Two years ago, Zona Welling was a middle school soccer player. Now, she is the fastest girl in Colorado.

Welling, a sophomore from Heritage, won both the Class 5A 100- and 200-meter dashes Saturday in the CHSAA state track and field championships at Jeffco Stadium.

She held off Fossil Ridge junior Addyson Smith in a photo finish in the 100. Welling’s time, 11.75 seconds, was a new personal best and the fastest time in the state this season. Valor Christian junior Ellie Londo, who won this race a year ago, finished behind the lead duo but was disqualified.

“I honestly didn’t know who won. It was so close,” Welling said. “I wasn’t sure if I leaned enough, or if she leaned more, or what was going on. Looking up and seeing my name, it felt pretty good. I love racing here.”

Welling caught the running bug before the start of her freshman year. But she was DQ’d last year because of a false start.

The incredible finish to her sophomore season continued in the 200, when she again held off Smith with a personal best time of 23.96 seconds.

“I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet,” Welling said. “This is everything I wanted and more this year. I’m just feeling great right now.”

The girls hurdles crème de la crème. A year after the graduation of Grandview elite hurdler Gabriella Cunningham left a void in the event, Ponderosa senior Payton Becker and Fountain-Fort Carson junior Alexa Queen left no doubt about who the top girls hurdlers in Class 5A are.

Becker, a Wyoming commit, won the 5A 100-meter hurdles in 13.79 seconds, edging Queen, who came in at a personal record 13.99. Then Queen, who remains uncommitted but has the talent to run in college, got Becker back in the 300. Queen ran 41.66 and Becker ran 41.73, both of those marks being PRs. Queen took an early lead in the 300, and Becker closed the gap at the end but couldn’t catch up.

The two hurdlers hugged in a moment of mutual respect following the 300 hurdles.

“I messed up the first half of the (300) race, because I psyched myself out on the first couple hurdles, stuttered and lost a lot of momentum,” Becker said. “The back part of the race, I was playing catch up, but I’m proud of myself for how hard I fought.”

Queen said, “not winning in the 100 hurdles motivated me to come back and get (the 300).”

“This is my last race today, and I was going to empty the tank,” Queen said. “I knew it was going to hurt no matter what when I finished, so I might as well be proud of myself afterwards.”

In the Class 4A 300-meter race, Niwot senior Reese Casper set the standard for Colorado this year with a 41.35 to win the title by over a second over runner-up Reagan Falletta of Pueblo East. The Kansas State commit also won the 4A 100-meter hurdles in 14.22.

Another triple sweep for 1A star: Even when she can’t stop winning, Roxy Unruh finds some nits to pick.

Unruh, a junior from Cheyenne Wells, romped through the girls Class 1A 100, 200 and 400 meters finals Saturday. She set a new 1A meet record in the 200 and 400, breaking … her marks from last year.

But there was that pesky 100.

“There’s always something you can always improve on, right?” Unruh said. “I was really proud of my start. It was beautiful, honestly. But I was so happy with my start, I forgot my second zone of acceleration.”

Still, Unruh is now a three-time state champion in the 100 and 400, with two more individual titles in the 200. And she’s got another year to continue collecting medals and continue to improve her record-setting times.

“This year, I got a lot better mentally, not even the conditioning,” Unruh said. “Once you learn how to run the races the right way, it is life-changing.”

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Gov. Jared Polis on Friday vetoed a bill that would have mandated Colorado’s municipal courts conform to state sentencing guidelines.

The governor, in a letter released Friday afternoon, said House Bill 1147’s sponsors had good intentions, but the legislation would have restricted municipalities’ ability to react to local crime trends in a manner they see fit.

“It is not in the interest of increasing public safety to constrain a municipality’s ability to set appropriate sentences for crimes within their borders,” he wrote. “Criminal justice and public safety issues are a shared concern among state and local lawmakers, and municipalities must have the ability to adopt laws to increase public safety based on the public safety challenges on the ground in each community.”

The legislation would have barred city courts from handing out sentences that exceed state limits for the same crimes. The legislature in 2021 significantly reduced penalties for low-level, nonviolent crimes in Colorado’s state courts. However, municipal courts, which operate individually and are not part of the state judicial system, were not included in the statute.

As a result, defendants in Colorado’s municipal courts can face much longer sentences than those in state court for the same petty offenses, The Denver Post previously found.

Polis said he supported two of the provisions in 1147: language clarifying that a defendant in municipal court has the right to counsel, and making clear that proceedings should be open to the public. He said he would support a narrower bill addressing those topics, or one tailored to addressing specific crimes where penalties between the state and local criminal codes are “far out of balance.”

Bill sponsors Reps. Javier Mabrey and Elizabeth Velasco and Sens. Judy Amabile and Mike Weissman, all Democrats, were alerted in April to the potential Polis veto.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that we’re doubling down on a broken status quo, where we have two systems of justice operating side by side,” Mabrey said Friday in an interview. “We will allow someone to go to jail and face vastly different sentences — to me, that flies in the face of the idea that we should have equal protection under the law.”

“This is wrong constitutionally, wrong morally, and it’s wrong as an approach to public safety,” he said.

