LAKEWOOD • Blake Barnett’s surprise was real.

Right when he barreled across the finish line in the Class 4A boys final in the 100-meter sprint, the Erie star looked like he’d hit the Powerball.

“I won that (expletive)!” Barnett howled to himself, eyes as wide as the medal he later wore.

CHSAA set to resume track and field championships Saturday on delayed schedule

I’m surprised he was surprised. See, I noticed a common thread between a bunch of the state champs at the CHSAA track meet Sunday at JeffCo Stadium: they knew they would win. Flat-out knew it. Beast modes like Barnett, who trailed for the first 70 meters then simply decided he was going to win. Quiet competitors like Alec Falk, the 4A state discus champ from Palmer Ridge, who was so comfortable on the state stage he led a fired-up crowd in a clapping exercise on his final throw. Or like 2A long jump champ Jaysa Even, who saw a tight leaderboard and told The Gazette’s Brent Briggeman, “I was like, I’m going to take it.”

Next jump, a personal best. State champs call game. They make an executive decision everyone else on hand is playing for second.

Shoot, Barnett called his shot six months ago. He’s also the star quarterback at Erie, and after Erie lost to Chatfield in the 4A state title game, Barnett messaged track coach Brandon Havard.

Paul Klee: That's 'Naz,' baby: Nazem Kadri infuriates St. Louis in Avalanche's critical Game 3 win over the Blues

“He told me, ‘I might not have a state football championship, so I’m going to win a state track championship,’” Havard confirmed Sunday afternoon. And he did. I saw it. That happened.

So explain the surprise, sir.

“You say you’re going to win a state title, but never in a million years do you know what it feels like to actually win it,” Barnett said.

You’re going to hear about Barnett down the road. You can count on one hand the number of college football prospects in Colorado more coveted than him, and you might need only a couple fingers. Couple months ago the 6-foot-1, 210-pound sprinter – yes, he barreled across the finish line — took an unofficial visit to the University of Georgia, college football’s reigning national champs. He’s taken an unofficial to CU-Boulder, and the Buffs should get on that. Colorado State, Kansas State, Oregon State, Washington and Kansas offered full-ride scholarships to play football. So the star quarterback prospect from Colorado is also the sixth-fastest high school kid in Colorado, taking into account the 5A 100-meter results. All that college football interest arrived before he won a state sprinting title and before he plays two more seasons of high school football for state title contenders at Erie. We’ll be watching Barnett play football on Saturdays.

“And on Sundays,” he predicted again.

“In three years we can watch him on TV,” Havard said.

Paul Klee: Oh, boy. St. Louis Blues beat up Avalanche in Game 2, and this is a serious series

So what is it, exactly, that turns a state finalist into a state champ? It’s something, but it’s not much. And it’s not like the other finalists did anything wrong. In the case of Barnett, who won the 100 meters in 11.11 seconds, the difference was a literal blink — .02 seconds. Grand Junction Central’s Justin Blanton finished second in 11.13, Air Academy’s Simeon Whitaker third in 11.14. The other guys didn’t run a bad race. They simply ran a race against Barnett. Standing at the finish line, I contend he won via the chest lean. He decided he was going to win a state title, and he leaned into it.

Ask the losing athletes how they became winning athletes. That’s a smart route. Ask Carsen Bruns, the Rampart go-getter. He finished second in the 300-meter hurdles last year and allowed that defeat to dog at him: “Thought about it every day,” he told me. Guess what? Bruns won two state titles on Sunday — one in the 100 hurdles, one in the 300 hurdles.

“Finishing second was the best motivation I could have had,” Bruns said.

For Falk, the discus champ from Palmer Ridge, that extra oomph came from friends and family.

Grad transfer running back decommits from Colorado, won't join Buffs this summer

“I got so many messages last night just telling me ‘good luck,’” said Falk, a senior who’s off to the Air Force Academy to play football for Troy Calhoun and win some more.

Or Widefield athlete Derek Allen. His extra came from his coach, whom Allen positioned at the first turn. “I told him to yell at me: Keep calm,” Allen said. “Needed that.” Allen won titles in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.

“I just had a plan,” said Allen, who’s off to Western Colorado to play football and run track.

All the state champs had a little extra — a game plan, previous heartache, an epiphany of “why not me?” The difference for each was the extra.

“Now I want two more,” Barnett said.

Not surprised.