5A Girls Track & Field: Patience a Virtue for Riverdale Ridge’s Payton Meineke, Wins 800
By Courtney Oakes
Photo: Wallace Photography
LAKEWOOD – Payton Meineke did something different this time at the Class 5A girls state track meet and it worked out splendidly.
The Riverdale Ridge senior finished a disappointing fifth place in the 800 meter run last season, but she came back intent on not repeating the things that held her back previously.
Meineke’s new, more conservative approach yielded a state championship in a tight competition at sun-drenched Jefferson County Stadium.
“Last year, I was pretty disappointed because I knew I didn’t race the way I wanted to and my training wasn’t showing, so I was a little frustrated,” said Meineke, a University of Tennessee signee. “I came into this race with faith and trust and adjusting my training the way I need to. I knew I had the kick and the speed when it I needed it, so this was my time.”
The adjustment Meineke made was to tone down her inherent tendency to go out fast and try to stay in the lead the entire way.
This time, she stayed reserved for the first lap and then made her move with just over 200 meters to go. Meineke created a gap so quickly that nobody could recover and she finished in 2 minutes, 10.07 seconds, while Eaglecrest junior Jenna Winn surged from the outside to finish just 0.60 of a second behind her with Cherokee Trail freshman Madison Lange (2:10.71) in third.
“This weekend I’ve been trying to hang in the pack, trust my training and just do some true racing,” she said. “I did it and it worked out great.”
Meineke, who said she opted to run more distance events this season, will take aim at the 1,600 meters on Saturday with a lot of the same competitors in the mix.
On a light day in terms of finals, just two other state champions were crowned in 5A girls competition.
A significant streak came to an end in the 4×200 meter relay, as Eaglecrest did not win the event for the first time since 2021. The Raptors were eighth this time, while the championship went to Mountain Vista.
The team of juniors Kayleigh Besch, Reese Rotolo and Payton Mathelier and senior Ariana Akey (who starred in girls flag football in the fall) turned in a time of 1 minute, 37.97 seconds, for a comfortable win over Fruita Monument, while Valor Christian finished in third place.
It wasn’t quite in the state record time the Golden Eagles had hoped to capture — they came up just short of the 1:37.00 posted by Valor Christian in 2019 that stands as the all-classification and 5A state meet record — but it got the job done.
“We were pretty confident, but we were going for a record,” Besch said.
The one thing that likely cost Mountain Vista the record were some handoffs they termed sloppy.
“All season we struggled with that,” Rotolo said. “I think we needed more time to progress with them, but this was close enough.”
The final group also gave credit to senior Maiya Lott, who ran a leg in the previous day’s prelims, which earned Mountain Vista the top seed in the finals. She ran in place of Mathelier, who anchored the final.
The last state title of the day went to Fountain-Fort Carson sophomore Kiara Humphrey, who emerged from a tightly clustered group to win the high jump title. The victory also boosted the Trojans into a one-point lead in the 5A team standings going into the final day, as they have 27, while Cherokee Trail has 26 and Eaglecrest 24.
Humphrey qualified for the state meet as a freshman and finished in 12th place, which motivated her to work her way onto the medal podium at least.
“Last year, I just wanted to move up a couple of places and I wanted to be at last ninth,” Humphrey said. “Being first really wasn’t on my radar. …I’m really excited and in shock.”
In addition to her previous experience at the state meet, Humphrey said that competing in the Pomona Invitational earlier in the season helped her map out her steps at the state venue.
It was Humphrey’s cleanness that ultimately won her the state championship, as she cleared the first four heights (4-feet-11, 5-1, 5-3 and 5-5) on her first jump, something nobody else in the field did.
Seven jumpers were left and none were able to clear 5-7, including Humphrey.
“I had to move my approach every attempt because I was jumping into the bar,” she said. “I really didn’t expect it to come down to misses.”
Erie’s Addison Greenlee and Fossil Ridge’s Natasza Fortner had just two misses at early heights, which put them in a tie for second place.
The meet concludes Saturday with the final 11 state champions crowned.
