CHICAGO — Mountain Vista’s Harrison Witt is no stranger to making history this year, and now he is making a little more.
On Thursday, the recently graduated Golden Eagle became the first Gatorade Colorado boys track & field player of the year to be chosen from Mountain Vista.
“For Harrison, the team always comes first and his individual goals come second,” Mountain Vista coach Jonathan Dalby said. “His ability to relate, connect, and inspire everyone else around him is remarkable.”
The 6-2, 155-pound senior set a state record of 4:04.36 in his title-winning 1600-meter run at the Class 5A state meet this past season. The clocking ranked as the nation’s fourth-best performance among 2021 prep competitors. It also broke his own record of 4:05.18 set earlier in the season.
Witt also broke the tape in the 800 at the state meet with a meet-record time of 1:48.75. His personal-best clocking of 1:48.50 in the 800 this season eclipsed another state record and ranked No. 2 nationally.
President of his class, Witt has participated in service mission trips to Guatemala and Cuba and has volunteered locally on behalf of the Make-a-Wish Foundation as well as the Forever Home Foundation, which helps elderly community members stay in their homes.
Witt has maintained a weighted 4.34 GPA in the classroom. He will attend Princeton University this fall, where he will compete in track and field.
He joins recent Gatorade Colorado boys track & field players of the year Cole Sprout (2019-20, 2018-19, & 2017-18, Valor Christian), and Isaac Green (2016-17, Monarch), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Cherry Creek’s Riley Stewart will look back at her junior year in high school as a memorable one for a number of reasons, some typical for an athlete of her ability and others unusual.
Now, she has one more reason – similar to another lofty accolade she recently garnered – to look back fondly on the 2020-21 school year.
On Friday, Gatorade announced that Stewart had been selected as the latest Gatorade Colorado track and field girls player of the year. The Bruins junior was also named Gatorade Colorado girls cross country player of the year for the second consecutive year in April.
“This season, Riley was undefeated in the state of Colorado and finished in the top five of each national-level competition she entered,” Cherry Creek distance coach Ethan Dusto said in a press release. “I’ve coached athletes for the past 17 years of my life, and I can say that I have had very few as talented as Riley, and none who have had the combination of talent, hard work, humility and teamwork that she exhibits.”
As a junior in Season D, Stewart broke the Colorado state record in the 1,600, setting the new standard at 4 minutes, 44.13 seconds at the Stutler Twilight in June. The previous record of 4:44.31 was set by Air Academy’s Katie Rainsberger and stood for five years.
At the Season D track and field state championships, Stewart set a Class 5A state meet record in the 1,600 with a time of 4:45.96. She also won the 800 (2:09.60), placed first in the 3,200 (10:31.45) and anchored the Bruins’ winning 3,200 relay team to a time of 9:05.73.
The list of recent Gatorade Colorado girls track and field players of the year includes Niwot’s Taylor James, Valor Christian’s Anna Hall and Denver East’s Arria Minor. Stewart’s Cherry Creek teammate Parker Wolfe was named this year’s Gatorade Colorado boys cross country player of the year back in April.
Stewart, who maintains a 3.7 GPA, is a member of her school’s student-athlete leadership council and has volunteered locally on behalf of park clean-up initiatives.
Stewart is now the second Cherry Creek athlete to claim this distinction. Bruins alumnus Jordyn Colter was chosen by Gatorade as Colorado’s top girls track and field athlete in 2015.
ORLANDO – Dave Logan’s father coached him in both little league football and basketball, and that relationship ended up being the primary reason Logan grew up to become a coach himself.
Even at an early age, both of Logan’s parents ingrained in him that should he one day have an opportunity to work with kids that he must take advantage of the chance to guide younger generations and help them grow through sport. Logan took those words to heart and has spent decades doing exactly that.
