(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

A complete schedule for the 2019 state track and field meet held at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood.

The meet runs May 16-18 this season.

To purchase tickets, visit GoFan. Tickets are also available at the event.

Note: The 2A girls pole vault awards will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

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May 16

Thursday morning session

Thursday afternoon session

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May 17

Friday morning session

Friday afternoon session

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May 18

Saturday morning session

Saturday afternoon session

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Field events

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Three years ago, Manitou Springs stood tall as the Class 3A state runner-up. A combination of solid play and veteran experience led the Mustangs to a second-place finish for just the second time in school history.

It has been a steady decline since then. After the 2017 season, coach Cory Archuleta walked away and Brandon DeMatto stepped into the position. His first year at the helm, the Mustangs went 4-15 and didn’t seem to attract the athletes they had in recent years.

DeMatto knew he had do something not just to re-energize the energy around the program, but to entice the kids at the school to get involved. By doing that, he’s hoping Manitou can once again get back to a highly competitive level. His first step was to give them something to look forward to.

That’s why he entered the team into the 2019 Pride Classic in Phoenix. The tournament is held over spring break and several Colorado teams already make their way toward the desert to play. He was anxious for his players to find some tough competition and get the kids out of the daily cycle of school, practice and games.

“It was multifaceted,” DeMatto said. “The greatest motivation to come down here was generating excitement to play and to be excited about the sport and the game. More importantly, it was to expose them to a level of baseball that they’re unaccustomed to and give them a bigger picture of what’s out there.”

The Mustangs went 0-4 in play this week, but early in the process DeMatto knew that he was going to do what it takes to make it an annual trip. If the Mustangs were doing this two or three years ago, they’d be settled in and probably on a different competitive level by year three.

“I think we would be a lot more competitive,” freshman Raymond McCaskey said. “We would know what to expect and this competitiveness kind of blindsided. If we were regulars down here, we’d know how to act and know how to play against the teams down here.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Manitou is far from the only team feeling the benefits. After the Mustangs wrapped up play at Apollo High School in Glendale on Monday, Littleton took the field for their first game, a game that it ultimately won. Coach Brett Pieratt is a former assistant at Valor Christian. The Eagles typically make their way to the Coach Bob Invitational, which amounts to being the same tournament, just taking place a week earlier.

“One of the things that we’ve seen is that there are 24 kids in our program this year, but 14 of them are freshmen,” Pieratt said. “Kids that are going to Heritage or Arapahoe are now coming to Littleton because we get to do some cool things and they get to play early.”

Both Heritage and Littleton were in Phoenix this week as were Pine Creek, Wheat Ridge and Brighton among many others.

Some teams comes down with the intent to win. For teams like Littleton and Manitou, an appearance here can go a long way not just in terms of making the kids better right away but building a program that kids will be excited to join.

“It’s huge,” DeMatto said. “We have to generate excitement for the game of baseball in our community. It’s something we’ve been missing for the last two years.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

GREENWOOD VILLAGE — A seven-run fourth inning sparked Class 5A No. 1 Mountain Vista baseball to a 15-2 win over No. 3 Cherry Creek on Tuesday.

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Last season ended in heartbreak for Pueblo Centennial’s girls soccer team.

Colorado lost a legend last week with the passing of Tom Hancock, who died at age 90. He was a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame Class of 2008.

The architect of a football powerhouse Lakewood High School, Hancock served 34 years as a teacher, coach and, ultimately, director of physical education for Jefferson County Public Schools. He retired from coaching in 1968, but not from impacting the lives of the district’s students until 1988.

Hancock’s teams won three state titles during his 15 years at the helm. His teams won 10 Jefferson County League titles and never finished lower than second, averaging over nine wins a season.

From 1954-1968, Hancock’s teams certainly put a stamp on the state’s high school football history but, more importantly, they became a rallying point for a community that had so long looked for something to set that community apart in a sport that was dominated by the bigger cities in the state. Over those 15 seasons, the Tigers went 137-30-3, winning 78.7% of their games. They won three state championships (1960, 1964, 1968), were runners-up three times and won 10 league titles.

