(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — Lauren Manwiller faced a bit of a trouble in the second set of the Class 4A girls tennis No. 1 Singles championship.

She had dropped the first game of both sets to Loveland’s Beilynn Geiss and Manwiller was down 15-break in the 10th game of the second set. She held a 5-4 lead and with the temperature rising at Pueblo City Park, playing a third set was something she wasn’t interested in doing.

So she rallied and to get the 6-2, 6-4 to give the Mustangs a No. 1 Singles title. That win also pushed them out of reach of Cheyenne Mountain to claim the team championship. Manwiller knew that while she was playing for herself in her position, she also had team implications riding on the result.

“That’s what I love about high school tennis,” she said. “I love it more than tournaments. I’m on a team where they support me and I support them.”

She needed the support through the duration of her match. Geiss got on the board early, taking the first game in each set trying to establish momentum early. But Manwiller was prepared for the battle ahead of her.

She didn’t shy away from the challenge of falling into an early hole, but rather she embraced it and used as fuel to battle back.

“I knew she would hold her serve so I just stayed focused,” Manwiller said. “I just played my game and held my serve for most of the time. I knew if I could hold my serve then I would likely win.”

Prior to the championship she faced her toughest challenge in Niwot’s Alys Pop. The Cougars sophomore put up quite a fight in the semis but after Manwiller got the first set 7-5, she rolled to a 6-1 win to close out the match.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Although the No. 1 Singles match was all that was needed for the Mustangs to win the team title, the overall team went on a gold medal hunt on Saturday. Tierney Scanlan and Izzy Desjardins won the No. 2 Doubles title while Madeline Crites and Aubryanne Meugers rolled to a No. 3 Doubles crown.

They weren’t reliant on just one position, the Mustangs wanted to put together an all-around great team performance to finish with 45 points.

“It was a whole team effort,” Mullen coach Jera Sturgell said. “It was obviously a tough season with the restrictions and everything. We came in blind and coming into state we had to play our best because the best is here.”

The team championship is the first for the Mustangs since 2006.

The biggest drama of the day came in the race for team runner-up as Niwot had a chance to overtake Cheyenne Mountain, but Palmer Ridge’s Tessa Rothwell beat Niwot’s Anna Sallee in No. 2 Singles to dash the Cougars’ hopes of a runner-up finish.

Cheyenne Mountain held on to win second as a team despite not winning a single state championship at the tournament.

Kent Denver left Southern Colorado with hardware of their own as the Sun Devils were given the Vicky Matarazzo Sportsmanship Award.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

(Brad Cochi)

PUEBLO — Tony Lindsay Sr. can’t help but smile when he talks about community and family. To him, those make up the foundation of a solid football program. And he wanted to display that in his first championship game as the coach at Far Northeast.

His family was there. His sons followed from Denver South, wanting to partake in the task of rebuilding the school formerly known as Montbello.

“I told my sons that they could stay there,” Lindsay said. “One of them could get the head coaching job there.”

But they wanted to follow dad and do something special.

On May 15, 2021 they got to do just that. The Far Northeast Warriors claimed their program’s first football title with a 34-0 win over Boulder to claim the Season C Class 5A title. What was more special was how Lindsay got to watch more family contribute to that special moment.

Emmit Anderson got himself a rushing touchdown in the first half, but Gregory did it all. He ran for a touchdown, caught one, threw for one and even had an interception on defense.

A jack of all trades and the game’s Most Outstanding Player as a result.

“It’s a team sport, it’s not just me,” Gregory said. “The linemen block, the quarterback makes the passes, the running backs make great runs. It’s not just me, I was just contributing.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

He as just contributing at a high level that will go down in legend when people recount how the Warriors earned the trophy that will sit in a display case for all to see.

Gregory got the Warriors (5-2 overall) on the board with a 24-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Emmit made it a 13-0 game with a touchdown run in the second and then Gregory created his own opportunity. He picked off a Tristan Langenegger pass and was rewarded when Andy Martinez found him on a deep route to make it a 20-0 game.

“To end off my senior year like this, not a lot of people get that opportunity,” Gregory said. “I’m blessed to do it with these guys, my brothers. I love them.”

