DENVER — Colorado Academy won the girls lacrosse championship by beating Cherry Creek on Wednesday.
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Month: May 2016
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Weather contingencies for state baseball in 5A-2A this weekend
(Jenn Roberts-Uhlig/CHSAANow.com) AURORA — Surprise, surprise. Poor weather may run interference on this weekend’s state baseball tournaments.
Classes 5A through 2A are due to complete their championship brackets on Saturday, but that schedule could be thrown askew with rain forecast at each site at various times.
At all four sites — 5A in Denver, 4A in Lakewood, 3A in Greeley, and 2A in Pueblo — rain is projected overnight on Thursday, and through the morning on Friday. Depending on how much rain falls, that could cause unplayable playing surfaces Friday. There is a chance of rain on Saturday, as well.
The weather may not affect 2A as much, though, as that bracket does not play on Friday.
The following information has been relayed to all teams both on Wednesday, and again on Thursday:
It looks as if Mother Nature is wanting to challenge us again this weekend. Heavy storms are predicted for today, per the National Weather Service, which could create issues with playing surfaces at our 3A, 4A and 5A sites. Greg Pierson (3A) and [Bert Borgmann] (4A, 5A) will be on site early tomorrow morning to assess playability of fields should the forecasted moisture come in overnight. CHSAANow.com will be the primary site for weather updates and any postponements.
On Wednesday, it was relayed that Sunday will be an option should any of the tournaments not finish play on Saturday. Additionally, Metro State could be an option for both the 4A and 5A tournaments if an extra field is needed. (Metro State has a synthetic surface.)
We will provide updates as we get them, and also update brackets with new information should that be necessary. Links to those brackets:
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Update, 4:10 p.m. Thursday: A CHSAA official visited both the 4A and 5A sites on Thursday afternoon, and neither site has received much rain to that point. Because of that, both tournaments remain on as scheduled — for now. Another status update will come Friday morning, so it is still possible that overnight rain will affect the schedule.
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Update, 5:04 p.m. Thursday: The 3A tournament has been moved to a Saturday/Sunday schedule. More info is available here.
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Update, 7:51 a.m. Friday: A decision on whether or not to play the 4A and 5A tournaments on Friday is due by 8:30 a.m.
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Update, 8:30 a.m. Friday: The 4A and 5A tournaments have moved to a Saturday/Sunday schedule, as well. More info is here.
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Update, 9:29 a.m. Friday: The 2A tournament has been postponed to Sunday. More info.
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Rain pushes 3A state baseball tournament back one day to Saturday
Butch Butler Field. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com) A rainstorm which dumped a lot of water on the Greeley area in an hour has changed the schedule to the Class 3A state baseball tournament.
The rain left standing water on Butch Butler Field, which was to play host to two games on Friday. Instead, the Friday games will move to Saturday, and the tournament will now conclude on Sunday.
Game times will remain the same, with teams playing at noon and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday’s games will be at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
The 3A bracket has been updated with these changes.
Rain is expected to continue in the Greeley area on Friday.
“There is standing water everywhere,” said Bert Borgmann, CHSAA’s assistant commissioner who oversees baseball. “They aren’t going to be able to get the field ready until Saturday at noon.”
Borgmann also visited the host sites for the 4A and 5A tournaments on Thursday afternoon. At that time, both fields were in good condition, and so those tournaments remain on as scheduled — for now. Further updates are expected Friday morning, but could come on Thursday night if the fields become unplayable.
As the 2A tournament does not resume until Saturday, there are no changes to its schedule at this time.
CHSAANow will continue to provide updates on the state baseball tournaments as they develop.
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Angelico: What are our athletes taking with them?
(Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com) [dropcap]A[/dropcap]s we prepare to send our seniors off into the real world, it seems like a good time to ask this question: What are we sending them out with?
I had the good fortune to be able to have lunch with my high school coaches last week and, to my dismay, figured out that it had been 44 years since graduation. That is when I had left the nest that they had created for me.
What I learned at lunch was what I intuitively knew back then, and confirmed this many years later: Mike Larson and Fred Schanberger sent me out into the real world armed with the knowledge that I was capable of much more than I thought, that hard work certainly pays off and is a reward unto itself.
Mostly, they sent us all out with the knowledge that someone important to us really did care about us. They cared about all of us on the team for more than the skills we had developed, or the team we had created, or the awards we had won.
