LAKEWOOD – Every spring the top high school track and field athletes in Colorado gather at the CHSAA Championships at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood to determine who is the best of the best.

At this year's event, held between May 15 and 17, one of the those invited to take part was Gilpin’s Ryan Marr. It was the first time that an Eagle qualified for the prestigious and highly-competitive 100-meter dash.

It has been an extremely successful year for Marr. Beginning with the Kiowa Klassic on March 14, he took first place in the 100m. He duplicated that feat a week later at the Warren Mitchell Invitational in Limon.

Running at the Norseman Invitational in Denver on April 16, Marr set a school record in the 100m with a time of 11.68. That mark stood just six days until he broke his own record at the Highland Twilight Meet in Alt. Exploding out of the blocks, he blasted to the finish line in a time of 11.36 which is the current Eagles’ record in the event.

While Marr wasn’t winning and setting records in the 100m, he also ran the anchor legs in the 4x100m and 4x200m Boys Relay teams. In the 4x100m the Eagles set a school record with a time of 47.07 at the Three League Meet in Longmont on May 1. It bettered the record that they’d set earlier in the year by over a second.

At the Norseman Invitational, Marr was part of the Gilpin schools' record-setting 4x200m relay team. Their time of 1:41.09 is now the fastest any group of Eagles has ever been clocked at in that event.

To cap off the regular season as a cherry on top of his sundae of track accomplishments, he set a new school record in the Boys 200m with a blistering 23.68 seconds at the Joe Shields Invitational in Kremmling on May 9.

The 2A 100m finals eluded Marr at the state meet this time around, which in no way diminishes his long list of achievements this season as the best boys’ sprinter in Gilpin County history.