AURORA | City teams and athletes won one team state championship and 11 individual titles during the final weeks of the 2017 spring prep sports season. Here’s an in-depth look at Grandview’s Kylee Harr, Jordyn Moore, Kameryn Brown and Lily Williams, the Class 5A girls 800 meter sprint medley relay state champions:
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or [email protected] Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
GRANDVIEW’S KYLEE HARR, JORDYN MOORE, KAMERYN BROWN & LILY WILLIAMS: 5A GIRLS 800 METER SPRINT MEDLEY RELAY STATE CHAMPS
With the Class 5A state track meet cut from three days down to two because of weather, teams got just one chance to run the 800 meter sprint medley relay as opposed the usual prelims-finals format. For Grandview, that would be be a somewhat tenuous situation given it inserted junior Kylee Harr into the relay group just two days before competition. The Wolves came into the event as the No. 1 overall seed with a top time of 1 minute, 46.68 seconds — set when they won the Centennial League championship May 13 — but with the late lineup switch and a warmup they universally agreed was “chaotic,” a championship result was far from certain. Given her lack of experience in relays, coach John Reyes put Harr in the opening leg so she had to concentrate on just one baton exchange.
Harr worked hard leading up to the meet on starting out of the blocks and got the team off to a strong start in the opening 100 meters, getting the baton to senior Jordyn Moore in strong shape. Moore — who was running her only race of the state meet — ate up the next 100 meters of the race and gave off to freshman Kameryn Brown for the 200 meter leg. Brown, one of five players from Grandview’s girls basketball team that won the 5A state championship in the winter on the track team, kept the momentum going as she put the Wolves in good position for the final lap from fellow freshman Lily Williams. Williams later finished second in the open 400 meters and she delivered a fine preview with her performance to finish off the sprint medley relay, crossing the finish line 0.4 of a second ahead of Mariah Gordon, the anchor for runner-up Eaglecrest. The Wolves clocked a winning time of 1:46.57, the fastest in Colorado for the season regardless of classification. The other two top times in the state came from Eaglecrest and Rangeview, which placed second and third, respectively, to give Aurora programs a sweep of the top three spots on the 5A state medal podium in the event.
It was just the start of a big day for several members of the team, as a short time later, Harr went on to win the state championship in the high jump and Brown and Williams contributed to a second relay state championship along with seniors Kennede Brown and Michaela Onyenwere on the 4×200 meter relay. The Wolves racked up 70 points on the opening day of the abbreviated meet, which put them on the fast track to the program’s first 5A state team championship. Williams ran on the championship-winning 4×400 relay on the second day to cap a fantastic meet for Grandview, which finished with 120 points, the most for a girls team at the 5A state meet since George Washington in 2000.
MORE WE ARE THE (AURORA) CHAMPIONS
We are the (Aurora) champions: Grandview girls track team (5A state track)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Grandview’s Brie Oakley (5A girls 3,200 meters)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Cherokee Trail’s Sydnee Larkin (5A girls triple jump)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Hinkley’s Darrien Wells (5A boys 400 meters)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Grandview’s Kylee Harr (5A girls high jump)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Hinkley’s Angel Heredia (5A boys 300 meter hurdles)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Cherokee Trail’s Jaiden Paris, Taylor Watson, Chian DeLoach, Sydnee Larkin (5A girls 4×100 meter relay)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Grandview’s Kennede Brown, Kameryn Brown, Lily Williams and Michaela Onyenwere (5A girls 4×200 meter relay)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Hinkley’s Casey Sharpe, Oscar Sarabia, Angel Heredia and Darrien Wells (5A boys 4×200 meter relay)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Grandview’s Lily Williams, Kaitlyn Mercer, Kennede Brown and Michaela Onyenwere (5A girls 4×400 meter relay)
We are the (Aurora) champions: Grandview’s Amy Chitkoksoong (5A girls golf)
