One year after the Coal Ridge girls track and field team came heartbreakingly close to a Class 3A state title, the Titans boys team made sure the program’s next trip to Jeffco Stadium ended with a championship banner.

Coal Ridge’s boys team won the three-day CHSAA Class 3A state championship meet in Lakewood with 86 points, finishing nearly 20 points ahead of second-place The Classical Academy and securing the first boys track and field state title in school history. The Coal Ridge girls team finished fifth with 57 points.

“It was such a fun weekend,” Titans head coach Ben Kirk said. “You always kind of know if you’re actually able to compete at that level, but to actually do it is a whole different thing. Our team was very talented, but seeing them compete against the state’s best teams and go above and beyond what we expected was super awesome. It still feels a little surreal.”

At the 2025 meet, the Titans girls team fell just 11 points short of claiming their second state title of the decade. Nearly one year later, the boys team finished the job, bringing the first boys track and field state championship banner back to Coal Ridge High School.

“There’s a huge difference between a good team and a good program, and we put a ton of effort into trying to have a good program that all kids, no matter their talent level, are treated the exact same,” Kirk said. “We want all of them to grow and get better and not be afraid of competing. There are high expectations, but no individual focus; everyone gets to compete.”

Kirk said that collective, team-first mentality helped carry Coal Ridge to the top.

A large share of the Titans’ points came in the triple jump, where Coal Ridge swept the podium with senior Aiden Huey, junior Marcus Munoz and sophomore Clayton Terrell. But Kirk said the difference came from athletes across the roster outperforming expectations and adding points wherever they could.

He said that after Thursday and Friday’s events, Coal Ridge was on pace to win by a slim margin if everything went according to plan.

“It was super close, I had us winning by like four points,” he said. “We just had a ton of kids do more than they were supposed to; our kids just had an awesome day. It just felt like, event after event, we were placing a little better than we anticipated. We had kids that weren’t supposed to make the finals sneak in, and those two points from eighth place represent exactly what we ask our kids to do: do your best.”

The Titans did not just dominate the triple jump. They also made their mark in the long jump, led by Munoz’s state meet record jump of 23 feet, 2.75 inches. Terrell finished fourth, and Huey finished fifth. In all, Coal Ridge scored 43 points between the triple jump and long jump. The Titans also finished second in the 400-meter relay.

While Kirk said it has become difficult for Front Range schools to ignore what Coal Ridge has built, the Titans still carry a chip on their shoulders as a Western Slope program competing against larger metro-area schools.

“I think people recognize Coal Ridge in 3A track, but I do think it’s something we always carry with us because 3A on the Western Slope is so much different than the 3A teams we’re competing against from the middle of Fort Collins or Colorado Springs,” Kirk said.

“I think it says a lot about our kids and our coaches in terms of what they put into the program,” he continued. “For us, whoever walks through that door is who we get; it could be 600 one year and 500 the next, and we have no control over that, so we take a lot of pride in being able to compete with those schools knowing we’re not dealing with the same demographics or situations.”

Kirk said his favorite part of the weekend was watching both teams celebrate together as one program. Based on the reaction, he said, it would have been easy to think both teams had won state titles.

“There were girls crying because they were so happy the boys won it,” Kirk said. “They weren’t mad or jealous; they were happy because it was our program. It’s cool because all year long, our girls and boys have been super competitive and have held fun competitions among the teams.

“We would be at the Eagle Valley meet, and the girls score 140, and the boys get 135, so the girls get to rub it in all week,” he continued. “That type of stuff helps them both get better and continue to sharpen their competitiveness.”