The Warriors’ first touchdown of the second half came on an Anderson throw as he took the handoff and found Jaylen Byrd streaking down the sideline. The throw was perfect and the lead increased to 27-0, giving the Warriors a feeling that a championship was well within their grasp.

All that was needed was one last defensive stand, which the Warriors got by applying consistent pressure to Langenegger. With the ball back in their hands, Martinez went to the air one more time, finding Leonardo Ramos-Valles for a touchdown.

The offense played well, Gregory Anderson was spectacular and the defense as a whole was stellar.

“That’s the heart; that is our heartbeat,” Lindsay said. “Those five guys down there (on the defensive line), you watch any game it’s all them. Defense wins championships.”

Perhaps the biggest source of pride for Lindsay through it all was that he felt the joy coming from the kids that reside in the community. These were Far Northeast kids doing something special at Far Northeast.

He was aware of the challenge that he was facing when he took the job. But it was a challenge he was excited to face.

“That’s why I went there,” he said.

The first step to building a program back is easy in his mind. A team has to start winning. He stood on the field of the Neta and Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl in Pueblo and soaked in what his guys accomplished. They won.

Now the real work begins.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — A second half comeback and an all-or-nothing 2-point conversion is one way to make a football game dramatic. That’s the route that Thomas Jefferson took in its quest for its first football title since 1989.

The Spartans started fast, fell behind by two scores then rallied to to get a 28-27 win over Gateway to win the Season C Class 4A state title.

After taking an early lead, Spartans coach Mike Griebel noted that his team played like it thought it would coast to its first state title since 1989. But he knew better. Gateway had proven through two playoff games that it was a legit title contender and Griebel had to rally his team in the second half after the Spartans (8-0 overall) surrendered three straight touchdowns.

“We thought we had them ready to believe us that this team beat two undefeated teams to get here,” Griebel said. “They’re not afraid of that. I told our kids that we lost the first half so we had to go out and win the second half.”

TJ’s defense set the tone early, trying to make as uncomfortable as possible for Gateway quarterback Erick Covington. It succeeded in the first when pressure forced him to fling the ball away. Only It landed in the hands of Jaden Hill. He dashed into the end zone to put the Spartans up 7-0.

Then Covington found his rhythm. He connected on a long touchdown pass to Sh’marre Johnson to tie the game and then found Gabe Broussard to put the Olympians up 14-7.

Johnson broke off a long touchdown run to keep the momentum with Gateway and push the lead to 20-7.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

The Spartans adjusted at halftime and got a quick touchdown run from Hill and then tied the game on a touchdown run from quarterback Austin Lindegren.

“We just wanted it so much,” Hill said. “All the work we put in, everything that we wanted. We put it all in and we wanted to come out, score and do our jobs.”

But the Olympians (5-4) weren’t just going to go away. With Covington at the controls, they continued to force their way down the field. He was running for first downs and flipping passes ahead to receivers that had sort of a Patrick Mahomes vibe.

Facing a 4th and 3 deep in TJ territory, kicking a field goal was not an option. He took the snap and navigated outside the tackle, running 17 yards for the go-ahead score.

But Thomas Jefferson still felt as if it had all the momentum. Lindegren went right back to work with offense and got the Spartans into the red zone with time ticking away. Hill broke through the offensive line and got into the end zone.

Then it was decision time.

Griebel had a certain plan in his head on whether to go for one or to go for the win. If they scored with around four minutes left, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kick the extra point. With two, he was leaning toward the 2-point conversion, giving his team the chance to win the game right then and there.

“It was all on the clock,” Griebel said. “If it got down to where it was, I said let’s end it now, put the pressure on them and let’s see what they got.”

This time it was a keeper to Lindegren who found the end zone to give TJ its first lead since it was 7-0 in the first quarter. He then had to watch as the game sat in the hands of the defense for the final two minutes of the game.

“Our defense wasn’t too the first part of the game and that’s not the TJ team I knew,” Lindegren said. “We came out in the second half with a new mentality and that was the TJ team that I had been practicing with.”

