SUGAR CITY — Shaylee Robinette is faster than you. She doesn’t need to prove it, either. She already has.
The senior sprinter at Crowley County has an astounding seven state titles under her belt, and if all goes as planned this May in Pueblo, that number could jump to 11.
“Eleven would be amazing,” she said, “to come back home and say I’ve done that would be pretty cool.”
The oh-so-modest Robinette is not one to brag about her athletic accomplishments . . . so we will.
Here’s just a few things to ponder: She hasn’t lost a race since 2006. She accounted for all 40 of the Chargers’ points last year at state, good enough for a third-place finish. She has to drive 5 miles east from the school in Ordway to train on a dirt track (dimensions of which are unknown) in Sugar City and 17 miles to Swink to practice her triple jump.
“She has the goals in front of her, and she’s really working hard to accomplish them,” Chargers coach Rich Sumpter said.
Robinette, who first ventured to the state meet in 2005, credits her speed simply to God-given talent. A deeper investigation into her lineage helps fill in a few more blanks.
Her mother and father were athletes in their day, Kim a jumper and Curtis a football standout at Cañon City. But it was grandfather Nard Robinette who passed on the most influential genes.
“People said he could run faster backwards than most people could forwards,” Kim Robinette said of her father-in-law, who played football at Colorado A&M in the late 1950s. “She really is blessed with a God-given talent. It’s unbelievable.”
Shaylee swept her four events — the 100-meter dash, and the 200, 400 and triple jump — at state last year. Sumpter thinks she is already ahead of the pace she was at this time last season.
“Right now, she’s just running against time,” Sumpter said. “She is running against herself more than anything right now. There is always somebody out there waiting, and we know come state championships, there will be somebody there that will push her and hopefully she’ll respond to it.”
Robinette is a three-sport athlete — volleyball and basketball, even dabbling in cheerleading during her freshman and sophomore years — who will continue her running career next year at the University of Northern Colorado.
And like most small-school athletes who have a hard time getting noticed by colleges, it was a matter of people simply looking at the times and not the town on the map.
“It’s a small town and sports aren’t really a big thing here,” Shaylee said. “Yeah, sure, it’s hard to get noticed in things like volleyball and basketball, but since track is an individual sport, I kind of shined through a lot more.
“A lot of people think it’s just natural, but they also need to understand that I’ve put in a lot of hard work to get where I am.”
Said Kim Robinette: “Right now she’s a big fish in a little pond, and next year she will be a small fish in a really big pond. There are a lot of people that have great expectations of her and sometimes those are hard to live up to, but she just goes out there and enjoys every minute of it.”
She may very well be the fastest person in Crowley County, male or female. And by the time all is said and done, the most decorated.
Shaylee Robinette
A recap of her seven state titles:
2007 state track meet
100 meters — 12.48
200 — 25.42
400 — 57.60
Triple jump — 36-feet-4 1/2 inches
(Scored all 40 of Crowley County’s points, good for third place in the team race)
2006
100 — 12.59 (finished second to Paonia’s Halley Parks 12.55)
200 — 26.01
400 — 58.74
Triple jump — 36-3 1/2
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
