The state cross country meet is scheduled to be held at Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs on Saturday.
The Colorado Springs area is forecast to get snow on Wednesday night, and have a high of 37 degrees on Thursday. However, Friday is slated for a high of 53, and Saturday has a high of 64. The forecasts for Sunday and Monday both call for snow.
As such, the plan from the CHSAA office and course officials is to run the meet as scheduled on Saturday.
“We know snow is expected two days ahead of the event, but we are prepared with plows and other snow removal equipment, and plan to work on the course Thursday and Friday in preparation for Saturday’s races,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Jenn Roberts-Uhlig. “With more snow on the way on Sunday and Monday, we are fully prepared and expecting to run on Saturday.”
The event brought back the popular Sweepstakes race, mixing together the best teams from each classification. This year, on the boys side, Fort Collins won the event with 153 points. Rock Canyon (178) placed second, and host Heritage (206) was third.
Individually, returning champion Cole Sprout captured the Sweepstakes with a time of 14.38.40. Cherry Creek junior Parker Wolfe was second in 14:47.30, and Fort Collins’ Kevin Conlon (15:09.50) was third.
Cherry Creek won the girls race, totaling just 78 points. Cherokee Trail (97) was second, and Arapahoe (121) placed third.
Sydney Thorvaldson of Rawlins (Wyo.) won the Sweepstakes race in 16:40.60. Cherry Creek’s Riley Stewart (17:12.60) was the top Colorado finisher, ahead of Cherokee Trail’s Cameron McConnell (17:24.60).
Overland’s Grant Bradley was the individual champion in the Division 1 boys race, and Fossil Ridge was the top team.
Ralston Valley’s Elizabeth Schweiker captured the Division 1 girls race, while Jackson Hole, Wyo. won as a team.
COLORADO SPRINGS — When Nell Taylor and her teammates jumped on the bus in Pagosa Springs, they knew they were in for a long journey. Over 250 miles and a trek over Wolf Creek Pass separate the Pirates from the Norris-Penrose Event Center. But the trip is worth it for so many reasons.
Pagosa is just one of many teams that come from far and wide to compete at the Cheyenne Mountain Stampede cross country meet. There are several reasons that each team makes it a point to cross a finish line at the same site of the annual Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo.
Chief among them is that this is where they want to be racing on the last day of the season. That’s when the state cross country meet takes place and the same site that hosts the Stampede houses the final race that kid is willing to sell out their bodies to try and win.
And while the layout of the course isn’t exactly the same as state, it gives the competitors an idea of what to expect in October.
“That definitely helps a lot,” Taylor said. “And just getting a head start on everyone, because this is, this is not a flat course. It’s not an easy course. And once we get through with the rest of the season we can say this is hard, but it’s not as hard as the state course with all the hills.”
But that’s not the only reason that teams have for going. For a team like Pagosa, it’s a chance to get the team bonding early in the season which can have benefits later in the year.
When it comes to high school athletics, there is no better way to bond than with a long bus ride with a handful of teammates.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
“I think it’s just a big part of spending time with the team and just being all together,” Taylor said. “That really helps when you run Running is my passion and I’ve been running since a very young age and Just getting together to compete and to see how far you can push yourself, I think that’s definitely worth the car ride. Just to be with the team and suffer together, that just brings me really close to them.”
Taylor finished ninth in the Class 3A girls race with a time of 21 minutes, 49.1 seconds. Between the bonding experience and the atmosphere that comes with racing at Norris-Penrose, she’s hoping for a little better finish when the Pirates return in two months.
The same can be said for Rocky Ford’s Noel Lopez. The Meloneer took second in the 2A boys race with a time of 16:51.6, but on top of a team bonding experience and the chance to race at the site of the state meet, coming to Colorado Springs had an additional benefit for those residing in eastern Colorado.
“I think it’s a good workout cause of the high elevation, we’re used to training at a low altitude,” Lopez said. “The air is definitely a lot thinner. It’s a dirt course that has good hills and everything, so really prepares us well for the the state meet.”
Each time Lopez or Taylor or any running hits this course they try to apply lessons from previous races. That has helped build the right mentality to take into even a regular season race or a race at state.