The defense held up and forced a fumble to get the ball right back in the offense’s hands. One kneel down and Denver City Schools officially has its first football championship in 32 years.

(Brad Cochi)

PUEBLO — With the way Cade Palmer was running all over the field, Rifle needed a new defensive game plan. What the Bears settled on was that the best defense is a good offense.

The Bears possessed the ball for all 12 minutes of the third quarter and used that ability to run the ball and convert big plays – and hope the defense can create a timely turnover – to get a 35-34 win over The Classical Academy to claim the Season C Class 3A football championship.

It was no surprise that for a Todd Casebier-led team, the Bears (7-2 overall) were going to be reliant on the running game. They are designed to sustain long drives while TCA has been much more of a quick-strike offense this season. That was obvious when Palmer a pair of long touchdown runs in the first half, the first of which gave the Titans (6-1) a quick lead.

“Cade is an amazing runner, there is no doubt about it,” Bears running back Embrey Marantino said. “He’s so good. He deserved this game. We just needed to wrap him up and tackle him and I don’t think we did that to the best of our ability.”

The Bears got on the board with some craft play calling as Gavin Peterson took a pitch from Trey Caldwell and hit Kade Bishop for a 36-yard touchdown pass.

Marantino added a rushing touchdown but Ethan Aragundi had scored as had Palmer, to send the game to halftime with TCA holding a 20-13 lead.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

And that’s when the Bears were unintentionally methodical and slow on offense. They chewed up nearly 10 minutes of clock before Toto Fletchall scored and Caldwell found Peterson on the 2-point conversion to give the Bears a one-point lead.

“We took care of the ball and we finished drives,” Casebier said. “That’s what you have to do if you’re going to be a state champ.”

But that wasn’t good enough. The Bears saw an opening on the kickoff and went for the onside. Kicker Javier Diaz fell on it, giving the ball back to Rifle. The drive ended with a short touchdown run from Fletchall, his second of the game, giving the Bears a 28-20 lead.

On their first possession of the second half, the Titans continued to show they can move the ball and score. A big run from Palmer setup a touchdown pass from Sam Guilez to Jake Jennings. The Titans couldn’t convert the 2-point conversion and still trailed by a couple of points.

Then Marantino broke free. He broke for a 70-yard touchdown run on 4th and 1 to push the lead to 35-26 with 6:15 left in the game.

Palmer got his third rushing touchdown of the day and the Titans again went for two, this time converting it to make it a one-point game. But slowing down the running game was the key.

The TCA onside kick was unsuccessful, but on 1st down the Bears opted for a deep pass rather than leaning on the running game that had been so successful.

“They were loading up so much that I thought we’d run right by them,” Casebier said.

The next play was disastrous. Caldwell fumbled and suddenly the quick-strike TCA offense had the ball down one with about two minutes left.

As they moved downfield, it became evident that a big play was needed for a championship to be won. That’s when Josh Avila just decided he wanted the ball. Avila ripped it away from Palmer, giving the Bears the ball and the state title.

“No emotion was going through me,” Avila said. “I just had to grab the ball.”

He grabbed the ball for himself, but also ripped the title out of the Titans hands and back to the Bears.

(Brad Cochi)

(Brad Cochi)

COLORADO SPRINGS — Through the late 1980’s and much of the 90’s, Merino was the dominant girls volleyball team in Colorado.

After a thrilling 15-25, 16-25, 25-11, 25-18, 15-9 come from behind win over Fleming, the Rams have once again navigated to the top of the mountain. They are the Class 1A girls volleyball state champions for the first time since 2001 and the very second the ball hit the ground for the final point, the weight of a championship drought seemed to lift from the shoulders of every fan, coach and player.

“I think last year, it was the reason that we didn’t make it to the final match,” Madison Sutter said. “This year we just kind of took that weight off our shoulder and it turned out amazing.”

It was more amazing considering the road taken. After dominating their first two matches of the state tournament, the Rams (17-2 overall) found themselves in a quick hole. The first set was a see-saw battle early, but the Wildcats (15-3) pulled ahead and claimed the 10-point win. They came out strong in the second set, taking a 10-5 lead early and hung on giving the crowd at the Broadmoor World Arena every indication that they were going to defend their title.

