Rifle High junior Troy Mataia and Grand Valley seniors Jacob Doyle and Kade Sackett were Garfield County’s top finishers on the opening day of the Colorado Track and Field Championships in Lakewood on Thursday.

Mataia took second in the Class 3A shot put, going 48 feet, 6.25 inches to finish in the runner-up position behind event winner Johnny Whyrick of University, who had a throw of 52′-10.5″.

In the 2A class, Doyle was second in the discus at 152′-7″ in an event won by Rangely’s Kenyon Cochrane (157′-3″).

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Sackett took third in the 2A boys triple jump, with a leap of 43 feet, 3.5 inches.

Other podium finishes for area teams included the Coal Ridge boys 4×800 relay team, which took ninth in 8 minutes, 27.24 seconds; and Basalt’s Jacey Read, ninth in the 3A girls high jump at 4 foot, 9 inches.

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Finishing off the podium were Glenwood Springs senior Breauna Sorensen, 13th in the 4A girls long jump (16 feet, 5 inches), and the Coal Ridge girls 4×800 relay (16th, 11:07.12). Glenwood senior Sophia Connerton-Nevin, competing in the 4A girls 3200 meters, was unable to finish, and senior Ruby Patch did not qualify for the finals in the 100-meter hurdles, finishing 13th in the prelims (16.69).

Several area sprinters and sprint relay teams made the Saturday finals coming out of Thursday’s preliminaries, including:

For the boys, Coal Ridge’s Omar Vergara, seventh qualifier in the 3A boys 400 meters (51.00) and Dylan Campbell, eighth qualifier in the 400 (51.04);

And for the girls, the Coal Ridge 800 sprint medley relay (first, 1:50.60), the Coal Ridge 4×200 relay (fifth, 1:46.63), Coal Ridge’s Jackie Camunez in the 400 meters (sixth, 1:00.88), Basalt’s Jacey Read in the 100 meters (sixth, 13.02) and in the 200 (fifth, 25.44), Basalt’s Ava Lane in the 400 (second, 59.47), Rifle’s Rylan Petree in the 400 (ninth, 1:02.04), and in 2A, the Grand Valley girls 800 medley, (sixth, 1:56.05)

The Coal Ridge boys 4×200 relay just missed the qualifying cut, placing 10th in the prelims with the time of 1:31.21.

The state track and field competition continues Friday and Saturday at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood.