LAKEWOOD— Ignacio High School senior Lincoln deKay fought through pain to win a wrestling state title in February, and he’d have to do the same thing on Saturday to finish his high-school career with a track and field state title.
A tweaked knee slowed deKay in his 110-meter prelim race, but perhaps more pained by the sight of his fellow entrants running away from him, deKay became all the more motivated to leave Jeffco Stadium and the 2026 Colorado High School Track & Field State Championships victorious.
deKay took some Ibuprofen and fought through the pain to conquer another state championship, clocking a sterling 15.19-second run during the 2A 110-meter final. The Ignacio senior lay on the ground after crossing the line, feeling assured that he was the first to finish.
deKay won by 0.20 seconds over Wray senior Aaron Tena and 0.76 over Longmont-based Twin Peaks Classical Academy junior Micah Arndt to earn a climb to the top of the podium in his last-ever event as a Bobcat.
“It’s surreal that it ended so quickly,” deKay said. “Senior year started, then all three of the sports were over so quickly this year. I remember my freshman year seasons going by really slowly, especially for track.”
What’s also surreal is how little the state champion actually practiced hurdles this season. deKay has been hurdling since eighth grade and has done the 110 hurdles since he entered high school.
However, since Ignacio’s track and field team is so small, the group mainly does running practices. deKay only practiced hurdles once a week or once every other week during the season to make sure he has the steps in between the hurdles down. That was until the final two weeks of the season, when he was working on hurdles every day in practice.
“I knew it was possible because I had taken third last year at track state, but after the first meet, I ran a time that I usually don’t run until the end of my other seasons,” deKay said. “That’s when I really decided this could be another shot at a title. So that’s when I really started to focus on the hurdles every week at practice, other than anything else.”
Despite deKay saying his hurdling form is poor and the pain from the knee, it didn’t stop him from winning. He’s a firm believer that if nothing is torn, pain shouldn’t affect athletic performance. There was definitely joy on the podium after the race and on the podium, but deKay didn’t have the same feeling as with wrestling.
“Track is little bit more laid back of a sport,” deKay said. “It’s not like wrestling tournaments, all day, you’re with your team, you’re focused all day. With track, you run for 30 seconds, and then you sit there for a few hours until you run again.”
The 10 points accompanying deKay’s first-place medal ultimately put IHS into a tie with Calhan for 31st in the final standings. Peyton racked up 70.5 points and won the 2A team title over Julesburg-based Sedgwick County (59) and Greeley Dayspring Christian Academy (54).
deKay’s 48.44 in the 300 hurdles left him standing 17th after the two prelims, but he technically finished ahead of Buena Vista junior Dexter Whitmore, who was disqualified for finishing in the wrong lane.
Though fouling on his first and third attempts, Ignacio senior Evan Perkins winged the discus 110 feet, three inches on his second and placed 17th. Bobcat junior Thunder Windy Boy qualified in the 3200 and on Day 2 clocked a 15th-place 10:37.53 in a race where both the winner (Colorado Springs The Vanguard junior Max Miller in 9:17.67 ) and runner-up (DCA senior Cooper Osmus in 9:18.54) broke the 2A state record.