LAKEWOOD — Emily Blok knew she was the favorite, she knew there was more pressure, yet she took nothing for granted.
“You know, I know I keep that in the back of my head that I’m ranked No. 1. But when it comes down to it, you can’t take anything for granted, especially in the 100,” the Conifer junior said Saturday after winning that event plus two others and finishing second in a fourth at the Class 4A state meet at Jefferson County Stadium.
“Anything can happen — a false start, someone getting out of the block one time and it’s a totally different race.”
There were no false starts and, for all intents and purposes, no pressure. Blok also won the 200 and 400 meters and finished second in the long jump.
“Honestly, it’s just been surprising. You know, it’s kind of mind-boggling, three in one day,” Blok said. “You try to take it one thing at a time, don’t think about the big picture. But now it’s time to slow down and take it in.”
Blok held off Mesa Ridge’s Kadeshia Rose in the 100 and 200, winning the 100 in 11.80 seconds and the 200 in 24.11. She won the 400 by nearly a second, 55.69 to 56.45, over Cheyenne Mountain’s Joy O’Hare. And, as if that wasn’t enough, her long jump of 17 feet, 5 1/4 inches was second to Moffat County’s Erin Urbanoski.
So what does she do for an encore?
“Maybe I get the long jump next year,” Blok said.
In the girls team competition, Thompson Valley, behind its state-record 3,200 relay team, took home the state title in an upset with 78 points, 14 more than Mullen, which had won 11 of the past 12 state titles.
Like Blok, Matt Butcher was eyeing a trifecta. But the Longmont senior was able to win only one of his three individual events.
Butcher won the 200 in 21.28, edging Widefield’s Patrick Richards and Golden’s Joe Morris. The earlier setbacks were a disappointment, Butcher said, but he was able to redeem himself in the final individual race in high school. He is headed to the University of Oregon later this year.
“It feels good to come back and reclaim my position,” Butcher said.
Earlier, Richards one-upped Butcher with the victory in the 400 in a time of 47.50. Butcher came in second in 47.62.
“Last year, Matt beat me by a lot,” Richards said. “I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“He beat me in the 200 last year by point-001 seconds, or somewhere around there. I just wanted to tell my parents I finally won something.”
Morris wasn’t to be left out. The senior from Golden scored his own win in the 100, beating out Richards in 10.61 seconds. Butcher came in third.
“It’s crazy. I love those guys. I’ve been running with them since the start,” Morris said.
While they tried to defeat each other, Butcher may have gotten the last laugh. He ran the final leg of Longmont’s winning 3,200 relay team, securing the Trojans’ first boys team title in 61 years. Longmont scored 78 points; Sierra came in second with 68.
D’Evelyn’s Kevin Williams nearly broke the state record in the boys 3,200, but he came up just short of Brent Vaughn’s record of 9:05.89 in 2003. Williams ran 9:06.27 to win Saturday and earn his second title in two days. He won the 1,600 on Friday.
Sierra’s Kelby Dias, coming off a surprising win in the long jump Friday, won the boys 110 and 300 hurdles, and sophomore Kayla Wein of Broomfield repeated in the girls 100 hurdles.