Yes, in spending time with these coaches last week, I learned the depth of their concern for us. I learned that we all went out into the real world as decent, respectable, hardworking young men that would be successful in whatever we chose to do. The gymnastics we learned was really nothing more than a vehicle for them to teach us how to succeed in anything we chose, as long as we loved what we did, worked hard at what we chose to do and made sure that we had fun along the way.
By spending time with my old coaches, the discussion centered on people whose names I had not heard for years. What was amazing was that both of these men continued to follow guys on my team that I had not. It seems they knew about most of their old gymnasts, what they were doing and how they were doing.
These two coaches really cared about all of us old “dirt bags,” as they used to call us. I know that all of us on those teams knew they cared, I just don’t think we had any idea how much. I do know the knowledge of their care and concern is what made each one of us try to “live up” to the high standards and expectations they had of us.
So back to my original question: What are you sending your seniors out into the world with? I can only hope it’s the same things that my high school coaches sent me out with so many years ago.
Paul Angelico is the commissioner of CHSAA.
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Regis Jesuit’s Mary Weinstein wins 5A girls golf, Grandview claims team title
Regis Jesuit’s Mary Weinstein won the 5A girls golf individual title. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) AURORA — At Regis Jesuit High School, there’s a wall of fame. Mary Weinstein was hoping she could earn her place on it Tuesday.
“You have to place top-5 at state in your sport,” she said. “I hadn’t done it in the past, but I finally got my picture today.”
During the final round of her career on the second day of the Class 5A girls golf state tournament at CommonGround Golf Course, Weinstein was not only a top-5 finisher in 5A, she was the class of the state tournament, becoming the first individual in school history to win a girls golf state championship. The senior finished her 36 holes at a four-under total of 140 (71, 69), beating Grandview freshman Amy Chitkoksoong by four shots.
“Regis is an amazing school where we excel in a lot of sports,” said Weinstein, a Regis University recruit. “To be the first one to win a golf tournament for the girls, it’s a great feeling. I’m just really glad I get to represent Regis in the way that I can through golf.”
The only one to shoot in the red on Monday in less than optimal conditions with a one-under 71, Weinstein carried a four-shot lead over Monarch’s Delaney Elliott, Ralston Valley’s Jordan Remley and Grandview’s Morgan Sahm after day one.
Her and Sahm, paired in the final round together with Remley, have trained with one another since the start of their teenage years. Having a friend to compete side-by-side with seemed to help Weinstein relax — as did an early birdie and eagle.
“I think I just stayed calm all day and mentally positive,” she said. “I knew that I had to keep it low to stay where I was. I needed a couple birdies under my belt and once I got that going I felt pretty relaxed.”
Back-to-back pars then led to a birdie on hole No. 3. Then, on No. 5, she had an eagle on a par 5. With two more birdies on the back nine, with only two bogeys overall on the day, Weinstein was in control throughout the two-day state tournament as a senior after finishing in a tie for seventh as a junior, a tie for 10th as a sophomore and a tie for 16th as a freshman.
Despite Weinstein’s individual prowess, the Raiders saw an eight-stroke lead after day one evaporate as a changing of the guard occurred — two-time defending champion Regis was overtaken by Grandview, a school about three miles from Regis in Aurora.
Grandview won the 5A girls golf championship. (Jenn Roberts-Uhlig/CHSAANow.com) The Raiders shot 230 Monday, while the Wolves were in second at 238. But superb play by the tandem of Chitkoksoong and Sahm, a senior who finished third at 148 (75, 73), allowed Grandview to chip into the lead and eventually overtake Regis on the way to their first-ever state championship in girls golf.
Chitkoksoong, Sahm and sophomore Caitlin O’Donnell (83) had a combined total of 224 on Tuesday, 10 lower than Regis, as they secured a two-stroke victory. Arvada West was third with 479 points at 47-over.
“I’m just so proud of the girls to come back from eight strokes this morning,” veteran Grandview coach Mary Danielson said. “We knew it was going to be hard, but they just played lights out. From day one we knew we wanted to win a state championship. I think we believed in ourselves enough to do that.”
Chitkoksoong, one of only two players along with Weinstein to shoot under 70 on Tuesday, had the best score of the day at 68. A back nine of 33 during her opening round pulled the first-year into a tie for fifth with Regis Jesuit’s Jaclyn Murray. And the way she closed Monday in style — an eagle on No. 18 — helped carry her into a confident Tuesday and runner-up finish.
“I didn’t think that was going to go in, to be honest,” she said of the eagle on a par 5. “My second shot I was just trying to get it somewhere on the green. When I walked up and saw it pretty close to the pin I had to make sure I putted it like any other and it dropped. After finishing that nine two-under, that really was a confidence booster right there.”