The trick is that each time the gun fires and the runners swarm out onto the course, they’re all trying to balance the competitive nature of the race with utilizing the experience they need to attain the desired finish.
“The first time I ran this course, I went way too hard in the first mile and nearly died during the rest of it,” Lopez said. “I’m not used to running on so many hills like this and at such a high altitude.”
Taylor, Lopez and all the runners who competed on Friday will do what they can so they can get one more crack at the course on Oct. 26 for the state cross country meet.
AURORA — Thursday marks the start of competition for six fall sports.
Cross country, field hockey, gymnastics, boys soccer, spirit and volleyball can all begin games, meets or matches on Thursday. The schedules in each sport are relatively light through the weekend, but pick up in earned next week.
There are a few top-10 matchups right away, including No. 1 Regis Jesuit at No. 4 Kent Denver in field hockey on Thursday, and No. 1 Chaparral at No. 2 Cherokee Trail in 5A volleyball on Friday.
Thursday also brings two cross country events, one in Aurora and another Johnstown.
The Cheyenne Mountain Stampede, held at Norris-Penrose Event Center, the same venue as the state championships, is Friday. The Vista Nation XC 2-Mile is also Friday, and that is drawing a number of the top programs from the metro area — including four defending state championship teams.
Schedules and scoreboards for some sports are available here:
Social media can be a tool for success or a detriment to one’s growth through their desired activity or profession.
That’s what Denver Broncos senior strategic communications manager Seth Medvin spent time telling the high school athletes that made their way through the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse. During the CHSAA and Denver Broncos fall sports media day, Medvin provided a lecture on social media use and how to use it in a way that is responsible and positive.
“The unique thing with social media training for high school athletes is they’re exposed to it than even pro athletes are right now,” Medvin said. “We’re getting rookies in that were very active on social media when they were in high school. Athletes coming out now, they’ve been on social media since they were in maybe elementary school. It’s important as they’ve had much more experience in it that the education is more important at a younger age because it sticks with them and it really is their digital footprint.”
It’s something that the players might be told about from time to time but getting a thorough lesson about the dangers of social media and how to protect themselves served as a bit of a wakeup call.
The levels of play might be different, but the lessons learned can transcend those levels. Social media posts can fuel intensity before a game or cast a player in poor light when simply looking at typed words with no context.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Medvin’s goal was to to show young players hoping to have a future in their sport of choice how to be preventative when it comes to getting into trouble with Twitter or Instagram. And it was a message that a lot of the kids paid attention to.
“I think it was a great thing for us,” Hoehne lineman Antonio Moltrer said. “As kids, we’re going to do dumb stuff. This helped us open our eyes to make sure we don’t (do those dumb things).”
Medvin didn’t hold back on his examples. He pointed out current professional athletes and referenced their draft stock ahead of teams digging into their social media pasts. The tweets that were uncovered were less than flattering.
And the consequences that followed were jarring. Rather than being a first round pick, this guy went in the fourth. With that came a salary difference of this many millions of dollars. And he stressed that even if a kid’s future isn’t in professional athletics, those things can still come back and cause havoc when finding a job or applying for schools.
The coaches in attendance were also appreciative of the message. Sometimes with high school athletes – or even just kids in general — a lecture from a coach or a teacher can be disregarded fairly easily. When the Denver Broncos deliver the message, however, they tend to perk up a bit.
“I think it’s great exposure,” Otis volleyball coach Bonnie Wallin-Kuntz said. “These kids are living in a glass bubble and everyone is looking at them daily. I don’t think they realize that people are watching and looking. They have to be aware of it.”
And they need to be aware of it now. As group after group sat in front of a projector and listened to Medvin, his passion and emphasis never eased. Every football player coming through the facility would love to play for the Denver Broncos. But that path doesn’t begin after it high school. It doesn’t begin during a college football career. It starts with the little things these kids are doing right now on a daily basis.
“What they do can affect them tomorrow,” Medvin said. “These kids are coming and going into colleges. I’m sure these colleges are searching for social media profiles. It is so easy to find negatives in their accounts, but it’s also really easy to build a positive profile and start the positive use of social media at a young age.”
When jokingly asked, several players said they didn’t have to jump online and delete any posts after listening to Medvin. It’s a good start, but the hope is that the message sinks in even years down the road.
