AURORA | City teams and athletes won a combined four team championships and 12 individual events in the final weeks of the 2016 spring prep sports season. Here’s a look at one of Aurora’s individual state event winners, the Cherokee Trail Class 5A girls state track champion 4×100 meter relay team of sophomores Jaiden Paris, Taylor Watson and Sydnee Larkin and senior Symonne Holland:
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or [email protected] Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
CHEROKEE TRAIL’S JAIDEN PARIS, TAYLOR WATSON, SYDNEE LARKIN & SYMONNE HOLLAND: 5A GIRLS 4X100 METER RELAY STATE CHAMPIONS
On May 21, Cherokee Trail sophomores Jaiden Paris and Taylor Watson and senior Symonne Holland won their second girls Class 5A relay state championship in as many days at Jefferson County Stadium, while sophomore Sydnee Larkin anchored the relay on the same day she won an individual state title in the triple jump for coach Chris Faust’s Cougars. Seeded second coming into the state meet, Cherokee Trail — which finished second behind Eaglecrest in the event at the Centennial League Championship meet the previous week — went head-t0-head with top-seeded Denver East in the final in one of the closest races in three days of competition at the state meet. In the end, Larkin leaned across the finish line just in front of freshman phenom Arria Minor — who won the open 100, 200 and 400 meter races — as the Cougars finished in 47.19 seconds to the 47.23 of the Angels, who had recorded the top time in Colorado this season with a 46.99 a day earlier in prelims. Holland and Watson also ran on Cherokee Trail’s winning 4×100 relay in 2015. At this season’s state meet, Paris also placed in both of the hurdles events (7th in 100 hurdles & 9th in 300 hurdles), Watson grabbed sixth place the 100 meter dash and Larkin also finished in the top five in the 100 meters (fifth) and long jump (third) as part of a large placing contingent for the Cougars, who finished third as a team.