Chitkoksoong had four birdies in a row on holes 3 through 6 in round two. She also shot 34 on both the front and the back nine.
“I’m really glad she’s on Grandview,” Danielson said. “Freshman, we knew she was coming and we knew she was going to be strong. She just works her tail off to get better every day. She was matched up with Morgan Sahm, whose been our leader for four years. It was a great combination.”
Regis countered with Jaclyn Murray, who finished seventh at 11-over. The third golfers for each team, O’Donnell (26-over, 30th) and Ali Timlin (27-over, 32nd), were also near one another on the leaderboard, but O’Donnell did her part in the top-30.
“Caitlin O’Donnell really came through today,” Danielson said. “That’s really where it lands. It’s a team effort completely.”
“I’m so happy and so proud of my team,” Sahm added. “It just couldn’t have been a better way to end my golf career at Grandview.”
Grandview has now won 10 state championships in school history, nine in girls sports and one in boys. Chitkoksoong thinks they are just getting started. Chitkoksoong, O’Donnell and freshman Morgan Ryan (35-over, 51st) all return. Sahm will take her talents to the University of Northern Colorado next year and will leave a hole near the top of the lineup. But Grandview seems poised to contend in 2017.
“We just got the trophy,” Chitkoksoong said. “I don’t think we’re going to hand it back any time soon.”
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Vail Mountain repeats as 2A girls soccer champion, beating Dawson
Vail Mountain repeated as the 2A girls soccer champion. More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) COMMERCE CITY — For the second year in a row, Vail Mountain captured the Class 2A girls soccer championship.
In 2015, the 2A tournament’s inaugural year, Vail Mountain won 2-1. This time around, the margin wasn’t so close, with the Gore Rangers executing a 7-0 shutout on Tuesday.
“We brought our work rate up to a whole different level,” said coach Bob Bandoni. “We were very quick to recover on counter-attacks, something Dawson is very good at. We made sure we had pressure on the ball as soon as we could. When we would get the ball back, we were shaped up pretty well for the goal.”
Earlier this May, Dawson traveled to Vail and beat the Gore Rangers on their home turf, 3-2. Less than a month later, it was a whole different game. The defending champions took a commanding lead in the first half, scoring five goals in forty minutes.
In their regular season matchup, Dawson went up 3-0 before Vail Mountain tallied two. Vail Mountain’s goals Tuesday gave them nine unanswered against Dawson between the two games.
Six players got on the scoreboard for the Gore Rangers, with two goals coming from freshman Anwyn Urquhart, a feat now sophomore Tess Johnson accomplished in her first championship game last year.
On Tuesday, Johnson has one assist and one goal.
More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) Vail Mountain possessed the ball for the majority of the game. The Rangers were in perfect position for each of their through balls that fed from the midfield.
The first few shots were either wide or stopped, but it was only a short delay in a pummeling of power and speed to the back of the net for the rest of the game.
Dawson finally got its first shot on goal at the 22-minute mark, when lead scorer Hannah Isenhart snuck one through the Vail Mountain defense. The junior continued to move her way through the Vail Mountain lineup with solid lead passes and dribbling, but nothing could get close enough to the goal.
The first of seven for the Gore Rangers came from sophomore Emma Hall, who got open left and popped it right, over the charging Dawson goalie. Less than a minute later, Johnson replicated the goal from the opposite side.
Junior Lindsey Peterson added the third when she broke the defense and ran past the goalie for an open shot. With 20 seconds remaining in the first half, a corner from Vail Mountain slipped in, giving the Gore Rangers all the more momentum to run into halftime.
In the second, the game remained at Vail Mountain’s feet, with two goals from Urquhart in the first two minutes.
“We practiced moving the ball quickly, switching enough to tire them,” Urquhart said. “It allowed us to play the sides, get to the endlines and push the ball in. It also made them run a lot more, which made it easier on us.”
Junior Sidney Sappenfield added the last one in the final 15 minutes. Sappenfield was the oldest to score for her team, a team with as young a lineup as last year’s winning squad.
In their three game playoff stretch, Vail Mountain allowed only one goal and scored 18.
Speed and positioning for the No. 2-seeded team took over to complete the high-scoring upset over the top team No. 1 Dawson.
The 100-mile journey from the mountains landed them their third-ever school championship, second girls soccer title, and sets them aside as the only ever 2A girls soccer champions.
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Photos: Silver Creek, Colorado Academy come away with 4A girls state golf titles
PUEBLO — Silver Creek’s Erin Sargent won the Class 4A state girls golf title while Colorado Academy came away with the team championship.