On Thursday night at the 102nd annual National Federation of State High School Associations Summer Meeting, Logan was inducted into the NFHS Hall of Fame for the wide-ranging impact he has made over his wide-ranging career in the world of sports.
“The idea of working with kids was ingrained in me when I was very young,” Logan said. “Even when my dad was coaching me, he talked about how, ‘You’re going to grow up and eventually, if you get the opportunity, you give back.’”
Logan was a three-sport standout – football, basketball and baseball – throughout his high school years at Wheat Ridge from 1969-72, and insists he never had a favorite despite his future professional career in football. His favorite sport, Logan says, was whatever he was playing a given time.
One of only three multi-sport players to be drafted by all three major sports organizations, Logan went on to be a two-sport star at the University of Colorado and then played nine years as a wide receiver in the NFL. He played eight of those years with the Cleveland Browns before playing his final season with the Denver Broncos, where he would eventually become the organization’s on-air radio voice on KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM.
Logan has been “the voice of the Broncos” for three decades and in 2019 signed an agreement to continue for another 10 years.
Since he returned to the high school coaching rankings, Logan has won nine state titles and 290 games over 28 years split between four schools, including Arvada West, Chatfield, Mullen and Cherry Creek. Most recently, he guided the Cherry Creek Bruins to an undefeated season and a second straight Class 5A state championship in the fall.
(Theodore Stark/tstark.com)
During his NFHS Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Logan reminisced on the many lessons he learned from his own high school coaches and teachers. Now going into his 29th year coaching high school football, he remarked that he remains focused on imparting those same lessons and principles to the young student-athletes he now coaches.
“I think the life lessons you can learn as an athlete and a high school kid, many of those you carry with you and they shape in a lot of ways who you are and who you became,” Logan said. “They shape how you conduct yourself and what’s important to you, and what’s not important. I loved every single sport. I couldn’t wait when the season ended, the next day I was at whatever the next season was. I was able to carry what I learned from my high school experience into playing both basketball and football in college.
“But I think what we need to be able to recognize, and too often we don’t do this, is the importance and the impact that high school coaches, teachers and administrators – those who deal with our youth – have on young people. And even though it might not seem like it every single day, and I know I leave practice some days thinking, ‘I’m not sure they hear a word I said today,’ they do.
“They do.”
Logan entered the NFHS Hall of Fame 2021 class with a pair of other renowned Colorado athletes in former Colorado Rockies player Matt Holliday and former Denver Nuggets player Alex English.
The Season D all-state girls tennis teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created based upon results at the state tournament.
The athletes who won championships at their classification were named players of the year. Coaches of the year were awarded to the coaches of championship teams.
[divider]
(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)
Class 5A
Player of the year: Lily Chitamber, Boulder
Coach of the year: Chris Jacob, Cherry Creek
First Team
Name
Year
School
Pos.
Lily Chitamber
Junior
Boulder
1S
Valerie Negin
Senior
Smoky Hill
1S
Lorena Cedeno
Junior
Cherry Creek
2S
Anika Sharma
Freshman
Cherry Creek
3S
Eliza Hill
Senior
Cherry Creek
1D
Nicole Hill
Senior
Cherry Creek
1D
Halley Mackiernan
Senior
Cherry Creek
2D
Anna Fusaris
Senior
Cherry Creek
2D
Victoria Moldovan
Junior
Cherry Creek
3D
Jisele Boker
Freshman
Cherry Creek
3D
Ella Barclay
Senior
Cherry Creek
4D
Vivienne Bersin
Junior
Cherry Creek
4D
[divider]
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Class 4A
Player of the year: Lauren Manwiller, Mullen
Coach of the year: Jera Sturgell, Mullen
First Team
Name
Year
School
Pos.