Hancock also coached wrestling and a state-championship track team, but developed a passion in his players something to set them apart. He introduced weight lifting as an integral part of high school athletics.

A Greeley native, Hancock was named the state’s outstanding wrestler in 1946 after winning the State 154-pound Championship for Greeley High. His success on the mat came as no surprise since his father, John Hancock, was Colorado’s father of prep wrestling. After a brief stint at the University of Iowa, Hancock moved on to play football and wrestle at the University of Colorado, where he started at linebacker in 1948 and 1949.

A roundup of Jeffco prep highlights from March with Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ Communication Specialist. This month’s edition features state wrestling action where Pomona came away with another Class 5A team title, along with three individual crowns and Jefferson captured a pair of individual titles. The spring season got underway despite the ‘Bomb Cyclone’. Green Mountain scored a shutout victory over area-rival Lakewood in girls soccer action at Lakewood Memorial Field. At Trailblazer Stadium, Wheat Ridge boys lacrosse suffered a tough overtime loss and Conifer girls lacrosse dominated Summit. We finish with action from the 2019 Jeffco High School Senior Basketball Games at the Gold Crown Field House.

ARVADA — Ralston Valley’s boys lacrosse program in no longer in its infant stages.

The Mustangs are in their third season fielding a varsity program. Ralston Valley made a bit of history Monday night at the North Area Athletic Complex. A 10-8 victory over Legend marked the fourth win of the season for the Mustangs, breaking a previous season-high win total of three.

Ralston Valley senior Tanner Spirek (middle facing) celebrates with teammates after the opening goal Monday night at the North Area Athletic Complex. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

Ralston Valley went 3-12 last year and 1-14 in its inaugural season in 2017.

“This year is a lot different,” said Ralston Valley junior Ben Takata, a three-year varsity player for the Mustangs. “To have won more games than last year already is big. We have a lot of freshmen helping out this year, stepping up in leadership roles and playing well for us.”

Takata and freshman Nick Gates led the Mustangs (4-1 record) offensively with three goals each Monday at NAAC. Senior Tanner Spirek, junior Jack Spurlock and freshman Lane Kellogg added a goal each in the victory.

Sophomore goalie Calvin Doucette picked up the victory between the pipes for Ralston Valley against the Titans (2-2).

“It’s nice to get off to a good start and we’re excited about the potential,” Ralston Valley’s second-year coach Nick Lewis said. “(Legend) was a playoff team the last couple of years and are well-coached so that was a good test for us.”

Legend held a 2-1 lead after the first quarter, but Ralston Valley went on a 4-0 run over the span of 10 minutes during the second quarter to take a 6-3 lead at halftime.

Legend senior Jake Hrovat, left, is stopped in his tracks by Ralston Valley freshman Zach Friedman, right, during the second quarter Monday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

The Titans crept within 7-5 to start the final quarter, but Spurlock, Gates and Takata scored three straight goals in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Legend got a pair of goals by senior Jack Freeman and a score by Caden Meis in the final minutes, but it was too little too late for the Titans.

“We did a good job tonight of keep fighting and not getting down,” Takata said.

Ralston Valley will take a bit of a hiatus during spring break before diving into Class 5A Jeffco League action in early April.

“Hopefully this is the year that we finally turn some heads,” Takata said of the 5A Jeffco League play that begins April 3 against Lakewood. “Hopefully we can catch some people off-guard early this season because some people think we are still a growing program.”

Lewis is pleased with how his team is playing with a style he call ‘we ball’ and not ‘me ball’ with the Mustangs sharing the ball offensively. He is also encouraged with his young talent.

“We’ve got plug and play guys who are impact players,” Lewis said of his young core. “We are playing five to seven freshmen every game.”

Ralston Valley played in the 5A Front Range League last season. Lewis is thrilled to be in the 5A Jeffco with the likes of Columbine, Chatfield, Dakota Ridge, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Bear Creek and Valor Christian.

“We feel like we can compete in that league,” Lewis said. “We know we have our work cut out for us and we have to get a lot better, but we are excited about being in the Jeffco League. Every game is going to be a test.”

