Sometimes all an athlete needs is a little extra motivation to have a huge level-up.
For Bayfield’s Ayden Casillas, it was going to run in college. He did everything right his senior year and was rewarded with a CHSAA Class 3A 100 meter state title, along with securing a spot to run for Colorado Mesa University.
Casillas has been a soccer player his entire life, joining track in high school because his family wanted him to do a spring sport. Once he had gone to a few practices and done his first meet, he knew track was the perfect fit. He loved the feeling of progress and the clear relationship between what he put into it and what he got out of it.
Even as a freshman, Bayfield track head coach Josh Walton said Casillas stood out because he was a member of the state-qualifying 4×100-meter relay team.
“That (relay) team was actually made up of mostly seniors,” Walton said. “It was two seniors and a junior. For a freshman to be on a relay team, it’s hard to do.”
Casillas kept improving his sophomore and junior years, qualifying for state in the 100 and 200 both years. His 100 and 200 times dropped significantly, from an 11.34-second 100 and 22.98 200 as a freshman, to 11.10 and 22.36 as a junior. Despite his improvement, he didn’t make finals either year. Out of the 18 qualifiers in shorter events, the top nine finishers in prelims make finals and compete for a state title. Casillas was outside the top nine as a sophomore and junior.
During his senior year, Casillas found extra motivation in the form of college running. He had to start looking at colleges, and Grand Junction’s Colorado Mesa University immediately jumped out as the best option. Casillas said all his friends were going there, and they have a great firefighting program, so it was the clear choice.
“Then I thought, ‘I really do love running track and I don’t want this to be my last year,”’ Casillas said. “I sent them an email and introduced myself. (CMU sprints coach Tim Reetz) said ‘You need to run a 10.8 and a 21.9 to run here for a walk on spot.’ I said, ‘OK, those are my goals for the season.”’
With those goals in mind, Casillas became a completely different athlete. Instead of his season starting in March when the team began meeting for practice, he started preparing for track in October, even as his senior soccer season was wrapping up. According to Walton, Casillas essentially simulated the life of a high-level college athlete.
Casillas cut out sodas and energy drinks and began going to bed at 9 p.m. every night. He set a strict diet for himself and even began doing post-practice cold plunges in the river later in the season to combat muscle tightness. Casillas not only improved faster, but he avoided getting sick, which had been a problem his junior year, when he got sick twice that led to pretty big setbacks, according to Walton.
Casillas also knew he needed to enter March prepared, so he spent the winter going to indoor track meets in Albuquerque and Alamosa. When outdoor track finally arrived, his preparation paid off with his times quickly dropping. On April 24, a month and a half into the season, Casillas ran a new 100 personal record of 11.05. Over the next 15 days, he got his record down to 10.74, the No. 1 time in all of Class 3A.
At the same meet, he ran 10.74, Casillas also ran 21.88 in the 200 to meet both Colorado Mesa recruiting standard times and check off one of his goals for the year. The other was still to come.
Casillas entered the Colorado High School Track & Field State Championships as the No. 1 seed in the Class 3A 100. His 10.97 in prelims was the second-fastest, behind only Pagosa Springs senior Colton Lucero, Casillas’ longtime rival, whom he raced against nearly every week. He would have to beat Lucero one last time to accomplish his goal of winning it all.
“I just told him to trust the training, trust everything that we have done this year,” Walton said about his message to Casillas going into finals. “Trust that he was prepared to run the race like he was able to. Just to go out there do his best and whatever happens, happens.”
Casillas said that for him, finals was more of a test of recovery – who can come in less tired and less tight, since everyone had very similar times coming in. He used recovery equipment, made sure to be on top of electrolytes, and focused completely on being relaxed, but prepared.
It all paid off. Casillas ran 10.74, tying his PR to take the state title by two hundredths of a second over Denver West senior Ernest Fields. Lucero ended up in third with a 10.90.
“It was super close at the line, so just seeing my name pop up first was a really good feeling,” Casillas said. “And really, it’s all my coaches and all my friends who pushed me to get there. It’s not just an achievement for me. I feel like everyone else who helped me get there, they should be just as happy.”
Casillas also took third at state in the 200 with a 22.16, completing an excellent showing by any standard. He achieved all the goals he set at the beginning of the year, in state placements and times.
With the standards met, Casillas has a spot with the Mesa track team as a walk-on. He is excited and ready to run at the next level. Now that his high school goals are in the rearview, Casillas has his sights set on a new mark: Make the 4×100 and 4×200 teams for Mesa as soon as he can.
If his senior year is any indication, Casillas is very capable of accomplishing his goals.