The instant his chest brushed the finish line Friday, Jackson Fagerlin pivoted on his heels to glance at the field behind him.
In the moments to come, he would bend over on the turf at JeffCo Stadium and upchuck the contents of his breakfast, as the pain finally cut through firing synapses. But at the finish line, there was no collapse of exhaustion. No hand-wave of victory, either. Just a prevailing thought.
Where are they at?
And as Jackson turned, two fellow deep-blue Resurrection Christian tees crossed the plane in Friday’s 3A boys 800-meter dash. Teammate Trevor Lim in third. And Jackson’s brother Lincoln, a freshman, a step ahead in second place.
The Fagerlins slapped and clutched hands with beaming smiles. Just a pair of brothers back again in their backyard in Fort Collins. Rubber under their feet, instead of grass.
“I had chills for, like, five minutes,” Jackson Fagerlin said. “Because getting to see that, like, we’ve worked so hard for that.”
A Resurrection Christian track family legacy sat high above, watching from the stands. Richard and Christy Fagerlin attended their first track meet 13 years ago, when eldest son Christian was in middle school. They had no idea this, unfortunately, was an all-day event. They got an idea soon enough. And Richard turned to his wife that day and told her, simply, that they were not going to be track parents.
“Here we are years later,” Richard said Saturday, “and it’s our favorite place.”
They could practically own a row of metal bleachers at Jeffco Stadium at this point. They’ve come out for meets for a decade straight. First came Christian, a distance runner at Resurrection Christian and then Grand Canyon. Then came Preston, a distance runner at, well, Resurrection Christian and then Grand Canyon. Then came Jackson, who’s blown his older brothers’ times in Class 3A out of the water — and most everyone else’s, too, leaving his Colorado legacy with a 1-minute, 54.59-second mark and a second straight state title in the 800 meters Friday afternoon.
And there’s one more Fagerlin, in freshman Lincoln, who’d been nipping at Jackson’s heels all the way through Friday.
“The medals all go in a box at some point in your life,” Richard said Saturday, choking up, emotion brimming in eyes shielded by sunglasses.
“But, ah, those moments,” he continued, of his sons finishing one-two. “Because that’s what you want as a parent. That’s the kind of victory they’re looking for.”
They grew up on an isolated stretch of acreage in Fort Collins. No neighbors, really. No kids running around the streets. Just a massive backyard, and endless games of 2-on-2 football. The Fagerlins became each other’s most bitter rivals and best friends. And across Jackson’s senior season and Lincoln’s freshman year at Resurrection Christian, they’ve swapped race intel in mornings — preparing for the field, preparing for each other.
“He knows as a runner, like, what he’s capable of doing,” Lincoln said when asked to describe Jackson. “And he makes it happen, no matter where he’s in, whatever position he’s in.
“He’s a gutsy runner, in the best way possible,” Jackson said when asked to describe Lincoln. “Like, he’s not afraid to get out and take it.”
At a conference championship meet earlier this spring, Jackson had a horrible migraine, Resurrection Christian coach Mark Roggy remembered. He ran the 800 meters but couldn’t make it up for the 1600 relay.
Young Lincoln is a “monster competitor,” Roggy said. But he skipped out of the 1600, too.
“I think mostly because of Jackson,” Roggy said. “He was trying to take care of his brother.”
Mother Christy didn’t quite recall that, or shrugged it off. What she did remember, however, was Jackson coming to her on that same day after the 800 meters, completely fried. He’d felt Lincoln on his hip, closer than ever, down the stretch. And he’d mustered every ounce of strength left to chuck himself across the line, all to beat his brother.
“He was like, ‘Heck no,’” Christy recalled.
Competition and love brought them to this weekend, where they blazed through the 800-meter and turned their sights to Saturday’s 1600 meters. Lincoln fell into the middle of the swarm before turning on the jets in the final 400, pulling in at third. Jackson led the pack by about 30 meters after the first lap, never relinquishing his lead and finishing with a time of 4:26:43 to take the state title.
And as he turned down for the final stretch of his high school career, he gazed up at swelling stands, with his long-confirmed track parents and brothers in tow.
“It’s indescribable,” Jackson said Saturday. “Like, I looked up to my older brothers so much. They’re the whole reason I’m in this sport.
“And, for them to be here supporting me and my younger brother, who looks up to me, like, that’s a total full-circle moment.”
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Originally Published: May 17, 2025 at 6:33 PM MDT