Lauren Manwiller
Senior
Mullen
1S
Beilynn Geiss
Junior
Loveland
1S
Anna Sallee
Junior
Niwot
2S
Emily Creek
Senior
Niwot
3S
Hanna Noyes
Sophomore
Kent Denver
1D
Kendall Adams
Freshman
Kent Denver
1D
Tierney Scanlan
Junior
Mullen
2D
Izzy Desjardins
Junior
Mullen
2D
Madeline Crites
Junior
Mullen
3D
Aubryanne Leugers
Junior
Mullen
3D
Renee Hoyt
Sophomore
Mullen
4D
Clara Dailey
Freshman
Mullen
4D
[divider]
(Luke Zahlmann/Pueblo Chieftain)
Class 3A
Player of the year: Anna Jordaan, Colorado Academy
The highest scoring girls soccer state championship game in Colorado’s history fittingly featured one of the most prolific scorers to play in the Centennial State.
On Saturday at Weidner Field, the Dawson Mustangs won the Class 2A girls soccer championship, 15-4, over Telluride. Senior Degen Miller, who is a member of the U.S. Soccer Under-19 Team player pool, led the onslaught with four goals by herself. Those four game-breaking goals pushed Miller’s season total to an incredible 43 goals and 16 assists in Season D.
Several days later on Tuesday, Miller was named Gatorade Colorado girls soccer player of the year.
“When you look over the span of her career, she injured her collarbone as a freshman and we were still able to go through and win a state title that year,” Dawson head coach David Criswell said. “What stood out to me was how she still stuck around and stayed dedicated to the team, and that set the tone for the next few years. This year, the contributions she made to the team were immense. Of course, the technical skill and tactical knowledge on the field are obvious.
“But she also has a humility and grace that really allowed her to be a leader for us and makes her a special player beyond what she can do in a game.”
Miller, who will play at the University of Virginia next year, finished her high school pandemic-shortened career with 99 goals and 40 assists in just 33 career games. As a senior, she led the Mustangs (12-1) to a Mile High West championship on their way to a state title.
The Mustangs have played in all six Class 2A state championship games since the classification was introduced in 2015, and Miller has been on the team for both of Dawson’s girls soccer state championships.
“Degen is the whole package,” Front Range Christian coach Eric Osberg said in a press release. “She is the leader of that team and has made everyone around her better. Her vision on the field is phenomenal and she sees everyone and everything. What sets Degen apart is she knows when to involve her teammates and when she needs to take a game over.”
As Gatorade Colorado player of the year, Miller joins a list of in-state standouts that includes Mallory Mooney (2019-20, Broomfield High School), Mari Annest (2018-19, Colorado Academy), Hailey Stodden (2017-18, Broomfield High School), and Shae Holmes (2016-17, ThunderRidge High School), and others.
Valor Christian’s Radek Birkholz was named the Gatorade baseball player of the year for Colorado on Tuesday. He has been named a finalist for the national baseball player of the year which will be named in July.
Birkholz was a standout player for the Eagles in his time at Valor. As a freshman, he took on the challenge of pitching in the Class 4A state championship game against Pueblo West. Not only did he get the win, but he nearly threw a no-hitter as he had not given up a hit through six innings.
He has shined off the field as well as he has served as a member of the National Honor Society and led a mission trip to the Dominican Republic on behalf of his community. All while doing that, he has maintained a 4.14 GPA.
He has become the idea baseball player to represent the state of Colorado.
“As a head coach for 20 years, I can say Radek Birkholz is not only one of the best players I have seen in Colorado over that time span, but also one of the best kids,” Ralston Valley coach Brad Madden said in a release. “He is a great competitor, an unbelievable player and a humble young man.”
He finished the year with a 6-0 record, a 0.79 ERA and struck out 71 hitters that he faced. He gave up a total of four earned runs as Valor advanced to the 5A state championship game. He was also a menace at the plate as he hit .473 with seven home runs and 29 RBI’s.
He will play his college baseball at the University of Notre Dame and he’ll be paying attention to the MLB Entry Draft in July as his name could be called. He is the No. 3 draft prospect in the state according to Perfect Game.