STATE PREP TRACK MEET CROWNS CHAMPIONS
Fountain-Fort Carson team champ in 5A boys as Donovan Williams dashes into stardom
lakewood» Donovan Williams walked for hours during the past two years for the chance to run.
When his days ended at the Welte Education Center, an alternative high school, Williams would walk a half mile down East Iowa Road, hang a right and trudge another mile down Jimmy Camp Road until he arrived at Fountain-Fort Carson High School.
Then the work really began for the sprinting prodigy.
“Our coach had me doing quartermile work instead of sprint work,” Williams said. “While everybody else was doing sprint work, I’m doing hard workouts with the quartermilers. It paid off.”
All the hours and miles came down to 0.03 of a second Sunday — the margin of victory for Williams in the Class 5A boys 100-meter dash, his winning time of 10.70 barely edging Darrien
Wells of Hinkley.
It had been the same story Saturday, when Williams won by 0.03 of a second over Wells in the 200 meters with a time of 21.63.
“It’s God that got me through all these races,” Williams said.
It was also God, Williams said, who guided him toward the track for the first time a mere two years ago. He showed up at a powerhouse program with speed to burn. Keith Smith, in his 14th season as the Trojans’ sprints coach, saw immense potential in Williams from the start. Still, he had seen that before. The question was whether his new prospect would be willing to match his talent with the necessary dedication to the sport.
When Williams began riding his bike to summer practices, unable to get a ride because his parents were working, Smith had his answer.
“Out of every athlete I’ve coached, Donovan has gone through the most to show his character,” said Smith, a state champion sprinter at Fountain-Fort Carson in 1994 and 1995. “He never complained. I know a lot of coaches say that, but it’s the God’s honest truth that he never complained. He’s the kind of kid where you’re so sad to see him leave because you just want to hang out with him.”
At Fountain-Fort Carson, sprinters aren’t just competing with the rest of the state’s best athletes. They also are running into a stiff head wind of expectations. The Trojans captured the 18th team championship in school history and the fifth in eight years Sunday, edging Monarch and its band of distance standouts 106-101.
The sweep of the sprinting events by Williams marked the third consecutive year the Trojans accomplished the feat, matching Christian Lyon in 2016 and Tevin Donnell in 2015.
“It was a lot of pressure. I’m not going to lie,” said Williams, who also anchored the Trojans’ victory Sunday in the 400-meter relay. “We’re state champions in the 100 and 200 the past two years, and I moved it on to three. We’re trying to build on it.”
Williams will compete next season for Sterling College, a four-year Christian school in Kansas. He won’t have to walk 1K miles to practice anymore. He has made the most of his chance to run.