Student Athlete of the Week Kingston Staton

Running for the Niwot High School track and field program means everything to Kingston Staton.

Only a sophomore, he first got to know Niwot's coaches through Real Training, a club team led by longtime Cougar head coach Maurice Henriques. Staton has maintained an appreciation for Niwot's accomplished coaching staff and the wisdom passed down upon him.

"It's been incredible," Staton said. "I actually don't even live in Niwot... I've been running here and coming to school here because of the great program that we have, all the things they teach you, and the great coaches. It's a good community, too."

Not all underclassmen are easily coachable, but the versatile athlete seeks to learn as much as possible early in his prep career. The mental side of running, in particular, is where Staton hopes to keep growing. Overthinking has been an occasional issue, although that is typical among second-year varsity athletes.

Despite feeling some pressure to impress on his home track, Staton still found his hurdling groove at the second annual Niwot Invitational on Saturday, March 30. He took third place in the 300-meter hurdles race with a time of 41.10 seconds and placed 10th in the 110 hurdles at 16.19.

"It was a little bit more laid back because it's our home meet, but I approached this like it's a big meet," Staton said. "I approached it like it's BoCo (Boulder County Track Championships). It's not that we (Niwot) have something to prove, but we've go to show what we're going to do for the rest of the season early on in the year."

On a personal level, Staton hopes to bring his 300 hurdles time down to 39 seconds while dropping his 110 time to below 14 seconds. He also competes in the 400-meter sprint relay, and the long jump, where he'd like to accomplish a 22-foot leap. "I run so many events, so I have a lot of goals," Staton said.

Staton's next meet came at the Birds of Prey Invitational, hosted by Skyline High School on Friday, April 5. In his three individual races, he took fourth in the 400, eighth in the 200, and 36th in the 100.

His ability to compete in several different events should give the Niwot boys some depth when the state championships begin on May 16. Last year, the then-freshman qualified for state in the 300 hurdles and was a member of Niwot's 4x100 relay team, although neither race advanced past the preliminaries.