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Kent Denver captures Class 3A girls soccer championship
Kent Denver won the 3A girls soccer championship. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) COMMERCE CITY — On the soccer pitch, there just aren’t many programs like Kent Denver.
The Sun Devils cemented themselves in the record books with a rare feat — winning state championships in both boys and girls soccer in the same school year. The boys won Class 3A over Fountain Valley in the fall, while the girls claimed a 3A title of their own Tuesday over Colorado Academy at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Kent rode a 2-0 halftime lead to a 3-1 victory, preventing the Mustangs from winning a third championship in a row.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Sage DiGiulio said. “It just shows that Kent, as a soccer program, is reaching new levels.”
For a girls program with a rich tradition — five state championships and three runner-ups — Kent Denver was appearing in their first title game since winning back-to-back in 2007 and 2006. The Sun Devils had lost in the semifinals for three straight years before 2016.
The Sun Devils built a 1-0 lead four minutes into the game on a goal by sophomore Emma Billings. DiGiulio, a junior midfielder entering Tuesday with a team-leading 17 goals, notched one to make it 2-0 midway through the first half. Things stayed that way at the break, though Kent had a late goal disallowed by an offsides whistle.
In the second half, Colorado Academy applied pressure with a goal by Sarah Masiner on a beautiful assist to the middle of the field by Maddie Bauer with 26 minutes to go.
But Kent sealed things when DiGiulio scored a header goal on a beautiful cross from Shelby Schumacher with six minutes remaining. That made it 3-1.
“I asked my teammate if I should go in and she was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’ I knew I had to get my head on the ball, so I did anything I could just to get it and redirect it. It was a great ball by Shelby.”
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) Kent Denver, now with the third-most girls soccer state championships (five) behind only Arapahoe (9) and Cheyenne Mountain (six), finally pushed past the Final 4 again.
“I think for one, we’re healthy,” Kent coach Krista Pearman said. “It’s huge in the soccer game if some of your girls are not healthy. Having to find different roles and some of those configurations, it’s challenging.
“We’re healthy and I think with that came just some confidence. Being able to beat some teams in a way that we were very proud of, controlling the game from start to finish, for girls that’s a huge confidence boost.”
The Sun Devils finished off a 16-1-1 season with only a loss to 5A Smoky Hill, capping off their best season in years with their coach’s first state championship. They outscored their opponents 69-9, senior goalkeeper Oakley Wurzweiler only gave up six goals in well over 1,000 minutes, and weapons like DiGiulio, Schumacher, Billings and Isabelle Roseto led a team that proved overwhelming for most.
Pearman says the seniors refused to end their careers without a championship.
“It’s nice to see it all come together,” she said. “We’ve been to the semifinals three years unsuccessful to move on. I think this year was big with eight seniors that know what it is being so close and yet so far.”
Colorado Academy, which was also after its fifth state championship in girls soccer, struggled to recover from early goals by Kent. Nonetheless, the Mustangs came out fighting after the break.
Colorado Academy had a 14-4 record this season and finished as the runner-up to Kent in 3A Region 6. Colorado Academy took out The Academy, Peak to Peak and Middle Park during their run to the finals.
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Photos: Class 5A state golf tournament in Aurora
AURORA — The Class 5A girls golf state tournament completed play on Tuesday.
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Widefield hires former St. Mary’s coach Nic Olney to head football program
(Photo courtesy of Nic Olney) Nic Olney is from the south side of Colorado Springs. So when an opportunity to coach in the area popped up, he had to jump at the chance.
Olney has been hired as the head football coach at Widefield. He confirmed the hire to CHSAANow.com early Wednesday morning.
After stepping down as the head coach at St. Mary’s two years ago, Olney spent last season as an assistant at Liberty.
“I really thought Liberty was going to be a home and a future for us,” Olney said. “However, when this opportunity popped up and living on the south side of town myself, growing up on the south side of town, I couldn’t pass it up.”
Olney spent five years as the coach of the Pirates and took a team that went 1-9 the year before his arrival, to a 7-3 record in his final year which was good enough to get St. Mary’s in the playoffs.
The opportunity to be a head coach again is something that he is looking forward to as this school year winds down and he can begin to look forward to preparing for next fall.
“I am excited, this is going to be a great opportunity,” he said. “I see a lot of talent. I got a chance to meet the kids, there are a lot of great kids. We are so excited for this opportunity.”
Follow all of football’s coaching movement this offseason in our coaching changes tracker.