As kids quickly fill Summit High School’s indoor turf facility, it is evident that the track team this season is massive. 

With close to 100 athletes signed up, second-year head coach Jay Peltier is excited for what lies ahead for the team throughout the spring.

“Coming in this year we are seeing athletes move real effectively and efficiently,” Peltier said. “You are seeing it in the weight room and you are seeing it in the warm ups. You are seeing a lot more speed come through because of it. We are seeing a lot more consistent numbers in track-only athletes. We love dual sport athletes, but it is nice to have a core of 75 to 80 track-only athletes.”

While the group of athletes often have to fight for space to move around while indoors, work is ongoing to prepare for the team’s first meet of the season at the Ivory Moore “We are Columbine” Invite in Lakewood on Saturday, March 8. 

Several athletes who were present at the state meet last year are expected to lead the early-season performances. Most notably on the distance side will be senior Ella Hagen.

With four state titles across three sports, Hagen will look to maximize her senior year by chasing after fast times and finishing as high up in the 4A state rankings as she can.

After winning the state 1600-meter race her sophomore year, Hagen had big expectations for her junior state track meet. Unfortunately, Hagen battled an untimely sickness throughout the duration of the three-day meet last spring, resulting in her placing third in the 3200-meter run and sixth in the 1600-meter run. 

Coming off her second cross-country individual state title this fall, Hagen will look for redemption at the final state track meet of her career.

“I want to go out there and redeem myself from last year, but also enjoy it,” Hagen said. “It will be an end of an era and a really influential part of these last few years. I want to be there with my team, race as hard as I can and see what I can do at the final meet.”

Senior Josh Shriver is also expected to return to the 4A state track and field meet this spring as one of the Tigers’ distance runners. Shriver had a breakthrough junior campaign last year, building confidence in his fitness with every race result.

At the conclusion of the high school track and field season, Shriver managed to break two school records at the Western Slope League meet before placing 12th in the 3200-meter run and fifth in the 1600-meter run at state.

With several of the athletes that finished before him graduating last spring, Shriver has the potential to move up significantly and could even have a chance at a state crown.

Summit’s third and final individual state team returner will be junior Faith Fox. Specializing in the hurdle and jump events, Fox is looking forward to lowering her times and qualifying for her third consecutive state track and field meet.

“I am definitely looking forward to new PRs, new friends and new experiences,” Fox said. “I have a great feeling that this year will go really well. I want to place higher in the 300 hurdles and make it to finals in the 100 hurdles. I also want to do relays with my team again because it is always super fun.”

Last season, Fox was able to take fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles, jumping up a place from her finish at state her freshman year. In addition to being able to rank fourth in the 4A classification, Fox was also able to set, or reset, school records in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles as well as the long jump.

Fox is expected to lend her talents to several Summit relay teams. After qualifying five relays to state last spring, Peltier is hoping to improve upon that number this upcoming season. 

“I think we can get most relays in,” Peltier said. “The 4×100 is probably the hardest because it is just pure speed, pure power. That takes years to build. Confidently, I think we can squeak in the 4×200 up to the 4×800.”

Senior Cece Miner, senior Quinn Breigenzer, senior Eddie Gutierrez, senior Avery Eytel, junior Teagan Barths, junior Saige Heflin, sophomore Lily Benbow and sophomore Ashley Adkins are all expected to be contenders for a Summit relay team this season after competing on state-qualified relay teams last spring.

Despite breaking his femur at the beginning of the winter, Breigenzer will be vying for a spot in the Summit record books. Although he has just reached the point where he can move full speed again, the talented senior likes his chances of making a statement or two this season.

“Right now I am trying to get back to where I was at,” Breigenzer said. “My main goal is breaking the 200 and 100-meter records, qualifying for all the relays I participate in and being successful.”

Peltier will lean on athletes like Breigenzer, Hagen, Shriver, Eytel Barth and Fox for leadership throughout the season and expects them to uphold the team to the standard it takes to achieve its goals.

“We run it a little bit differently where I think everyone is a leader in their own right,” Peltier said. We wanna be able to leverage people’s strengths as much as we possibly can. So I kind of create this mentality of every senior is a leader on this team.”

In terms of the goals, the girls and boys want to win the Western Slope league meet before improving upon their rankings at the state meet. After placing 12th last year, the girls would like to progress into the top five in 4A while the boys (tied for 32nd in 2024) would like to place within the top 12.

“The biggest one is having both teams win leagues,” Peltier said. “I mean, last year was the first time in program history that the girls won. We want both sides to go and win.”

The Tigers will get its first chance to spike up this season at the site of the Colorado state track and field meet — Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood. With the high school not having a rubberized track, the competition will allow athletes and coaches to re-familiarize themselves with the chaos that can be a high school track meet. 

“We have goals and objectives for every meet and for this one it is just managing the chaos,” Peltier said. “Because we don’t have a track, so if a kid has never been to a track meet we have to show them where the start line is. … So really it is managing the chaos and having training on a track with spikes on. And then have fun.”