“I didn’t feel any pressure,” Sutter said with a laugh.

It was an easy to claim to make after claiming a state championship.

But reality was starting to sink in. Fleming had been responsible for taking Merino out of the state tournament the last two seasons. Getting back into the match was a tough task and it became one as easy as taking it one point at a time.

“It was a big mental block, I think,” coach Christin Sutter said. “They dug deep. I thought we’d do it from the start, but we didn’t. I’m glad they found it before it was too late.”

They just had to start. Down 2-0 is never an ideal place to be in a volleyball match but with every point scored they built more confidence. When the tied the match at two sets apiece, the confidence was there and they knew the championship was theirs for the taking.

“We work our butts off,” Faith Trenkle said. “The determination we have is amazing it was great to see it pay off.”

The sweetest part of the whole thing is that they got to do against the team that has caused them so much angst in recent years.

“Fleming is definitely the best team we’ve played in my four years here,” Trenkle said. “We’ve come so close in all four years.”

And this year, they finally got the postseason win they so desperately craved.

“It was awesome,” she added.

There was a time that winning championships had become routine for the Merino volleyball program. In a span of 16 years, the Rams claimed 10 titles. That includes a span of five straight championships from 1987 to 1991.

This is the 11th overall state title for the Rams, third most in state history.

(Brad Cochi)

(Brad Cochi)

COLORADO SPRINGS – They picked one heck of a year to have an historic season for their program, but the Wiggins volleyball players finished of a challenging Season C by accomplishing something special.

Just the way they wanted it.

At The Broadmoor World Arena on Thursday night, the top-seeded Tigers won in three sets – 25-17, 25-17, 25-21 – against No. 3 Sedgwick County, another team seeking its first title, in the Class 2A state championship match. In their fourth straight year at the state tournament and coming off back-to-back finishes in the Final Four, Tigers like senior Bre Gilliland can finally call themselves champion.

“We’ve worked so hard for this all four years we’ve been to state,” Bre Gilliland said. “I’m so honored to finally be champions. We’ve been so close and every year, we kept putting in more and more work to get to where we wanted to be, which is here.”

While neither had won before, both Wiggins (17-2) and Sedgwick County (16-2) knocked off former championship teams to reach the finals. Wiggins swept No. 4 Fowler, a program with 10 titles to its credit. Sedgwick County came from behind to win 3-1 over defending champion No. 2 Denver Christian despite dropping the first set.

In the first game, Wiggins led by a dozen before going on to win by eight. Wiggins prevailed by the same score in the second set and had to hold off a late charge from Sedgwick County to prevent the match from extending into a potentially life-giving fourth set. But considering how close the Tigers have come in recent years to capturing that elusive first title, they weren’t taking any chances.

“We’ve been here for the last few years and Wiggins has never won a state championship,” Wiggins head coach Michelle Baker said. “We fill out goal cards at the beginning of the year and they all said, ‘Let’s go back to state.’ I said, ‘You know what, forget that. Cross that out. I don’t want to go back to state, I want to win state.’ That’s been our goal all year long and my girls have done a heck of a job. I’m super proud of them.”

COLORADO SPRINGS — Rampart volleyball coach Nikki Bloemen has experienced the struggles that Rampart has felt in the state tournament, both as a coach and a player.

She was a standout hitter before she graduated from the school in 2009 and embarking on a successful collegiate career. She coach teams that had every bit of potential to walk out as state champion, but just couldn’t quite live up to it. So the excitement was obvious when Hadleigh Richardson’s block gave the Rams a 25-17, 22-25, 25-13, 25-23 win over Grandview to give them the Class 5A state volleyball title, the first in school history.

“It’s why we coach, to give them these types of experiences,” Bloemen said. “Especially in a year like this where they’ve been dealing with hardships. They didn’t get to go to their prom last weekend because they were focused on this. They’ve been giving things up all season for this rewarded.”

She quickly noted that the reward was earned. The Rams (13-1 overall) spotted Grandview a six-point lead before the big hitters got involved. Riley Simpson and Anjelina Starck started swimming hard hoping to give Rampart the momentum needed to claw back into the match. They pulled even at 11-11 on a Simpson kill and then jumped out ahead for the first time in the match on as she put another ball down with a solid swing.