Ralston Valley’s Samuel Berning (4), Lane Kellogg (20) and Ben Takata (11) celebrate a second-quarter goal for the Mustangs on Monday night against Legend. The 10-8 victory for Ralston Valley improved the Mustangs’ record to 4-1 on the season. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

AURORA — Seeing a fit as trailblazers and innovative thinkers who come from backgrounds as coaches and athletic administrators, commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green has announced the hires of Adam Bright and Justin Saylor to the CHSAA staff.

Bright is currently the athletic director in Durango, and Saylor is the manager of high school athletics for Denver Public Schools. Bright and Saylor, hired as assistant commissioners, will begin their new roles on July 1.

“I am unbelievably excited to announce these new additions to our team,” Blanford-Green said. “They will both bring valuable experience from their current and past roles, and also bring the type of forward-thinking mentality necessary to stay relevant with the future of interscholastic administration and student participation.

“Both Justin and Adam have a combination of educationally-based leadership and diverse backgrounds that will continue to keep Colorado at the forefront nationally,” Blanford-Green added. “They are each difference-makers with student-participants across the state.”

Said Saylor: “It is something that I have always been passionate about, and I am interested in. When the job opened up this year, I felt like it was perfect timing for myself, and I was really excited about the possibility of working at CHSAA. When I found out that I did get the job, I was really excited, and I am also ready to hit the ground running when that time comes.”

Said Bright: “It’s exciting, and I’m humbled. There’s a great tradition at CHSAA, and I want to be a part of that tradition. We’ve got the 100-year mark coming up here in a couple of years, and I want to be a part of that, and continue where CHSAA’s going, and be part of that journey.”

Blanford-Green will officially assign their duties, including the sports and activities they will oversee, prior to their start date.

The duo replace Bud Ozzello, who is retiring after nine years at CHSAA, and Ernie Derrera, who has accepted a job as an assistant principal/athletic director at the new Severance High School.

Adam Bright

Bright has most recently been the athletic director at Durango, a role that has since grown to a district athletic director position.

At Durango, Bright has sought to make each game or meet he held a spectacular event. His forte is raising the bar for high school events, including when he recently spearheaded the school’s hosting of the state skiing championships last month, and set up an opening ceremony complete with fireworks.

“For me, our purpose in being in education-based athletics and activities is to help teach life lessons,” Bright said. “But I think life lessons really get attached to different degrees through experiences. If we can make our events something that’s a big experience, that will make all of those life lessons that our coaches want to teach more impactful.”

On a state level, Bright has served on the Classification and League Organizing and Appeals Committee, as well as the Bylaw Handbook Committee.

Bright stressed that he would miss living in Durango and being part of that community on a day-to-day basis.

“We’re going to miss living in the community,” Bright said. “If CHSAA was located in Durango, it’d be a win-win.”

Prior to Durango, Bright was the athletic director and football coach at Middle Park from 2013-16.

A native of Texas, he was also the head football coach and athletic director at Winters High School, and an assistant football coach at Caprock in Amarillo, Tex. Bright also was a football assistant at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Bright’s other experience includes time as a general manager in minor league baseball — with the Greenville (Miss.) Bluesman and West Tenn Jaxx in Jackson, Tenn. — and in the front office of the MLB’s Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Bright and his wife, Jessica, have a son, Preston.

Bright said that working at CHSAA was “an opportunity to do what we do through educationally-based activities for our students at Durango High School, and we get to do that for numerous kids across the state. While it may be less of a day-to-day, one-on-one impact, I think the ripple effect is bigger.”

Justin Saylor, left. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Saylor has been with Denver Public Schools since 2008, helping to facilitate the district’s athletics for more than 90,000 students. He started with the district’s middle school athletics, and has been involved with their high school athletics since 2011. Saylor is a Certified Master Athletic Administrator.

“I think it’s an exciting new challenge for me to now work at the state level,” Saylor said. “It’s an opportunity for me, as a former collegiate soccer player, as a lacrosse player, to kind of give some exposure at the state level to some sports that aren’t quite as visible and to hopefully take some of those sports to the next level.”

