LAKEWOOD — Jefferson Academy had never had a state champion before Thursday’s state track and field championships at Jeffco Stadium.
By night’s end, the Jaguars boasted two individual title winners in sophomore Chrisly Kelly-Cannon in the long jump and junior Sierra Haberman in the high jump. En route to victory, Haberman didn’t even need to meet her personal record of 5 feet, 4.5 inches. Five feet and four inches did the trick just fine.
“I barely missed 5-5 (today), but I’ll get there next year. It just felt really good today,” Haberman said. “Honestly, what makes me jump better is when I have competition to jump against, so it was really nice to have someone to push you to do better. All the girls today did really amazing, so it was really nice to see everyone.”
She only hit 5-2.5 at the beginning of the season, but slowly worked her way up the ladder as the season progressed through extensive and very targeted training.
“It’s a very specific sport, so it’s kind of hard to find places to jump, but whenever something opens in the summer or in the winter, I just try to go there to get some jumps in,” she said. “Also, definitely a big part of it is just weight training, doing a lot of box jumps, a lot of lifting to help me get that strength.”
Next year, she hopes to reach new heights at 5-8.
Other notables from Thursday afternoon:
- Jefferson Academy’s Hallie Williams improved upon her high jump seed of 4 feet, 11 inches as she flung herself to a fourth-place tie in the 3A competition. The Jaguar sophomore hit a season-best at an even 5 feet to peak at just the right time.
- Twin Peaks Charter Academy’s Aaron Jenkins also improved upon his 10 minute, 43.67 second seed time in the 3,200-meter run as he managed sixth place with a 10:40.91 final time.
- Lyons’ Quin Gregg paced herself to a fifth-place finish in the Class 2A girls 3,200-meter run as she clocked a 12:14.18 time, which was an incredible 33 seconds better than her seeding mark.
- The Lyons boys 3,200-meter relay team took home eighth place in the Class 2A competition as they ran for a collective 8:53.16. They improved by nine seconds.
- Holy Family’s girls 3,200-meter team also managed eighth as they clocked in at 10:07.05. They beat out their previous seed time by 22 seconds to rise in the ranks