After reaching the quarterfinals a year ago, Simpson was playing with a bit of urgency in her quest to lead the Rams to a title.

“This has been years in the making,” she said. “Last year we didn’t quite make it as far as we did this year and we just put the work in day in and day out.”

A Starck kill made it 20-17 and the Rams never looked back in the first set. They didn’t look quite as settled in the second and had more difficulty hitting around Grandview standout Addison O’Grady. The Wolves (13-5 overall) fell behind early but found a rally of their own and eventually took a 17-14 lead and eventually won the set.

That was going to be the wake-up call that Rampart needed. Starck and Simpson went on a hitting spree as the Rams cruised in the third set and closed the match out in the fourth.

Starck finished with a match-high 26 kills and relished the accomplishment of the goals she had for the team since she moved to Rampart from Las Vegas at the start of the 2019 season.

“Since the day I got here, everyone treated me like family,” she said. “I knew I belonged here right when I walked in the door and it’s something I had never experienced before, just how great of a family atmosphere this is.”

For Bloemen, Rampart has always been family. Prior to the start of the season, she and her husband welcomed a daughter and if anything since then, the relationships she has built as a coach has only gotten stronger with the added perspective of having her own family.

“In a lot of ways, 2020 and 2021 have been rough,” Bloemen said. “But I had a baby and now I’ve coached a state championship team. That’s all been really great.”

Although this is just the first state volleyball title for Rampart, it is the 13th overall team championship for the school.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

COLORADO SPRINGS — The Class 4A girls volleyball state championship will remain in District 38, but it’ll sit in a trophy case in an entirely different building.

After coming so close in recent years, including a runner-up finish in 2019, Palmer Ridge can finally add a state volleyball banner to the walls. The Bears beat Mead 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 25-20 to win the school’s first state championship in the sport.

“Last year we got that runner-up trophy and it didn’t feel good to any of us,” senior Riley Anderson said. “Now getting the state championship trophy is amazing.”

It was a journey that began with a win over No. 3 Palisade in the quarterfinals and then the Bears (13-5 overall) had to get through Pikes Peak Athletic Conference rival Cheyenne Mountain to reach the championship match.

“Cheyenne Mountain was a very good thing for us today,” coach Erica Bradley said. “It was super competitive and I kind of wish it was a championship game but it was nice to go up against an unfamiliar opponent.”

Standing in the way was a Mead team that had taken out No. 1 Windsor and also watched in March as its boys basketball team won a state title on the same floor at the Broadmoor World Arena.

Mead almost appeared to be a team of destiny. But for Palmer Ridge, their championship win was that of fate.

The Bears controlled the first set from the opening serve and although the Mavericks (13-5) made a late rally, the gap was too wide to close before Palmer Ridge closed it out.

The second set was a different story altogether. The Mavericks maintained their momentum from the end of the first and used it to build a 15-8 lead, forcing a Palmer Ridge timeout. A massive kill from Quincey Coyle seemed to knock the Bears on their heels. They couldn’t quite regain the momentum they had early in the match and the Mavericks held on to win the set.

That’s when grit kicked in and Palmer Ridge started playing on a different level. The hitters put down kills and the front line came through on what seemed like every clutch block that it needed.

Anderson finished the match with 23 kills and 14 digs. Madi Wilson added 12 kills to give the Bears a bit of a balanced attack.

“They won that second set and we knew we had to come back strong,” Wilson said. “We had to keep our momentum going.”

And they had to slow down the hitting attack of Coyle and Kenzie Morton. They did a much better job in the in the last two sets which was a big reason they walked away with the championship.

“We started to figure out how to block them and where they were hitting,” Wilson added.

This is the first volleyball state title for Palmer Ridge and the first time since 2007 that the 4A title wasn’t won by either Cheyenne Mountain or Lewis-Palmer.

But the reign of the PPAC will continue for at least another year.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

(Marcus Hill)

PUEBLO — Well, Thursday’s 8-man state football championship served as a barnburner for one team.

