In a real big hurry, Colorado is earning a reputation for something more than Broncomania and champagne powder.
But blink and you will miss it.
Teenagers Jeremy Rankin of Overland High School and Dominick Roberts of Denver East are blazing a trail as nationally ranked sprinters.
“A lot of people think about Colorado as just mountains and cowboys,” Roberts said Saturday.
Hello, Board of Tourism? Get me rewrite. And fast.
We do more than ski in Colorado. We fly.
Against competition he left choking on fumes, Roberts won the 400 meters in a blistering 47.54 seconds at the Class 5A state track meet.
Rankin might be making a name for himself even more quickly. A mere sophomore, he blew the cover off the Colorado prep record book in the 100 meters. His time of 10.32 seconds is the second-fastest by any American prep runner this year, according to the Dyestat Rankings.
And those smoking performances were only a prelude to how Roberts and Rankin burned up the track and brought down the house when they met in a showdown at 200 meters.
Who won?
Every man, woman and child in Jeffco Stadium were left breathless as Rankin and Roberts shifted into sixth gear and roared down the straightaway, red-lining it to the finish line.
These guys make lightning look tardy.
There must be something in the Rocky Mountain spring water.
“I’ve been out of state,” Roberts said, “And people say, ‘Oh, you’re from Colorado. Do you ski to school?”‘
“We don’t get no respect and recognition for track around here,” Rankin added. “People try to say the altitude helps us.”
Thin air equals faster feet? Come on. That does not compute.
“But there is a lot of science and mathematics goes into running track, believe it or not,” said Roberts, a junior who sounds smart enough to be the kid with the algebra homework every classmate wants to copy.
In the grand tradition of the wild West, the showdown between two of America’s best young sprinters was on neutral turf, at 200 meters, the race between the specialties of Rankin and Roberts.
But was this really a fair fight?
“I think the 100 guy has the advantage,” Rankin admitted.
As he coiled muscle on muscle into the blocks in Lane 4 when the starter’s gun went up, everybody thought the race belonged to Rankin.
Sprinters don’t talk much smack. But nothing can intimidate like raw speed.
“The only intimidation you should ever feel in the starting blocks is what you allow inside yourself,” said Roberts, who started on the outside in Lane 7 and refused to be scared of his bigger rival. “I thought the odds were good. Plus, it’s also my birthday. So luck was on my side.”
It was Roberts who took off like a rocket.
You know Rankin took a peek, and he never quite got over the initial shock.
With amazing composure while operating at full throttle, Roberts raced to first place in 21.14 seconds, less than half a hiccup ahead of the blue-hot blur of Overland school colors.
On an awards podium erected maybe 15 strides from where they crossed the finish line, the 17-year-old Roberts stood as proudly as a math wizard who had crunched all the numbers and figured out how to pull off a minor miracle.
Rankin stared at the ground is disgust, bent at the waist, and stuck his second-place medal where nobody could see it, in his sock.
“I’m very disappointed. I beat him earlier this year,” said Rankin, the need for revenge so real it glistened on the back of his neck. “But (Roberts) ran a heck of a race. I’ve never seen him like that.”
Look out, world. And be thankful, Colorado.
Neither Rankin nor Roberts figure to be done tearing up tracks or record books in this state.
Again next year, the fastest feet in the West will be challenging each other to prep showdowns.
How did this become one of the fiercest, juiciest, man-on-man sports rivalries in the Rocky Mountains?
Real quick.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
