5A Boys Track & Field: Fort Collins Racks Up 99 Points to Win Championship
By Courtney Oakes
LAKEWOOD – Cherokee Trail’s three-year run as Class 5A boys state track champions came to end, but not to just any old team.
A Fort Collins team that scored points in just about every conceivable way over three days of competition at Jefferson County Stadium to end the Cougars’ reign.
Senior Cadel Ruthven won the 1,600 meters on the final day to put the finishing touches on a 99-point output that put the Lambkins 50 in front of Cherokee Trail, which still managed to earn a trophy for a fifth consecutive season.
“We knew we had an opportunity to score a lot of points because we were seeded highly in a lot of events, but the kids amaze me how they continue to perform at a higher and higher level every weekend,” Fort Collins coach Jeff Brennan said. “I didn’t think we’d score 99 points. That’s a big total.”
Virtually the only disappointment the Lambkins had on the way to the program’s 18th all-time boys state championship — which ranks second in state history behind the 20 won by Fountain-Fort Carson — was not getting their 4×400 meter relay team into the finals. Fort Collins had a state-leading time, made some adjustments to the lineup and finished one spot out the last qualifying position, which would have yielded even more points from the final.
The point bonanza began on the opening day of the meet with the performance of Ruthven, junior Sean Giles and sophomore Will Johns in the 3,200 meter run, as the trio took fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. The Lambkins added a 4×200 meter state championship on day two, as the team of seniors Andre Rose and DJ Ruff and sophomores Preston Mozer and Jackson Ruff set a Colorado state and 5A state meet record.
Senior jumper Guy Curtis stepped up big in his events and so did Ruthven, who accomplished an amazing feet over the three days.
“I couldn’t leave here without a state title,” said Ruthven, whose time of 4 minutes, 9.80 seconds, put him clear of Mountain Vista junior star Ben Adams.
“it was funny because in my other events, I took fourth, third and second, so I just had to get first in the last one. It was super special.”
Ruthven also enjoyed watching the points come in from multiple sources, some of them unlikely.
“It’s crazy, every one was punching up and overperforming,” he said. “It was special to see.”
Cherokee Trail took second place in 2022, then captured championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025 before another runner-up finish this season. Coach Chris Faust’s team lost some of the big games it has had in season’s past — such as sprint star Peyton Sommers — but had a blue collar team that amassed 49 points.
The Cougars won two state championships on the final day of the meet, beginning with the 110 meter hurdles crown from budding sophomore Joshua Stewart — who outleaned Denver East’s Mulyndwa Kafuuma at the finish line to win by 0.10 of a second — and ending with the 4×400 meter relay.
The Cougars just needed to finish in the top five to hold off Northfield for second place, so senior anchor Dylan Smith came through the finish line with arms raised in triumph. Cherokee Trail — the team of Smith plus juniors William Mines, Cooper Adams and Austin Eravelly — came through second, but ended up as the state champions when Mountain Vista was disqualified for a lane violation.
Smith also ran on the 4×400 relay team for Cherokee Trail which won last season’s state title.
Only one state meet record was established on the final day of the meet and that belonged to Cherry Creek, which took over the all-time top spot in the 4×100 with a time of 40.94 seconds (though Grandview still holds the all-time state record of 40.59 from 2022). The Bruins team of senior Jayden Spencer, juniors Alijah Landrum-Hamilton and Chase Pittman and sophomore Brandon Veasley Jr. took down the 5A state meet mark of 41.21 run by Overland way back in 2007.
The Bruins felt some redemption from last season when they dropped a baton and were disqualified from the event, but this time finished it off appropriately.
“It meant a lot to us and we put in a lot of preparation for this,” Spencer said. “We thought about the record from the beginning of the year. We thought we should have won it last year, but we got disqualified, so we had to come back this time and get it.”
Added anchor leg Veasley Jr.: “It was perfect.”
The only athlete in the boys meet to win two individual titles turned out to be Eaglecrest senior Cameron Bell, who opened the meet with a win in the long jump and finished it off by taking the 300 meter hurdles. Bell got disqualified for hitting a hurdle that ended up in the lane next to him in the 110 meter final, but took his vengeance out in the 300, where he ran 36.56 to deal Denver East’s Kafuuma (36.63) another close loss.
All three of the sprint events had separate champions as Arapahoe sophomore Marcello Jaramillo ruled the 100 meters, Ralston Valley sophomore Phoenix Tomsick prevailed in the 200 and Vista PEAK Prep senior Joshua Gallien claimed the 400.
Jaramillo’s title was the closest of the day after he finished in 10.49 seconds, as just 0.01 of a second ahead of Monarch’s Abbott Lockwood (10.50) and not much more clear of Legend’s Case Matteson (10.56).
Tomsick, meanwhile, put 0.2 of a second gap ahead of Rocky Mountain runner-up Carson Holley, while Fort Collins’ DJ Ruff finished third. Gallien — who won the first boys state track title for the Vista PEAK Prep program — turned in a time of 47.03 seconds to win and finish the season undefeated in the 400.
In the field events, the triple jump title for Bear Creek’s Zazi Wolfrum proved plenty memorable.
The sophomore’s progress in the event in the last few weeks has been stunning, as he upped his PR by two feet in the week leading up to state and went even bigger in his state meet debut.
On his last jump of the finals, Wolfrum called for a clap from the stands, got it, and proceeded to pop a jump of 48 feet, 3 3/4 inches, which again added two feet to his PR.
“I got the energy from the crowd and it all just came together on that last jump; it just clicked,” Wolfrum said.
His final effort lifted him over top-seeded senior Bryson States of Eaglecrest, who ended up in a tie for second place when Curtis of Fort Collins also used his last jump to tie him at 47-10 1/4. States added another runner-up finish after he was also second in the long jump to Bell on Thursday.
