LAKEWOOD — Kelby Dias has a modest opinion when it comes to his accomplishments in track, but the Sierra senior’s accolades can’t be denied when it comes to how they have impacted his team.
A day after Dias won the Class 4A boys 110-meter hurdles and the long jump, he capped a repeat trifecta Saturday at Jefferson County Stadium by winning the 300 hurdles in 37.75 seconds. The win was his eighth individual champ-ionship the past three years and his ninth title overall.
More important to him, however, was the impact his victories had on the Stallions’ run at a team championship. In 2008, Sierra had to settle for second place behind Longmont. For the longest time Saturday it looked as if the Stallions wouldn’t have to settle for second again. But behind the running of Andrew Berberick, among others, the Mullen Mustangs clipped Sierra this time.
Mullen won its sixth team title this decade and first since 2005 with 59 points. Sierra finished with 57 points.
The points race was close going into the final event, the 4 x 100 relay. Sierra finished sixth.
Mullen returned to its perch atop the classification. A big reason was Berberick, who earlier in the day won the 1,600 meters. He took the lead on the third of four laps and held off a charging Henry Cowhick of Wheat Ridge to score 10 key points for Mullen. The win was as important for Berberick as it was for his team, considering the competition he faced in Cowhick and Falcon’s Wes Rickman and Kevin Johnson.
“I try not to worry about my competition, as good as they are. It’s incredible,” Berberick said.
While Dias didn’t get his wish for a team state title, individually there was no wishful thinking. The Colorado State-bound Dias made his mark the last three years, winning the 110 and 300 hurdles three times and the long jump twice, and he was part of the 4 x 200 relay title in 2008 — that team finished second this year.
While Dias has been the catalyst in Sierra’s team success the past few years, the same can be said in Class 2A of Wray’s Jake Beckman. The senior, who plans to go into aviation after school and a career as a commercial airline pilot, has, excuse the pun, helped the Eagles’ track program soar in recent years.
Thanks in part to Beckman, who repeated in 2A’s 400 on Saturday and helped Wray win the 4 x 100 relay later, the Eagles held off Miami-Yoder for the school’s first team state championship in any sport.
The team title was clinched when Wray’s 4 x 400 relay squad took first in the final event of the day.
In the 400, Beckman edged Evangelical Christian’s Nick Bennett by 0.29 of a second for his second consecutive state title.
Littleton in Class 5A and The Classical Academy in Class 3A also won team state championships, a first in the boys competition for each school.
