Nobody at the Class 5A boys state track meet could keep up with powerhouse Fort Collins — which ended Cherokee Trail’s streak of three consecutive state titles — but the Aurora area demonstrated its strength in a variety of areas.

The Cougars had a lot of contributors to replace from last season’s team and did so with a talented of experienced and rising talent that netted three event state championships and earned them the 5A runner-up trophy. The lynchpins of coach Chris Faust’s fifth consecutive team to take home team hardware from the state meet appears on the 2026 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Track Team, which is based primarily on state meet performance.

Also with a significant presence is Eaglecrest, which had 5A’s only two-event state champion in senior Cameron Bell, plus a strong presence in sprint relays and jumping events. Grandview, Rangeview, Regis Jesuit and Vista PEAK Prep (which had its first ever state champion in senior Joshua Gallien) all have at least one member of the All-Aurora team.

The only four-event All-Aurora performer of the season was Cherokee Trail senior Dylan Smith, a key contributor to the previous three titles and a crucial part of a runner-up finish in his final season. Fittingly, Smith finished as an individual state champion when he anchored a 4×400 relay team that included juniors Cooper Adams, Austin Eravelly and William Mines to victory.

Individually, Smith was also the area’s best performer in the 800 meters (in which he was third) and the 1,600 (as he finished just off the podium in 11th), while he teamed with fellow senior Carter Getty, junior Tanner Larsen and sophomore Bryce Pintaric on the seventh-place 4×800 meter relay.

The Cougars’ other state championships came from senior Prince David Ajibade in the high jump and sophomore Joshua Stewart in the 110 meter hurdles as both prevailed in tight competitions.

Ajibade — a state veteran — cleared 6 feet, 7 inches, and prevailed in a close competition with fewer misses than the other contender who made the same height.

Stewart prevailed in a photo finish in the 110 meter hurdles in which it took a significant wait to determine if he or Denver East’s Mulyndwa Kafuuma got there first. It turned out to be Stewart by 0.1 of a second with a 13.68 that was second-fastest in the state for the whole season to the 13.54 of Loveland’s Jackson Conroy, who was injured in prelims.

Eaglecrest transitioned in coaching from Chris Carhart to Chazz Burney and slipped only slightly in terms of team finish at the state meet, as it was second a year ago and came in fifth this time. Part of that had to do with the presence of two outstanding seniors in Bell and Bryson States, multi-sport athletes who combined for more than half of the Raptors’ points with their showings in the jumping events.

Bell came into state with significant fanfare and an all-classification Colorado state record on his resume with the leap of 24 feet, 8 1/4 inches, achieved at the Stutler Twilight meet. He couldn’t match that at state (though three of his four successful attempts would have won the title) as he topped out at 24 feet to finish in front of States, who also finished as the runner-up in the triple jump.

Four Aurora area athletes made the triple jump finals and States led the whole competition with a jump of 47-10 1/4 with just two jumpers left, but he was surpassed by Bear Creek’s Zazi Wolfrum.

Bell — a football standout bound for Colorado State-Pueblo — avenged a disqualification in the finals of the 110 meter hurdles (for inadvertently contacting a hurdle that impeded a competitor in the adjacent lane) with a win in the 300 hurdles. Just like Stewart had in the 110, Bell denied Kafuuma at the finish line with a lean with a winning time of 36.56 seconds.

Relays again were a strength for the Raptors, who were the All-Aurora performers in the 4×100 — States and fellow senior Miles Turner plus junior Cy White and freshman Jovaughn Ewing, who placed sixth — as well as the 4×200, where Bell, States, Turner and Ewing took fifth.

Vista PEAK Prep’s track program had only had state champions on the girls side until the showing by Gallien, a standout football player bound for Northern Colorado, who finally realized the full potential of a long track career.

Gallien capped an undefeated season in the 400 meters in style with a time of 47.03 seconds, which was tops in the state regardless of classification. He also earned Aurora-area bragging rights in the 100 meters with a seventh place result.

Regis Jesuit junior Luke Lanoha claimed All-Aurora honors in the 200 meters when he edged Gallien by one spot with a fourth place finish for a strong end to a season that had been bumpy in spots.

Lanoha’s Regis Jesuit teammate, sophomore Luis Duarte, took the All-Aurora 3,200 meter position despite not qualifying for state. His 9:45.46 at the Liberty Bell Invitational was the area’s top time for the season as nobody from a local program made it to the state meet.

Rangeview junior Jaiden Deans admitted that nerves affected him in his debut at the state meet, but he still managed to make the medal podium in both the discus and shot put. His highest finish came in the shot put with a top effort of 49 feet, 5 3/4 inches, that earned him fifth place, while he threw 148-9 in the discus — the only one of six attempts in prelims and finals that counted — to take ninth.

Grandview had a solid meet, but the lone All-Aurora representation comes from sophomore William Smith III, who ruled the area in the pole vault.

Smith III cleared the first three heights on his first attempt — topping out at 13 feet, 10 inches — to place fifth. Regis Jesuit’s Alex Smith also achieved the same height, but came in eighth with four misses at the lower heights.

Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at [email protected]. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports

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