LAKEWOOD — The Raptors took two untouchable championship flights.
Eaglecrest senior Cameron Bell won the Class 5A long jump on Thursday morning at the , then his teammate Zenobia Witt claimed the girls title in the event in the afternoon. Both wins came in dominating fashion, as Bell won his first title by 11.5 inches and the junior Witt, battling injury, triumphed for her third straight championship by 14.25 inches.
The dual eye-popping performance was a culmination of a lifetime in the event for Witt, a season of breakthroughs for Bell, and consistent camaraderie and competition between the two long jumpers.
“They have what I’d like to call the things that you can’t really coach, which is the want to,” Eaglecrest long jump coach Everett Bible said. “They know how to make very minute adjustments from jump to jump. They’re very cognizant of what their body’s doing. And they just know how to compete.
“What’s different about them is Zenobia has a very long history in track, especially in the jumps. Cameron is a little bit new to it, as he’s mainly a football player who has been a sponge to the technique that we work on. But the camaraderie between them has been there for several years and having that competitive nature between them also helps.”
Bell, a standout safety on the gridiron, is signed to Witt, who has Division I interest in track and field but hasn’t committed yet, was a flag football star for the Raptors. The linebacker in the fall.
Both athletes are also elite hurdlers, Bell in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles, and Witt in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. And while Witt has been doing long jump since she was seven, Bell started in the event as a sophomore. He didn’t qualify for state that year, then placed third as a junior.
The huge leap for Bell — figuratively and literally — came this season. He set a new with a mark of 24-feet, 8.25-inches at the Stutler Twilight meet on April 23.
“The record came on my last jump in the finals (at Stutler Twilight),” Bell said. “I felt great, and I had just ran my first sub-14 (seconds) in the 110 hurdles. I started a clap (with the crowd), and my adrenaline was through the roof. Right after I jumped, I thought I had tied the record. But they did three more measurements and I beat it by a quarter of an inch.
“It was big moment, a crazy moment, and when I realized I broke it, (the gravity of the accomplishment) hit me all at once.”
While Bell was having a record-setting spring, Witt was on the mend. She hurt herself at New Balance Indoor Nationals in the offseason, an avulsion fracture in her left pelvis, and only recently returned to competition. She jumped in two meets prior to state, and on Thursday, elected not to jump in three of her six total chances as her ankle was also bothering her.
It was no matter, as she jumped 19-feet, 3.25-inches to easy beat runner-up Taylor Speir of Columbine, who jumped 18-feet, 1-inch. Bell also cruised to a win, jumping 24-feet to win by nearly a foot over his teammate, runner-up Bryson States, who jumped 23-feet, 0.5-inches.
While Bell is now weighing whether to also do track and field for the ThunderWolves in addition to football, Witt plans on continuing to heal her hip as she prepares for New Balance Outdoor Nationals in Philadelphia in June. And she has big plans to join Bell in
Her current PR in the outdoor long jump 20-feet, 2-inches, and the Colorado state record is 21-feet, .75-inches by Montbello’s Chelsea Taylor in 2005. Witt believes that with a healthy senior year, she can easily surpass that mark.
“I want the state record,” Witt said. “I need it. I’ve got to have it.”
