LAKEWOOD – After showing his speed throughout the season and entering the state meet seeded No. 1, it was no surprise that Ayden Casillas ended up atop the Jeffco Stadium podium Saturday as 3A’s 100-meter king at the 2026 Colorado High School Track & Field State Championships
After clocking 10.74 seconds to win at BHS’ last Western Slope stop this spring, Casillas returned to the Metro Area and punctuated his prep career by posting the same time in the state event’s Day 3 final. He’d run a slower 10.97 in the third preliminary on Thursday, but still secured a spot in the supreme showdown and ultimately outran Denver West senior Ernest Fields, closing at Casillas’ right, by two-hundredths of a second.
Pagosa Springs senior Colton Lucero, one of Casillas’ Intermountain League rivals, clocked 10.90 and placed third.
Unable to complete the 100/200 dash double, Casillas’ 22.16 time in the latter (he’d posted 22.07 in the second prelim) was still good enough to earn third place – behind Fields (21.77) and Colorado Springs Harrison senior Thiago Roberts (21.49) – and another seven points toward the Wolverines’ 10th-place total of 26.
Spring-loaded Bayfield junior Tanner Vyborny again exhibited his well-known hops in the high jump and placed second with a best clearance of 6 feet, 7 inches. Neither he nor IML rival Trey Hall of Montezuma-Cortez could clear 6-08 with any one of three tries, and Hall was declared the winner by way of topping 6-07 on his first attempt while Vyborny did so on his second.
Senior Kyle Russell earned Bayfield’s other team point via his ninth-place 13-01 in the pole vault during Day 2 competition. Elizabeth sophomore Ronin Lundgren also maxed out at 13-01, but was awarded eighth place for having needed two fewer tries than Russell to clear the height.
Having elected not to join the action until the bar was raised to 15 feet, one inch, Lafayette Peak to Peak senior Ethan Rathke went over the bar on his third try, but failed thrice in going for a new state-championship record 16-01.
Vyborny finished 14th in the long jump with a 19-07 best, while BHS’ 4x200 relay (sophomore Colton Casillas, Vyborny, freshman Silas Morrison, Ayden Casillas) ranked 13th, and the 4x100 (44.41; C. Casillas, Morrison, junior James Sandoval, A. Casillas) an unlucky 17th.
All told, New Castle-based Coal Ridge earned a first-place 86 points and held off Colorado Springs The Classical Academy (67) and Harrison (65).
WOLVERINES GIRLS SHARE 31ST: Though able to qualify for the state championships in four events, Bayfield junior Vivien Clance encountered much resistance and managed to place in the top 10 in two, but score in just one as the Wolverines ended up tying Granby Middle Park for 31st in the 3A Girls’ standings with one point apiece.
Ninth in the 100 prelims with a 12.59, Clance slowed to 12.95 in the Day 3 final and remained ninth. Her 26.04 in the 200 prelims on Day 1 was almost quick enough to advance her into the nine-runner final – won by Berthoud junior Sofia Sigg in a time of 25.14 seconds.
Clance clocked a 12th-place 1:01.24 in the 400 prelims and placed 15th in the high jump with a 4-09 best.
Senior Delilah Zink competed in the shot put and placed 16th with a 29-8 1/2 throw.
One-hundred champion Reese Blackwood (12.17) and TCA racked up 119 points and won the team title handily over Berthoud (72) and Eaton (69.5).
