The long-awaited Colorado State Track and Field Championships are underway at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood, Colorado.

It has been over two years since the last state championship meet, and Western Slope athletes have been chomping at the bit to race at Colorado’s highest stage again or, for many, the very first time.

In the 4A classification, junior Ella Johnson from Glenwood Springs was able to place fourth in the 3200-meter run in a time of 10:58.73. It was not only a personal best for Johnson but also a new school record, besting Katrina Selsor’s 11:18.36 from 2006.

Close on Johnson’s heels was Eagle Valley’s Samantha Blair who placed fifth with a time of 10:59.29.

In the girl’s 4×800 meter relay, Glenwood Springs placed third in a time of 9:48.42. The Lady Demons relay team of Sophia Connerton-Nevin, Sophia Vigil, Maria Carlson and Johnson improved its best time for the year by 12 seconds and finished three places higher than their ranking coming into the meet.

Senior Taber Uyehara of Glenwood Springs finished third in his heat of the 110-meter hurdles prelims, securing the automatic qualifier to Saturday’s event finals. Uyehara will also run the prelims of the 300-meter hurdles on Friday.

Uyehara’s teammate, Brian Delgado ran a lifetime best time of 50.28 in the 400-meter dash to earn his spot in the final on Saturday.

In the 4A boys discus, Trace Hobbs from Eagle Valley mustered a throw of 145.04 feet; good for eigth place in the event.

In the 4A boys pole vault, Isaac San Diego from Eagle Valley tied for seventh with a vault of 11-09 feet; an improvement of 6 inches from his previous personal best.

Eagle Valley also placed eighth in the 4×800 meter relay with a time of 8:18.28; a 4-second improvement from its season best.

Lady Titans in team title hunt

Moving onto the 3A classification, the Western Slope shined bright in Thursday’s relays. In the girls 4×800 meter relay two area teams made the podium with Basalt (Sierra Bower, Ava Lane, Kaitlin Booth and Katelyn Maley) placing third and Coal Ridge (Taylee Richards, Araceli Ayala, Marilynn Stephens and Mikayla Cheney) seventh.

The Coal Ridge Lady Titans also qualified their 4×200 and Sprint Medley relay teams that will compete again tomorrow.

Coal Ridge’s Peyton Garrison began her events at the state meet by easily qualifying in the 100, 200, 400-meter races. She will compete in all three sprint finals and a relay in the next two days.

Coal Ridge also found success today in the high jump where Marin Simons was able to capture a silver medal in the event. Her best jump was 5-04. Basalt’s Katie Bohannan followed Simons with a height of 5-0, placing fourth.

Coal Ridge currently sits in third in the girls team rankings after day one, and is a strong contender for the championship.

In the boy’s relays, Moffat County and Coal Ridge’s 4×200 advanced to tomorrow’s final.

Rulbe Alvardo from Basalt High School rounded out the Roaring Fork Valley’s spectacular start to state by qualifying for the final of the 400-meter and 200-meter races.

Grand Valley boys 4×800 6th

In the 2A championships Thursday, the Grand Valley High boys 4×800 relay took sixth place. The team of Keaton Jansen, Nikolai Stammer, Hector Delacruz and Kade Sackett ran a time of 8:50.20. In the 2A girls meet, Grand Valley senior Alex Mendoza enters the 100-meter hurdles final as the fourth qualifier out of the prelims, with a time of 16.73.