Saylor’s sports roots started in his native Ohio, where he grew up playing soccer, lacrosse and football in Cleveland. After high school, he played college soccer at Hofstra and Wilmington College. His dad has served as the girls lacrosse coach at Cleveland Heights High School for more than 30 years.

“I grew up the son of a coach,” Saylor said. “High school athletics have always been a passion of mine. It really shaped me as a person growing up playing sports in high school.”

Saylor got his professional start in athletics as the head lacrosse coach at Dublin Coffman (Ohio). After moving to DPS, he became the chair of the CHSAA soccer committee from 2012-18. At DPS, he serves on the district-wide waiver committee regarding student eligibility.

He has also been very involved in event management at the state level, serving as a state tournament site host for field hockey, boys lacrosse, boys soccer, girls soccer and boys golf. He was also a regional host for wrestling, cross country, boys golf, girls golf and softball.

Additionally, Saylor has served on seeding committees for baseball, basketball, girls soccer, boys soccer and softball.

Outside of high school sports, Saylor has also worked as part of the event management team for the NCAA women’s basketball Final Four in Denver, and in Cleveland.

Saylor said it was a hard decision to leave DPS, and that he was looking forward to what’s ahead.

“I’ve made a lot of really, really great hopefully lifetime friends over the last 11 years at Denver Public Schools,” Saylor said. “I’ve always said to myself that the only way I would leave Denver Public Schools was if it was the perfect and the right situation for me, and I feel like this is. It’s the right decision for me, and I’m looking forward to continuing to working with a lot of my friends, just in a little bit different capacity, and serving the state of Colorado.”

Blanford-Green said she was inspired by the applicant pool the positions drew.

“Thank you to all the administrators and community advocates that sought to be a part of the CHSAA team,” Blanford-Green said. “I was inspired by the candidate pool for these positions, as we know we will continue to have excellence in the field, as well as in our office.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

SURPRISE, Ariz. — The Arizona desert is no match for the heat coming off Centaurus baseball in the early stages of the 2019 season.

After going 4-15 last year, the Warriors have already won five games in 2019, including a 7-6 come from behind win over Knappa (Ore.) on Tuesday in Surprise, Ariz.

“What we’re trying to do is build team unity, team bonding and cohesiveness,” coach Doug Kinney said. “We’re learning to play together, to pick each other up and compete not only individually but as a unit.”

What Kinney has seen from his team early is the lack of fear of playing from behind. On Tuesday, the Warriors (5-2 overall) trailed 4-1 in the third inning but battled back to tie the game.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

They took a 6-5 lead in the fifth inning before Knapp plated a run in the seventh to pull even. The heroics at the end of the day belonged to senior Kaden Shepherd who ripped a base hit in the bottom of the seventh that scored the game-winning run.

That kind of rally has been the theme for Centaurus since the start of the season.

“That’s something that we’ve been working on for a time,” Kinney said. “Teaching them how to overcome adversity. We started with Mountain View. We overcame and won that game on Saturday then came down here. We came from behind yesterday (in a 9-5 loss) we just didn’t have quite enough to finish. We came from behind today and persevered through and worked together and had quality at-bats and timely hits.”

The win against Mountain View was powered by a two-run home run from Brayden Rizzi and a standout pitching performance from sophomore David Jachimiak.

Jachimiak threw against Knapp on Tuesday but was taken out in the fourth inning. Carson Renjillian and Rizzi came on in relief and it was Rizzi who came away with the win. He threw one inning, allowing no runs and no hits.

Kinney believes his team is capable of succeeding this year and sees this Arizona trip as a chance to bolster play on the field and tighten the camaraderie of the players for the remainder of the year.

“The opportunity for them to take this trip and to just be baseball players together without them being around everything else going on in their world helps bring them together and rely on each other,” Kinney said. “Coming down here, they truly embraced it and they know they have the opportunity to play against some great teams.”

And with the way the team has played early in the year, the competition against the schools in Arizona will only help make the Warriors one of the best team rebound stories of 2019.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

THORNTON — Regis Jesuit captured the prestigious Dick Rush Coaches Invite at Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center on Saturday. Cherry Creek was second, and Ponderosa placed third.

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