Jordyn Colter's final lap of her run to the record was strictly a solo effort. All photos by Alan Versaw.
It's difficult to say who got the most out of the performance. Was it Jordyn Colter with another state record and the fastest 1600 ever on Colorado soil by a high school girl? Or was it the assembled crowd who witnessed history being made for a second day in a row by the diminutive Cherry Creek senior?
One thing is for certain. The crowd enjoyed the next five minutes a whole lot more than Colter did. Colter was a heap of recovering humanity. Or at least she was trying to recover, trying to put things back together again soon enough to take the anchor leg on the Cherry Creek 4x400 coming up.
But, for 286 glorious seconds, Colter had the complete and undivided attention of the Jeffco crowd and held them spellbound.
For about the first 200 of those seconds, Colter's backside also had the complete and undivided attention of Fort Collins sophomore Lauren Gregory. Gregory tenaciously stuck to a game plan that had her positioned as close behind Colter as she could get without getting spiked.
But, before the third lap drew to a close, Colter had made her break and there would be no bringing her back.
Colter remained remarkably consistent over the entire four laps, opening with a 70-second split and, to my calculations, never drifting over a 73-point lap. The closing lap was a thing of beauty, and we mentioned before how long and how dearly Colter paid for that lap on the Jeffco Stadium grass (which was probably a good deal more comfortable at that moment than overheated field turf would have been).
The announcer reminded the crowd often of the 5A record that was in Colter's crosshairs. What didn't become evident to many until Colter had her picture taken by FinishLynx, was that Elise Cranny's all-time state record of 4:47.54 was what was really in Colter's narrow view for each of the four circuits of the track.
The FinishLynx photo at 4:46.22 was far from her last photo shoot of the day. It seems her prom was slated to follow the momentous day on the track. My guess, and my hope, is that young Ms. Colter is sleeping hard right now.
But, even after her record-breaking 1600, there were still a few more action photos to be taken. It so happens that Jordyn Colter finished her high school career catching two girls at the finish line of the 5A 4x400. From start to finish, Colter's high school career was marked by a kind of excellence that doesn't come around very often.