AURORA – Work hard and run fast, that’s what the Unruh family does.
“A good base of it is natural, but our family is very into working hard on everything we do,” Cheyenne Wells junior Roxy Unruh said of her sprinting speed. “We’ve taken a lot of time to do a lot of extra acceleration drills, working on our form. Each sister varies as far as how into track we are, but it’s mostly hard work.”
Unruh – a junior – is already a five-time individual state sprinting champion in 1A, having won both the 100m and 200m as a freshman at Prairie and then the 100m, 200m and 400m last year after moving back to Cheyenne Wells.
After running 1A meet-record times in all three championship races last season, Unruh is looking to do it again this year while possibly event taking a shot at a fourth individual title. That will be one of the storylines at the CHSAA Track & Field Championships, which take place May 15 through 17 at Jeffco Stadium.
While Unruh’s mom has been competing in triathlons and marathons “for as long as I can remember,” Unruh and her four sisters have been impressive in shorter events.
Oldest sister Rhiley started the trend, while Reece placed fifth in both the 100m and 200m at the 2019 state championships.
Then along came Roxy, who set a 1A state-meet record of 12.38 in winning the 100m. She also won the 200m in 25.86, anchored the winning 4x100m relay and anchored the third-place 4x200m for Prairie, helping that team to a third-place overall finish in 2023.
Last year, at Cheyenne Wells, Unruh’s 1A state-meet records were 12.21 in the 100m, 25.64 in the 200m, and 57.52 in the 400m. She also anchored the second-place sprint medley relay as the Tigers placed sixth.
“She’s a treasure because it’s fun to coach kids who enjoy what they’re doing,” Cheyenne Wells coach Jason Muth said. “You don’t always get kids who are excellent athletes and love their sport. Sometimes they have raw talent and they feel like they have to do it. But Roxy loves track.
“A lot of it is her extra work. She goes to track camps. She puts in the extra time on the track working on her starts. She is a technician. She bought her own set of blocks to work on her starts. … She’s got a great attitude, and she’s tough.”
The remainder of the Unruh sisters include Raychell, a freshman, and Roary, an eight-grader.
“Roary is really fast,” Roxy said. “She’s running 12s (in the 100m) right now, so that’s really exciting.”
Said Muth: “We could potentially have all three sisters running next year. It might be fun to get them on a relay.”
Or, it’s possible that Roxy is running that fourth individual event.
She’ll soon give the 800 meters a shot.
“(Muth) has been trying to get me to run the 800 for a little bit, and colleges have been wanting me to try it out to see what I can do,” Unruh said.
The goal by season’s end is to challenge the school record of 2:22 in the event. That time would have won the 1A state-meet race by three seconds last year.
“She’s such a smooth runner, and she runs the 400 so well, I think that she’ll look really good in the 800 – and it will help her 400 too,” Muth said. “I’m super thankful for the colleges who keep telling her she should run it. I felt like that broke the ice for me to go ahead and keep trying to hammer it home.”
What to do with Unruh’s four-event lineup at state is a decision that will have to be made over the next couple of weeks.
“That’s our dilemma – four individual events, or do we try a relay somewhere?” Muth said.
At state last year, Unruh would have won the 100m in both 2A and 4A while finishing second in 3A and tied for seventh in 5A.
She’s already run faster in both the 100m and 200m this season, with times of 12.11 and 25.19, respectively. She also went 16 feet, 6 inches in the long jump, which would have been good enough to win state last year in 1A.
Geography being what it is, Unruh isn’t always challenged in some of her regular-season meets.
“Next year that’s something we’ll be considering more when we make our meet schedule, maybe trying to take a few trips to the I-25 corridor to give her a push,” Muth said. “There are a few out here who can push her in the 400, but we just didn’t run into them early in the season.
“But the 100 … it’s really not very fair.”
Unruh also returned to basketball this past season, averaging 5.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals for a Cheyenne Wells team that reached the round of 16 in the 1A state tournament.
“It’s fun,” Unruh said. “It’s good conditioning for track. … I get to stay with Muth, because he’s our basketball coach, too. It’s a lot of fun. I like that group of girls – that’s how we actually got a couple of them to join track this year.”
Said Muth: “It was so nice. She’s long, she’s obviously fast, and she’s a competitor.”
Muth said NCAA Division I track & field should be in Unruh’s future. And whichever school she decides upon will be getting more than just an athlete.
“She has not reached her peak of what she’s capable of,” Muth said. “There’s room for growth for whoever gets her. I definitely believe she’s a Division I talent.
“And she’s not just a track athlete – she is a tremendous student.”