Even With A Loss, Arria Minor Enjoys Historic State Meet 

By Brent W. New for DyeStat

LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Denver East junior Arria Minor left the Colorado track and field championships with state records, a bounty of gold medals and – uh, a cringe-worthy runner-up medal.

It was a whirlwind of emotions for Colorado’s fastest girl over the weekend.

And now it’s in her rearview mirror.

“It’s always the next thing. It’s never living in the past,” said Minor, who won three golds on Saturday’s finals after etching out two state records in Thursday’s preliminaries at Jefferson County Stadium.

“In two hours, state will be just another meet and I’m focused on Great Southwest.”

The Great Southwest Classic will run from May 31 to June 2 in Albuquerque, N.M. Minor may have a chip on her shoulder when she gets there.

The junior began a wet and windy final day with a win in the 100 (11.51 seconds) before her streak of seven individual golds at state was ended in 400 silver.

Minor, who had lowered her own state records in the 400 (51.92) and 200 (22.89) in prelims, didn’t warm up for the 400, and it cost her. She said her hamstrings tightened up with 50 meters to go in the event as Grandview’s Lily Williams swooped from behind and outstretched Minor by .09 seconds in 53.85.

Minor said it was the first time she’d raced a 400 in Colorado and didn’t win.

“It’s definitely humbling,” Minor said. “It’s good to have those kinds of moments. They hurt a lot, especially on such a big stage in front of the whole state. It’s tough, but it’s good.”

Minor went on to blur past the field in the 200 (23.60) and 4x100 (47.10) to give her nine state titles in her career – with one more year to go

Her one silver? “It keeps you hungry,” she smiled.

Also claiming three golds on the day, Discovery Canyon senior Lauren Gale made her emphatic return from hip surgery to the top of the state podium with wins in the 4A 100 (11.79), 200 (24.05) and 400 (54.23).

The Canadian – she moved to Colorado in 2015 – swept the same three events when she arrived on scene. Her fortune changed that winter when X-rays found she’d been running with a torn labrum.

“Yeah, not fun,” she said.

Following surgery and a few months of physical therapy, Gale admittedly returned too soon and ran at state as junior. She took two silvers but suffered pain throughout.

Since then, she’s worked to get her endurance back – even electing to join the school’s JV swim team in the winter. It wasn’t until these last few weeks, though, that Gale said she finally felt ready.

“It was only two meets ago that I finally ran 54 in the 400 – and I was like ‘Ah, that only took a year-and-a-half to get,’” the Colorado State commit said. “But honestly just the prelims at state were fast for me and I was super surprised. … That gave me a whole lot of confidence.”

Gale finished “overjoyed,” she said.

On the boys’ side, Valor Christian sophomore Cole Sprout claimed his spot atop the 4A podium as he ran to gold Friday in the 3,200 meters (9:22.10) and Saturday in the 1,600 (4:14.54).

Sprout’s 1,600 time was the fastest among all classifications at the meet. Broomfield’s Michael Mooney, who won the 5A 1,600 (4:16.15), had the fastest overall time in the 3,200 (9:12.97).

Sprout impressed at his second state meet, winning both his events handily. He took the 3,200 by nearly 12 seconds over Wheat Ridge’s Drew Seidel and then pulled away over the final 300 meters of the 1,600 to comfortably hold off Silver Creek’s James Lee (4:19.80) and Niwot’s Cruz Culpepper (4:20.18).

Sprout transferred from Faith Christian to Valor Christian after last year when he took second in both distance events to Tanner Norman, who is now at Iowa State.

“It feels great to be in the same sentence as great runners like Tanner Norman,” Sprout said." My hope is to just get better and see where it takes me.”

Earlier in the month Sprout broke the state record in the 3,200 in drier conditions (9:01.53), eclipsing Norman’s 9:04.97. He pushed at another record in 1,600 Saturday, but couldn’t leg out Rich Martinez’s 1981 record of 4:10.98 amidst the sweeping showers.

“I was aiming for the record,” Sprout admitted. “The weather didn’t quite cooperate, but it was a good race.”

Eying a state record of his own was Fountain-Fort Carson’s Jequan Hogan, who had openly talked during the season about his mission to overtake the 45-year mark of 51 feet and ¼ inch in the triple jump. 

In a muddy mess, though, he came up short. 

Fort Collins’ Allam Bushara beat the heavy favorite with a final jump of 49-9.25. Jumpers splashed in soggy pits throughout Saturday and were covered in wet sand. Hogan, the indoor national champion, scratched one attempt that was near 50 feet but settled for second at 48-1.25.

“I came in thinking I had a chance,” Bushara said. “Then (Hogan) jumped a 48-1 and didn’t jump (for a while), and that’s when I knew I had a chance. He wasn’t taking all his jumps, so I was like 'I need to get after it.'"

Fountain-Fort Carson did manage to win the 5A boys team title. Jalen Lyon led the way with wins in the 200 (21.65), 400 (48.10), 4x200 (1:26.53) and 4x400 (3:19.37). Last year, Lyon took silver in the 400 and 4x200 and left the meet with one gold in 4x100.

“This year I wasn’t settling for second,” he said.

Elsewhere, Emily Sloan of Rock Canyon made amends from last year’s mishap in the 5A 300 hurdles (41.42) with a win and added her fourth straight gold in the 100 hurdles (13.59).

“I feel relieved,” said Sloan, who clipped a hurdle in the 300 last year and settled for second. "My goals were all met this year.”

On Friday, the Oregon-bound Sloan broke the 300 hurdles state record with a time of 40.60 in prelims. Her friend and club teammate, Anna Hall, had held the record for a brief time Friday with a prelim mark of 40.76.

“We were going hard for the record that day because we knew the weather wouldn’t be as nice (Saturday),” Hall said. “We kind of gave everything in prelims.”

The Valor Christian junior still went on to win both 4A hurdle events (14.23/42.67) on the final day to go along with her gold in the long jump (18-9.75). She led the Eagles to their first team title in 4A.

Other girls team winners included Cherokee Trail (5A), The Classical Academy (3A), Highland (2A) and Shining Mountain (1A). Boys team winners were Silver Creek (4A), Bayfield (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Heritage Christian (1A).