LAKEWOOD – Niwot’s quest for a fifth-consecutive team championship in Class 4A girls track and field is off to a good start.
On Thursday, the first day of the state meet at Jefferson Country Stadium, the Cougars cruised to the title in the girls 4x800m relay, while junior Jade West won her second-consecutive state title in the shot put.
“This is just like symbolic of our hard work, this relay, because the 800 is brutal and putting four girls to run it under the sun, it takes a strong mind,” said senior Olivia Alessandrini. “All four of us went out here to celebrate all we’ve done this season and this was just the way to top it off.”
Alessandrini teamed with fellow senior Mia Prok and sophomores Anna Prok and Addison Ritzenhein to finish in 9 minutes, 7.21 seconds. All four are ranked top 11 in the open 800 and the group got things going for Niwot, which has won every 4A girls team title since 2019.
“This is always one of the first relays that we win, so it’s like, yeah, we’re in,” Alessandrini said of setting the tone for the team.
Niwot, which has won the 3,200-meter relay four years in a row, cruised past second-place Grand Junction Central (9:35.66).
West came in as the overwhelming favorite in the shot put and didn’t have much trouble claiming the crown for the second year in a row. She posted a winning throw of 43 feet, 4 inches, which was shy of her personal best, but comfortably ahead of the field. Addison Bartlett of Riverdale Ridge was second with a season-best throw of 38-9.25.
West said she didn’t feel any pressure to repeat. She just came to enjoy the day.
“I just came to have fun and be with my fellow competition that’s graduating this year and just get to have one last good meet with them,” West said. “I think I did pretty consistent for me. I’m not complaining. It was a good mark, it was better than last year (40-8.25). Not a PR but there’s more to come and I know that. … I don’t think that there was any pressure on me and I don’t think I put that much pressure on me. I just kind of wanted to go and perform like I always do and just have fun.”
In the other two finals on Thursday – the high jump and triple jump – the defending champion was dethroned.
In the triple jump, Pueblo West junior Bradie Menegatti claimed her first state title with a leap of 38 feet, 0.75 inches. She barely knocked off Longmont’s Ella Pears (38-0.5), who finished second after winning the title a year ago.
Menegatti, a junior, was competing in the triple jump at state for the first time, but had come up short in other events. She had one runner-up finish and two third-place finishes in previous years – and wound up second in the high jump later on Thursday.
“It was so awesome and I don’t have a lot of experience in triple jump,” she said. “I’ve done it like twice, and so to come out here and just have one of those really far jumps to win it, it was just so surreal. But kind of so deserving. You’re just like, ‘Finally.’ … To win it was just awesome.
“(State) is the most fun meet all year and this year is nice weather thank goodness, but no matter what, it’s just fun to be around the best and compete against the best. And, when you win it, it’s a whole other excitement. It was just awesome.”
In the high jump, Roosevelt sophomore Braelyn Bailey took the title with a personal-best leap of 5 feet, 7 inches. Menegatti was second at 5-5, while 2023 champion Eva Bellot of Green Mountain was fourth at 5-3.
“It’s amazing,” Bailey said. “Like I can’t even describe the feeling. It’s just so good.”
A year ago, Bailey was runner-up, but was energized when she hit 5-7 for the first time, breaking her PR of 5-6.5.
“I was like, I couldn’t even believe it,” she said. “I was like, ‘Did I really just do that?’ It was amazing.”
As a sophomore, Bailey has a chance to win a couple of more titles and said this will boost her thoughts of a three-peat.
“I’m just gonna work harder than a lot of people every single day and put in the work that others aren’t doing so I can get that three-peat,” she said.