LAKEWOOD | Kelli Kunz stayed surprisingly relaxed given the stakes, but she believed in her Mountain Vista team when the chips were down.
The Golden Eagles clung to a one-point lead Saturday evening going into the final event of the Class 5A girls state track meet and had a hungry pursuer in Eaglecrest, with which they’d jockeyed back and forth for position over the course of three days of competition.
Mountain Vista went out with a bang as the 4x400 relay team not only beat Eaglecrest — which it just needed to do in any way — but won the event to secure the program’s first-ever state championship.
“It was a little nerve-wracking, but I was surprising calm today because I just trusted they would get the job done,” said Kunz, whose team finished with 66 points to the Raptors’ 61. “You never know in relays what’s going to happen because there are so many variables, but I knew my girls were going to pull it off in the end.
“I’ve seen them compete all year and they thrive under pressure.”
The Golden Eagles got plenty of pressure from Eaglecrest, which got points in plenty of places and built a lead with just two events remaining to be scored after sophomore Rhyan Gadlin and junior Zenobia Witt both placed in the top six in the 300 meter hurdles.
Mountain Vista responded with wins in both the 4x100 and 4x400 to surge to a special victory. The Golden Eagles ended up with gold in three of the four relay events, missing only in the 4x800, in which they did not make it to the finals.
Junior Payton Mathelier anchored a win in the 4x400 relay in each of the past two seasons and enjoyed bringing home the title.
“We won last year and I anchored that as well, but it was a little bit less of a dramatic race,” Mathelier said. “This year, it was tight, it was close and (second place) Golden was right on us. I just felt like I had to do it for our team. We had a lot on the line, so I was glad I was able to bring it home. …This championship means so much to our team.”
Junior Kayleigh Besch played a large role for Mountain Vista with her work on relays and a fifth place in the triple jump, while senior Ariana Akey and junior Reese Rotolo ran on multiple winning relays.
Eaglecrest (the state runner-up for a second year in a row) was disappointed in the end result, but expects to return nearly entire team, including Witt, who has six all-time state championships — including three straight in the long jump — and placed second in the 100 meter hurdles on the final day of the meet.
The Raptors plan to come into next season to seek redemption and hope to find it the way Fossil Ridge senior Addyson Smith did this season.
Smith and Heritage junior Zona Welling went head-to-head as they did last season and this time, there results were flipped. Welling won the 100 last season by just 0.01 of a second over Smith and also defeated her in the 200, but this time Smith topped Welling by 0.18 of a second in the 100 and by 0.32 of a second in the 200.
“It’s been in the back of my mind every practice, every time I’m training and I was laying on the ground (tired), I was thinking about it,” the Oregon State recruit said. “I came here and did what I wanted to and now I have a clean slate for college. I couldn’t be happier.”
Smith called Welling “amazing” and that the two had developed a rare “friendship through competition.”
“We could come out here and not speak to each other, but we cheer each other on and push each other to be the best version of ourselves,” she said. “Honestly, Zona is a big part of where I am now and what I’m going to do in the future.”
The two hurdles championships went to different athletes, as Northfield senior Amber Calender opened the day with a victory in the 100 meter hurdles — in which she edged Witt — and the 300 meter hurdles later went to Fountain-Fort Carson senior Alexa Queen, who repeated in the event.
Cherokee Trail freshman Madison Lange completed an outstanding debut meet — in which she was the runner-up in the 3,200 meters and third in the 800 — with a victory over a star-studded field in the 1,600 meter run. Lange surged past Heritage senior Emry Schwalm, who was looking to double up after taking the 3,200, to win in 4 minutes, 52.32 seconds.
Many of the field event state championships were decided on the first two days, but winners were crowned in the triple jump and shot put on the final day.
Cherry Creek senior Renata Bergstrom won of those earlier events — the pole vault, back on Thursday — and she bookended the meet with another gold, this time in the triple jump. Bergstrom’s margin of victory was a scant 1 3/4 inches, as her best jump of 37-11 3/4 put her just in front of Rock Canyon’s Pooja Srikanth (37-10) and Ponderosa’s Mackenzie Rankin (37-9 3/4) in a close bunching at the top.
Vista Ridge senior Meron Hoffman earned a win in the shot put by just five inches over Rocky Mountain senior Kaia Bennett, who won the discus and was in search of a sweep of the throws. Hoffman’s top throw of 39 feet, 10 3/4 inches, kept her clear of Bennett’s 39-5 1/2.