That just so happened to be the Farmers of Hoehne High School.

Hoehne left little intrigue in their 64-40 win against No. 3 John Mall at Neta & Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl.

The No. 1-seeded Farmers trailed 6-0 after giving up a kick off return to Elton Chavez in the game’s first drive and then fumbled it out of the end zone on their first possession.

After that, John Mall struggled to contain Hoehne’s offense, which came in averaging 57 points per game.

Hoehne scored the next 36 points in the first half and kept John Mall at bay on the way to title number four in school history.

“Ever since the schedule came out we were talking about it,” said Hoehne’s Dairo Vezzani. “During the summer, after COVID hit, we went to the gym and went to the field to run routes and to stay in shape. We wanted to make sure we were ready if we had football this year. This shows we were.”

Hoehne players attributed nerves to the shaky start, but the Farmers hit their stride following their opening drive.

Vezzani scored the team’s first touchdown on a 14-yard reception and followed with a 30-yard pick-6 to pay dirt in the first quarter to build a 14-6 advantage.

“Once we got some momentum, everything started to click,” Vezzani said. “We believed in ourselves and stuck together as a team to show we could win this.”

After Grant Arellanes made it 22-6 on a 12-yard run, Weston Hill ripped a pair of big scampers to build their advantage.

Hill’s runs of 76 and 60 yards came on back-to-back drives and gave Hoehne a 36-6 lead with 3:47 left in the half.

John Mall outscored Hoehne 34-28 in the second half, but the Farmers earned running clock after they built a 64-24 lead in the third with 1:10 on the clock.

From there, Hoehne players watched as time dwindled and they avenged their previous loss in the title game.

Players hugged on the sidelines and gazed at the scoreboard to realize what they brought to fruition.

“This is everything I wanted from high school football in a nut shell,” Hill said. “We went to a (title game) my sophomore year and didn’t win. It was one hell of an experience both times. This one’s a little better.”

(Brad Cochi)

COLORADO SPRINGS – It has been a couple of years since Eaton’s reign atop Class 3A girls volleyball ended, but the Reds are officially back on top.

The Reds had to knock off the champs to get back there too.

From 2011-17, the Reds won six state titles and did not lose a single championship match during that span. On Thursday night at The Broadmoor World Arena, the Reds won 25-14, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22 over defending champion Sterling in the Class 3A title match to reclaim the thrown and wear it home from the state tournament for the seventh time in a decade.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling because my team deserves it more than anyone,” Reds senior Sydney Leffler said. “We’ve rallied behind each other since Day 1. Even when people doubted us and thought that we couldn’t do it, we always believed in the person next to us. I’ve never been on a team where I’ve loved the people next to me more and they’ve loved me back.

“We’ve just had such a love for each other and that’s what’s allowed this season to end up the way that it did.”

In what was a rematch of an early-season meeting between the two teams that tipped in Eaton’s favor after five games, the unbeaten top-seeded Reds (18-0) were dominant in the first set on Thursday. After being pushed to the brink of elimination, however, No. 3 Sterling (16-3) responded to force a fourth set. The Tigers nearly forced a fifth, but Eaton held off a late charge to finish the match.

“We knew that was going to be a battle for us,” Eaton head coach Gwen Forster said. “Sterling is a phenomenal program with a great coach. We met them earlier in the season and we continued to get better since then. Our girls definitely deserve everything because they worked hard this season.”

Despite being a program that has been expected to contend for state titles now for a 10-year stretch, Eaton had to contend with the same set of unusual circumstances that all teams faced in Season C. Frustrating as it may have been at times, Forster said the additional challenges made this latest championship a special one.

“This group of kids is so unique that I had complete faith that we would come in holding our chest high and that’s what we did,” Forster said. “We trained early in the summer and into the fall only to get to where we don’t get to play. These girls were hungry and just wanted to get in the gym and we didn’t get the opportunity until just before the season started. Then we were actually in quarantine for a week, so we had to figure out how to get ready for our first match. But we figured out what we needed to do to win this.”

Eaton defeated No. 4 University in the semifinals to reach the title match. Sterling beat No. 2 Montezuma-Cortez in the Final Four.