Not as many state champions called Aurora home in 2014 as in 2013’s landmark campaign, but it was still a very competitive season for girls track in the city.
Aurora girls won four state titles last season, but came away with only one from the May 15-17 Class 5A state track meet.
The top performances from Aurora athletes at the three-day meet at Jefferson County Stadium makes up the majority of the 2014 Aurora Sentinel All-City Girls Track Team, which includes at least one athlete from five Aurora programs.
The city’s lone state championship came from Eaglecrest’s 800 meter sprint medley relay team of seniors Tashay Brown, Omotumininu Olatipo and Alicia Taurchini and junior Tori Coombe, the lone new member of the team after Ashley Windom graduated from a team that finished second in 2013.
The Raptors fairly coasted to the championship, beating Denver East — which nipped them in the event last season — by more than 1.5 seconds. Eaglecrest’s 1:44.19 marked the second-fastest time in 5A for the season behind George Washington, which ran a smoking 1:42.98 a month earlier at the Thomas Jefferson Twilight meet. The Patriots failed to qualify for the finals in the state meet, however.
Brown, Olatipo and Taurchini, plus sophomore Deme McDowell, had the third-best time in the prelims of the 4×200 relay and finished in the same spot in the finals with a season-best time of 1:40.08, tops among three Aurora finals qualifiers.
Individually, Brown ran a season-best time of 24.20 seconds in the finals of the 200 meters, short of her goal of running under 24 seconds, but good enough to land the recent University of Colorado signee an Aurora-best third place.
Coming into the season, Cherokee Trail coach Loren Turner though his team might have a chance to win a state team title, but the decision of versatile standout Hannah Sparks to focus on basketball and not go out for track tempered those expectations a bit.
Still, the Cougars, who won the Aurora City Championship title and the Centennial League Championship, finished a city-best eighth in the 5A team standings with 37 points boosted by the performance of junior Shayna Yon, who placed fourth individually in the 100 meters and ran with seniors Daisha Stanley and Aunyx Ashby and sophomore Haley Rogers on the 4×100 meter relay team that finished fourth.
Yon wasn’t quite able to top her time of 11.80 seconds set at the Ray Campbell Invitational, which finished as the fifth-fastest in 5A, but the 11.83 she recorded at state brought her across the finish line in fourth place overall.
Despite the absence of Sparks, Cherokee Trail had success in the jumping events, as senior Tiana Cephers posted a fourth-place result in the triple jump and sophomore Amazing Ashby came in eighth in the long jump. Cephers set 5A’s top mark of 37 feet, 7 inches at the Centennial League Championships, but saw that get bettered by the 37-11 1/2 of state champ Stephanie Bess of Arvada West, while Cephers’ top state effort was 36 11 1/2.
Senior Maddie Leatherbury finished in a career-best fourth place in the discus to lead Aurora throwers.
While also playing on Smoky Hill’s outstanding girls soccer team, junior Brynell Yount led Aurora competitors in both the 400 and 800 meters. She got onto the medal podium in the 400 with an eighth-place result — one spot ahead of Grandview’s Sylvana Ross — while she was the only city qualifier in the 800 and placed 17th.
Yount also teamed with senior Chloe Andrie, junior Jamie Jezier and freshman Emmah Johannes on the Buffaloes’ 4×800 meter relay team, which was the lone Aurora outfit to qualify for the state meet. The Buffaloes didn’t get on the medal podium despite running a best time of 9:46.10.
Ann Mahnke earned points for Smoky Hill in both the discus and shot put, in which she placed a city-best eighth with a personal-best throw of 34 feet, 3 1/4 inches, while fellow junior Melanie Vasina topped Aurora pole vaulters.
Grandview dominated the hurdles among city athletes, as senior Karli Cumber ran a season-best time of 14.33 seconds to finish fourth in the 100 meter event, while junior Nicole Mundy clocked a time of 46.36 seconds to come in x
Freshman Michaela Onyenwere came away with four medals in her first state track meet, including running the anchor leg on the 4×400 meter relay that felt just short of Pine Creek at the finish line. The Wolves’ foursome, which also included juniors Mundy and Ross and sophomore Sierra Cade, set the school record a few weeks before state and bettered it at state when they recorded the second-best time in the state all season of 3:49.42, just behind Pine Creek’s 3:49.30.
With the graduation of three-event state champion Ana Holland and triple jump champ Kelsey Cunningham, Regis Jesuit had very little state representation on the girls side. Multi-sport athlete Kellyn Toole earned her way there, but topped out at 4 feet, 11 inches, leaving her in 11th place. She would have made the medal podium if she’d reached her top effort of the year of 5-2 achieved at the Liberty Bell Invitational.
No Aurora girls qualified for the state meet in either the 1,600 or 3,200 meter events, so the All-City representatives — both freshmen — come based on the top times they recorded during the regular season.
Cherokee Trail’s Jordan Herrera paced city runners in the 1,600 with her time of 5:16.97 recorded at the St. Vrain Invitational, while Regis Jesuit’s Julia Vitella led Aurora competitors in the 3,200 with the 11:32.18 she clocked at the Liberty Bell Invitational.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel
2014 AURORA SENTINEL ALL-CITY GIRLS TRACK TEAM
100 meters: Shayna Yon, Cherokee Trail, jr.; 200 meters: Tashay Brown, Eaglecrest, sr.; 400 meters & 800 meters: Brynell Yount, Smoky Hill, jr.; 1,600 meters: Jordan Herrera, Cherokee Trail, fr. (non-state qualifier); 3,200 meters: Julia Vitella, Regis Jesuit, fr. (non-state qualifier); 100 meter hurdles: Karli Cumber, Grandview, sr.; 300 meter hurdles: Nicole Mundy, Grandview, jr.; 4×100 meter relay: Cherokee Trail (Shayna Yon, Daisha Stanley, Aunyx Ashby, Haley Rogers); 4×200 meter relay: Eaglecrest (Tashay Brown, Demi McDowell, Omotumininu Olatipo, Alicia Taurchini); 4×400 meter relay: Grandview (Nicole Mundy, Sylvana Ross, Sierra Cade, Michaela Onyenwere); 4×800 meter relay: Smoky HIll (Jamie Jezier, Emmah Johannes, Chloe Andrie, Brynell Yount); 800 sprint medley relay: Eaglecrest (Omotumininu Olatipo, Tori Coombe, Tashay Brown, Alicia Taurchini)*; High jump: Kellyn Toole, Regis Jesuit, jr.; Long jump: Amazing Ashby, Cherokee Trail, soph.; Triple jump: Tiana Cephers, Cherokee Trail, sr.; Pole vault: Melanie Vasina, Smoky Hill, jr.; Discus: Maddie Leatherbury, Cherokee Trail, sr.; Shot put: Ann Mahnke, Smoky Hill, jr.
* — State champion
HONORABLE MENTION
Tyler Allen, Overland, sr. (triple jump); Ann Mahnke, Smoky Hill, jr. (discus); Michaela Onyenwere, Grandview, fr. (100 meters & 200 meters); Sylvana Ross, Grandview, jr. (400 meters); Shayna Yon, Cherokee Trail, jr. (200 meters); Relays: Grandview 4×100 and 4×200 meter relays; Cherokee Trail 4×200 and 4×400 meter relays
