LAKEWOOD — Marcus Mills could’ve crawled to the finish line on scraped ego and bruised knees. But what would’ve been the point?

“I didn’t want to finish the race at all,” Mills, a senior sprinter at Sierra High, said of the carnage that capped the Class 4A state boys 300-meter hurdles championship won by Niwot’s Eric Walker Saturday. “I got DQ-ed anyway.”

JeffCo Stadium’s farewell kiss had sent Mills sprawling to the track, three meters from a state title. Last race. Last high school meet. Last CHSAA dance. Last lead. Last stinking hurdle.

“I guess I attacked it way too hard,” offered Mills, who went from first place to his keister in a blink as the crowd gasped. “Yeah. I guess the hurdle attacked me.”

A shocked Mills watched from his behind while the rest of the field finished. As the times went up on the scoreboard, he sat there like a stray balloon from an Independence Day parade. The party had moved on.

“It’s just unfortunate that it happened to me and not anyone else,” said Mills, who’d suffered a similar fate during the 110 hurdles final here in 2021. “Because let’s be honest. That was my race.”

Ten seconds of sitting became 20. Then 30.

“Don’t cross the line!” someone yelled.

Eventually, a tall kid with floppy brown hair doubled back from the finish line and laid a gentle hand on Mills’ shoulder.

“Are you OK?”

No response.

“You need any help?”

No response.

“Come on, man,” Standley Lake sprinter Ian McCurdy said, pressing on, extending a hand for Mills to grasp. “Just finish the race. I know it’s sad to have it happen like this. You’ve got to finish the race.”

So they did. Together.

“(McCurdy) gave me the confidence to just finish it, no matter what,” Mills said later. “He basically just carried me through the finish line.”

Dude might’ve sat there all day. Or until the ground had opened up to swallow him whole. Whichever came first.

“(Mills) would’ve beat me fair and square,” offered Windsor’s Grayson Lewis, who wound up third and had also circled back to check on Mills. “It just (stinks) to beat someone like that.”

When it comes to the brotherhood and sisterhood of sprinters, the fire burns hot. Empathy runs deep. When one speedster falls, everybody feels it.

“I consider every (runner) I go against just a teammate or a friend of mine,” McCurdy explained. “I don’t really consider them rivals.”

Hey, when it comes to JeffCo demons, he’s been there. The Gators senior took a spill during state last year while he was running the 300. A hurdle got kicked into his lane, and all Hades broke loose.

McCurdy managed to get a re-do at 9 on a Friday night. The then-junior was on a pace to lock down ninth when he mistimed his jump and the penultimate hurdle popped up and bit him. Toast.

“I was lucky enough to get a re-do, but when (Mills) fell, I understood,” McCurdy said. “I thought maybe I could help. I went over because I know how crushing it is. Especially for a senior.”

Especially given the history. Mills had cruised to the state finals in the 110 hurdles in 2021, even setting a personal best here of 15.99 to qualify for the big show. During the finals, though, he shot out of the blocks, clipped the initial hurdle and got out of his lane, disqualifying him within a matter of seconds.

Last May brought a measure of sweet revenge, as Mills again reached the 110 finals at JeffCo, snatching the 4A title with a time of 14.90.

“I can’t say I’m not lucky,” Mills chuckled. “I don’t think it’s (JeffCo) because I can say that I won here.

“Every race is new. Every year is new. I’m like, ‘Just stay on guard.’”

New year. New karma. Mills figured that he’s DQ-ed only four times during his senior season. Two of those landed over this past weekend at JeffCo.

So much for mojo.

“Now that you’re saying that (stat),” Mills chuckled, “it might be the building. Two DQs in one year at state is crazy. That’s crazy.”

McCurdy’s been chased by goblins, too, particularly over the past few months. State was only his third meet all season because of a strained hamstring. He’s hoping to feel right enough to run at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Ore., in June, and to use that event as a springboard to try and walk-on — or rather, sprint-on — with the CU Buffs.

“I just wanted to be there for him,” the Standley Lake senior said. “I was just telling him, ‘It’s all right.’ Honestly, I was happy to run with him. I was just trying to move on from what happened and just say how happy I was to run with him.”

As the sun set behind the west stands, McCurdy wound up fifth in the 300 hurdles, eighth in the 110 hurdles and eighth in the 400 relay. But first in sheer class.