counted his blessings for having one more opportunity to compete in his beloved event for one last time in high school.

As the defending Class 3A state champion, Sowards also had the enviable goal of defending his title from last spring. With all of that in mind, Sowards made his final opportunity count.

In the 3A finals, Sowards cleared 6 feet, 9 inches to take first place and leave the stadium with a new gold medal to put next to his other one.

“I love high jump. I’ve always loved it,” Sowards said. “So just coming out and getting to jump one more time, it meant everything to me. It’s been my goal my whole life to get seven feet and I came up short on that. But that’s OK. I’ll keep working and I’ll try to get it later. I’m just glad I was healthy and got to come out and jump.”

Elsewhere in Class 3A, Resurrection Christian – Lincoln Fagerlin, Jonah Morris, Trevor Lim and Jackson Fagerlin – won the 4x800-meter relay title with a time of 7 minutes, 59.36 seconds.

In the preliminary race for the 4x200m, the relay team from Harrison – Maurice Martin, Janoah Brown, Richard Murphy, Gulong Craft – set a state meet record with a time of 1:27:81.