The 2026 season is finally here for Colorado, with the official season already started on Monday, February 23rd and the first meets are set for the first weekend in March! Here are the names to look out for in Class 1A for the girls' side!
Sprints and Hurdles
This will be another year all about Roxy Unruh of Cheyenne Wells High School who is the top returner in the 100m, 200m, and the 400m. She has some of the best PRs in all of Colorado and not just in the 1A classification with personal best marks of a wind-aided 12.07, 25.19, and 56.45 for the 400m! She has won all three events at the state meet all three years except for the 400m, which she did not contest her freshman year.
Once again, she looks like she will repeat this feat, but there are still some other names to look out for, including Hayden Eggleston of Cotopaxi High School, who has PRs of 12.65, 26.25, and 57.61! Eggleston finished runner-up to Unruh in all three sprint events, making her dominant in her own fashion. These two ladies are definitely in a class of their own when it comes to the 1A rankings, and it will be fun to see them battle it out once again.
In the hurdle events, it is a little more wide open as many of the podium finishers graduated in both the 100m and the 300m hurdles. Currently, Ashlynn Steinbrunn of McClave High School is the top returner in both events. She is the only returning girl in 1A to run under 17 seconds with a PR of 16.93! She ran that time to earn 3rd place at the state meet. In the long hurdles, Steinbrunn ran 46.76 to finish 2nd overall at the state meet and will look to become a double state champion this season.
Distance
With the graduation of Brooklyn Sutter and Delaney Bond, the distance events are also much more wide open this year. In the 800m, Kate Enriquez of Granada High School and Josey McClain of Kiowa High School have the top marks of 2:28. However, not too far behind is Hailey Foos of Merino High School with a personal best mark of 2:29. In terms of state meet results, McClain finished the best with a 3rd place result, followed by Foos in 4th place. Enriquez may have the most potential, however, considering she was just a freshman last year.
In the 1600m and 3200m, the top returner is Maddie Garcia of Pikes Peak Christian. She is also the top returner from the state meet where she finished 2nd in the 3200m and 3rd in the 1600m. She has PRs of 5:49 and 12:25 and has about a 25 second lead on the next best returner for the 3200m, but Analeigh Hackbarth from Merino High School is not too far behind in the 1600m with a PR of 5:53, and she was only a freshman last year!
Field Events
For the throwing events, Class 1A always knows how to show out. Ryan Svoboda of Caliche High School is not only the top returner for 1A, but she is the top returner in all of Colorado in the shot put with a personal best mark of 40-3! She is the reigning state champion in the event. Nevertheless, Svoboda may have one of the best throws in Colorado but she is followed closely by Tailee Weeks-Johnson of Eads High School, who has a PR of 39-10.25 and finished 2nd behind Svoboda. She is also #3 on the returners list for all of Colorado! For discus, Reagan Jones of Haxtun High School is the top returner with a mark of 124-4, placing herself within the top 10 of all returners in Colorado!
The returning state champion in high jump is Liz Arrington of Evangel Christian Academy, who jumped 5-4 during the season. Tied for top returner is Hannah Kruegel of Prairie High School, who also jumped 5-4. However, at the state meet, Kruegel ended up runner-up to Arrington, so we may see a repeat battle between these two girls for the high jump title.
For long jump and triple jump, Savaun Cook of Peetz High School finished runner up in the long jump and placed 1st in triple jump at the state meet. She has the top wind-legal mark of 16-11 for returners and is the top returner from the state meet in the long jump. For triple, she has the third best returning mark of 33-7 with Madison Kragel of Miami-Yoder High School and Addison Vallejos of McClave High School ahead of her. However, Kragel finished 3rd at the state meet and Vallejos was the runner-up, which could make the individual title that much more interesting!