LAKEWOOD – Tuff Kelley had yet to fully catch his breath when asked about the sensational day he had on Saturday.
He will have plenty of time to celebrate a memorable day, however.
The McClave junior won a pair of Class 1A state titles in the hurdles and helped the Cardinals to their first-ever team title in track and field at the CHSAA State Championships at Jefferson County Stadium.
McClave finished with 104 points, while Idalia edged Haxtun for second place, 67.5 to 67.
“McClave’s never gotten one, so it’s an amazing feeling to bring one home,” Kelley said. “Incredible, like so much work. We have a bunch of boys that split baseball and track, so we rarely get them at track practice, but every time they’re there, they work their butt off, and it’s showing off today.”
Kelley led the way on Saturday by winning the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles.
The defending champion in the 110 hurdles, Kelley posted a time of 15.03 seconds on Saturday to win again. Anderson Weathers of Lone Star was second for the third year in a row, at 15.39.
Then, Kelley posted a 41.01-second time in the 300 hurdles to win that event for the first time. Trey Scheler of Cheyenne Wells was second, at 41.57.
“Amazing feeling,” Kelley said. “The 300s, that’s not a fun race, but I feel I had a mental edge in lane one, trying to catch everybody. Coming off the stagger down the straight, I felt like I was in the front, and I gave everything I had left.
“It was a good feeling to win.”
McClave put an exclamation point on its title by taking the 1,600-meter relay in the final event of the day. Ryan Horn, Myles Northrup, Drew Howe and Hudson Goble teamed up to run the event in 3:32.14. Idalia was second, in 3:34.07.
Haxtun’s Zach Statz proved to be the fastest man in 1A this year. In fact, he’s the fastest in 1A history.
A senior, Statz became the first 100-meter sprinter in 1A history to break the 11-second mark, posting a meet-record time of 10.88 seconds in Saturday’s final. That also set a personal record, as he came in seeded first at 10.96. Anthony Paez of Eads was second in the finals, at 11:40.
Then, in the 200 meters, Statz set a state-meet record at 21.91 seconds – the first-ever to break 22 seconds in 1A. Prairie’s Tyler Troudt was second, in 23.04.
“Looking up at that board and seeing the time that I knew I could get, and that I knew I needed to get, it’s a feeling of ‘I did it,’” Statz said. “I can go home now saying I left it all on the table, I did what I had to do, and it’s the best feeling in the world."
Statz then helped the Bulldogs win the 400-meter relay, in 44.18 seconds. Ouray was second, at 44.92. Statz teamed with Madden Larsen, Kanin Koberstein and Carter Imhof in that relay.
“Today was very exciting," Statz said. "I knew it was going to be great. The state meet is always so much fun. It’s the best check meet of the year, and it’s so much fun watching your friends cheer for you and compete themselves. So it’s an amazing feeling.”
Otis junior Jayce Ballah set a new standard in the pole vault, leaping 14 feet, 6 inches to win his first state title. The previous record was 14-1 by Akron’s Ryan McCaffrey in 2024. Ballah was runner-up to Lone Star’s Weathers in 2025, but got him this time. Weathers was second, with a vault of 13-2.
Springfield’s Parker Arbuthnot completed his second consecutive trifecta, winning the 1,600-meter run. He won the 3,200 on Thursday and the 800 on Friday. This is the second year in a row that Arbuthnot has won all three events. In the 1,600, he had a time of 4:33.50 to outlast Gabriel Gutierrez-Gleason of Plateau Valley, who was second, in 4:41.98.
In the high jump, Swink’s Javin Summers took the title to complete a weekend sweep of the jumps. He won the long jump on Thursday and the triple jump on Friday, repeating as champion in those two events.
On Saturday, Summers won the high jump after placing second a year ago. He had a winning leap of 6 feet, 7 inches, to beat the field. Elbert’s Eli Cornell was second, at 6-5.
Idalia senior Brady Terrell won the state title in the 400 meters. He posted a time of 50.87 seconds to knock off Haxtun’s Greyson Biesemeier, who was second (51.64). Terrell was third in the 400 last year and eighth in 2024.