Cities vehemently opposed the bill, saying the changes would encroach on their ability to deal with crimes specific to their areas. The Colorado Constitution, they argued, allows for home rule, meaning cities have the freedom to legislate on matters of local concern.

The mayors of Colorado’s three largest cities — Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs — asked Polis in a letter to veto the legislation.

The Colorado Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments on two cases that touch on the sentence disparity issue. In those cases, arresting officers could have sent the individuals to state court for minor infractions, but elected to send both to municipal court, where they faced exponentially longer potential jail sentences.

Their attorneys argued this violates their equal protection under the Colorado Constitution.

A ruling, which won’t come for a few months, could have wide-ranging impacts on municipal codes throughout the state. Polis, in his veto letter, said he would like to see how the court rules before changing the law.

The governor, in April, did sign a separate bill into law that prohibits cities from criminalizing the failure to appear for a court hearing.

SB62, sponsored by Sens. Nick Hinrichsen and Mike Weissman and Reps. Michael Carter and Lindsay Gilchrist, all Democrats, came after a Denver Post investigation found Pueblo municipal judges were regularly using contempt of court charges to punish people for skipping court proceedings.

These charges — in some cases dozens of them — inflated sentences for defendants who otherwise faced little to no jail time on minor city offenses like loitering, trespassing and shoplifting, The Post found. Pueblo city judges sent people to jail for months on charges that in other Colorado courts are punished by one or two days in jail, if that.

A district court judge in Pueblo in January ruled that that practice was unconstitutional and released several people from jail.

Polis on Friday also vetoed a bill that would have allowed those 72 years or older to choose to temporarily or permanently opt out of jury service. The governor noted that between 2025 and 2050, the population of Coloradans in that demographic is expected to grow significantly. Plus, he added, a “jury of one’s peers means representation from all age groups.”

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Originally Published: May 16, 2025 at 3:41 PM MDT

A Colorado Christian camp is suing the State of Colorado over licensing requirements that the camp claims violate its religious beliefs. Camp IdRaHaJe is located south of Evergreen off Highway 285 and has been operating since 1948.

A camp tucked amongst the mountains holds summer memories for Leah Rohwer.

“I actually worked there as a horse wrangler in 2001 over the summer,” said Rohwer

When her two daughters were old enough to go, Camp IdRaHaJe once again became a part of her family’s life.

“They love it,” said Rohwer. “They’ve gone since after the pandemic. They’re set to go this year.”

In less than a month, campers will return to Bailey, Colorado, and kick off the summer at Camp IdRaHaJe, including Rohwer’s two daughters. However, families like hers also wonder what will happen to the future of the camp in the wake of a lawsuit challenging new state licensing guidelines that the camp says do not align with their religious beliefs.

“I fully support the camp in this decision,” said Rohwer.

The new rules, issued by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, outline requirements for camps to allow campers in attendance access to toilets, bathroom facilities, rooms, and other spaces that align with the person’s gender identity.

“This regulation requires it for bunking, for bathing, for changing, for anywhere where they would be separated biologically,” said Rohwer.

The camp resisted those changes and initially asked for an exemption from these new regulations based on the camp’s religious ideologies.

When the state refused to grant this exemption, the camp’s defense team filed a lawsuit against the CDEC.

“Camp is in jeopardy that they’re going to continue operating in what they believe is consistent with freedom of religion and what they should be allowed to do as a religious organization,” said Rohwer.

The executive director of the camp released a statement in response to their lawsuit filed:

Camp IdRaHaJe has faithfully served and ministered to Colorado children of all backgrounds and faiths since 1948 and has successfully maintained its resident camp license since it first received one in 1995. The new policy of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, however, is asking IdRaHaJe to choose between upholding its Biblical beliefs about biological sex and risk losing its license or abandoning its beliefs and mission by forcing girls and boys to shower, dress, and share sleeping quarters with campers of the opposite sex. We are asking the court to allow us to operate consistent with our beliefs and protect our campers from a gender ideology agenda.

 ADF Legal Counsel Andrea Dill, representing the camp,  also released a statement:

The government has no place telling religious summer camps that it’s ‘lights out’ for upholding their religious beliefs about human sexuality. Camp IdRaHaJe exists to present the truth of the Gospel to children who are building character and lifelong memories. But the Colorado government is putting its dangerous agenda—that is losing popularity across the globe—ahead of its kids. We are urging the court to allow IdRaHaJe to operate as it has for over 75 years: as a Christian summer camp that accepts all campers without fear of being punished for its beliefs.

The CDEC did not respond to a request for comment pending litigation.

For Rohwer, she says the state’s policy is overreaching, especially when it comes to an institution that’s had the same values instilled for nearly 80 years.  

“They feel like they’re honoring god in what they’re doing, and I feel like they should do that, to operate in a way that’s consistent with that,” said Rohwer.

Having a family member that is transgendered, Rohwer says she empathizes with children who may identify outside of their biological gender, but she says she does not support a change that forces an organization to change its religious values.

“I have a heart for the kids that feel like they don’t fit in their body,” she said. “I love those kids and I’m not saying anything bad about any of those kids or family members, whoever it might be, but I feel like we shouldn’t stomp on someone’s religious freedom to try and help those folks.