Jun. 1—As one of the top male athletes at Centennial High School, Troy Silver is shining in what might be his best sport.
After playing football in the fall, and wrestling in the winter, Silver is making plenty of noise on the track for the Bulldogs’ boys track team.
Silver, a senior, is one of the premier hurdlers in the state, among the top five in both the 100 high hurdles and 300 hurdles. He also runs on three of Centennial’s relay teams.
Thursday, during a five-team meet at Dutch Clark Stadium, Silver easily won his top event, the 110 hurdles, in a time of 15.8 seconds. It was just a second off his personal best as he cruised to the finish line, two hurdles ahead of his next closest competitor.
“I feel like I can always do better, especially with somebody by my hip.” Silver said right after the race.”
Centennial coach Ron Garcia reaps high praise on Silver.
“He’s a great athlete, three-sport athlete,” Garcia said. “He was one of the team captains in football and wrestling. During track, he’s our team leader in our relays and then he runs the hurdles. He pretty much does everything for us.
“Hurdles is his best chance at the state.meet. He’s going to qualify in the 300 and 100. In the high hurdles.he has a chance of winning it, he’s in the top five.”
Silver is focused on winning a state title and has done everything he can off the track to reach that goal. He’s been in the weight room for the past two years after finishing 10th at the state meet as a sophomore in the 110 hurdles.
“I’ve been lifting a lot more, strengthening my legs,” he said. “I’m a lot stronger.”
He’s also been a stickler on his technique, which can be the difference in winning and losing. He runs for himself and doesn’t pay attention to his competition.
“In the hurdles, the hardest part is block work and form,” he said. “If you have those two things, you can win anything.
“I really don’t want to know my competition.”
Silver enjoyed competing in all three sports and has hopes of trying to play all three in college.
“The two best sports I’m probably good at is wrestling and track,” he said. “I wrestled at 152 and played tailback, fullback, outside linebacker.
“I’m going to try and go to college in all of them. I’m probably going to go to Colorado State University Pueblo.. I’m going to study electrical engineering. There’s an apprenticeship program I’m going to apply for.”
What’s it going to take for Silver to win a state title?
“Hard work, confidence,” he said. “Just have to run my race.”
Chieftain senior sports reporter Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky