1A Girls Track & Field: A Sister Battle in Pole Vault Among Day 1 Highlights

LAKEWOOD – Lone Star senior Jade Kuntz admitted she was a bit concerned her sister might beat her on Thursday.

“Low key, yeah, a little bit,” Kuntz said with a laugh.

Peytyn Kuntz made a run at her sister, but Jade won her third career Class 1A title in the girls pole vault at the state track and field championships at Jefferson County Stadium.

Jade won the title with a leap of 10 feet, 3 inches, while Peytyn, a junior, was second with a leap of 10 feet.

“I knew I was going in the competition and I was scared, like with every other competition there was,” Jade said. “But I kept telling myself, ‘You’re just gonna get first attempt each (height), and I just kept positive and listened to Coach Jack and kept running reps in my head and just went with the flow.”

In fact, she didn’t miss until coming up short in her three attempts at 10-6. It was quite a change from a year ago, when an injury ruined Jade’s chances to be a four-time champion.

The 1A pole vault champ in 2023 and 2024, Jade pulled a muscle in her quadriceps, missing most of the 2025 season. She qualified for state but couldn’t clear the bar at 7-9 at the state meet.

“That was frustrating,” she said. “I cried. I left, and I had to come back and cheer on my teammates, and that was really hard, but I enjoyed seeing the smiles on their faces too.”

Peytyn, in fact, was runner-up last year, after finishing fourth in 2024. Another Lone Star athlete, Katie Etl, was sixth last year and tied for seventh this year.

For Jade, though, there was a great deal of satisfaction in returning to her familiar spot atop the podium.

“As a senior, it makes me feel like I deserve it,” she said. “I’ve worked so hard for it, and I’m just excited to be here. And it just feels really good.

“I’m pretty happy because all season, my sister and I were neck and neck. She’d win one meet and I’d win the other. It was just fun competing against her.”

While Jade capped her sensational career with a third title, Ouray’s Cameron Skolada is just getting started.

A freshman, Skolada came into the state meet as the overwhelming favorite in the 3,200 meters and she backed that up. She won the title in 11 minutes, 59.81 seconds, well ahead of second-place McKinley Pimple, a freshman from Caliche, who finished in 12:21.90.

“I was just happy,” she said of her emotions at the finish line. “I was like this is great. I had a lot of fun. I’m happy my family’s here, and I really enjoyed hearing them cheer, and it was a lot of fun.”

Despite coming in as the top seed, Skolada, who will also compete in the 800 and 1,600 meters this week, said she really didn’t feel much pressure.

“It was so much fun,” she said. “I really enjoy having a new set of competitors and having the whole environment, so it was really fun.

“It was my first time (at state). I have three more years of high school to try to be my best, and I was really going into it trying to be excited and calm and confident. … I was just trying to have fun.”

In the discus, Haxtun’s Reagan Jones completed a career-long quest to be a champion.

The senior won the title with a throw of 121 feet, 4 inches, cruising past the field. Eads senior Tailee Weeks-Johnson was second, at 107-7.

Jones wound up winning four state medals in the discus during her career. She was runner-up in 2025 after finishing fourth in 2024 and eighth in 2023. She is the only competitor to be on the podium in this event in each of the last four years.

On Saturday, Jones is the third seed in the shot put and she’ll go after a fifth career state medal.

Merino leads the team standings after three events, with 27.5 points. Lone Star is second with 20 points.