5A Girls Track & Field: Eaglecrest’s Zenobia Witt Three-Peats in Long Jump

LAKEWOOD – It didn’t quite have the style points she wanted — or come with a state record — but Zenobia Witt still relished her performance in the Class 5A girls long jump Thursday.

In just her third meet since a late-season return from injury, the Eaglecrest junior star completed a three-peat in her bread-and-butter event and did so with fairly little drama at Jeffco Stadium.

Without a major challenger, Witt took three attempts and would have won the championship on any of them, with a final effort of 19 feet, 3 1/2 inches more than sufficient to extend her reign in the event.

“I’m pretty happy,” Witt said. “At first I was thinking I wasn’t even going to be able to make it back to state and be here in this moment, so I’m pretty grateful to come back here and win. …My ankle has been hurting since I jumped last week — and it’s the ankle I jump off — so I knew it wasn’t going to be the best.”

Witt won the state championship in her freshman season with a jump of 19-9 1/2 and claimed last season’s title with an effort of 18-7 1/2, which put her into a tie for first that she won based on a longer second jump.

Both of those winning jumps came on her last attempt of finals, but this season, she essentially won it with the 19-2 she popped in the opening attempt of her flight.

That gave Witt the luxury of sitting back and watching others see if they could challenge her mark, but none came close. Columbine’s Taylor Speir topped out at 18-1 to take second, followed by Ponderosa’s Mackenzie Rankin in third at 18-0 1/2. Witt decided to take one more attempt and got the 19-3 1/2 to up her winning mark.

“I just took a couple of breaks between the jumps to see how I was feeling, but I wanted to do the last jump to get the clap and feel the energy,” Witt said. “Anything in the 19s is pretty decent, but I want to be consistently in the 20s, especially next year.”

It was the sixth state title in Witt’s career — including relays — and she set herself up for a shot at another one by running the second-fastest time in the prelims of the 100 meter hurdles of 13.90.

Witt did not run in the prelims of the 4×200 meter relay — an event which Eaglecrest has won in four straight seasons — and the Raptors just squeaked into the finals as the eighth-fastest team.

Fountain-Fort Carson holds a two-point lead in the 5A girls teams standings at the end of the first day of competition, followed closely by Heritage with 15 and Cherry Creek with 14.

The Trojans managed to amass their point total without an individual champion, as they were buoyed by the runner-up showing in the discus from senior Amiyah Nash — who was joined on the medal podium by junior Emeline Maualuga in fifth — plus a sixth-place result from senior Shayna Vanhorne in the long jump.

Both Heritage and Cherry Creek had state champions to help their respective causes.

Senior Emry Schwalm got Heritage on the scoreboard first in the opening event as she claimed victory in the 3,200 meter run. On paper, the Wake Forest recruit came in seeded second behind Cherokee Trail freshman Madison Lange, but she turned the tables in the actual race with a time of 10 minutes, 26.19 seconds, that was an eight-second drop from her seed time. In her state debut, Lange ran 10:29.08 to hold off Riverdale Ridge’s Payton Meineke, who posted a 10:30.79.

Cherry Creek’s title came in the pole vault, where senior Renata Bergstrom cleared the field with a winning height of 12 feet, 7 inches, which still brought a title, even though it came up short of her season best of 13-5.

“This feels great, I’m really excited,” Bergstrom said. “This is my last year, so this is the ultimate goal.”

Bergstrom’s previous career best finish came last season when she cleared 12-1 to place third.

ThunderRidge grabbed gold early in the day in a very close 4×800 meter relay, which was packed at the top with Boulder, Chaparral and Denver East also in the mix. Senior anchor Quinn Stranahan brought the victory home for the Grizzlies — with juniors Jetta Betts and Mary Seifert and sophomore Raleigh Davis running the other legs — in 9:13.90. It gave them nearly a five-second margin over Boulder (9:18.59) and Chaparral (9:18.88), who dueled for second place.

The fifth state championship of the opening day went to Kaia Bennett of Rocky Mountain in the discus. With a top throw of 130 feet, 9 inches, Bennett — who missed the podium completely last season as she finished 12th — took the title by more than two feet, though her season best was a 134-4.