(Brent Murphy/brentmurphyphoto.com)

This week’s softball rankings added three newcomers: Horizon (5A), Pueblo South (4A) and Fort Lupton (3A).

The polls, voted upon by head coaches around the state, will serve as part of the seeding criteria in softball this season. Polls are released each Monday during the regular season.

Complete rankings for each class are below.

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CHSAANow.com Softball Polls

Voted upon by coaches around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings will factor into postseason seeding. More information is available here.

Jeffco Preps With Pleuss is a monthly roundup of Jeffco prep highlights hosted by Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ sports information director. In the first edition of the 2020-21 prep sports season, we dive into softball action with the Dave Sanders Invitational along with Green Mountain and Wheat Ridge facing off in a Class 4A Jeffco League showdown. The 5A Jeffco boys golf season was entertaining with several top golfers in the state competing during the five league tournament schedule. D’Evelyn boys tennis made a good run at its regional tournament at Colorado Academy. Arvada West cross country team hosted the Durden Invitational that featured Dakota Ridge senior Jacob White as he makes another push toward a top finish at the state tournament coming up in mid-October.

Cherry Creek and Mullen softball split a doubleheader on Saturday with Creek winning 12-2 and Mullen getting one 7-4.

Hanna Espinoza went 2-for-3 and scored two runs to lead Elizabeth softball to a 15-0 win over Sand Creek on Saturday.

The first champions of Season A were crowned on the final day of the Class 5A boys tennis state tournament at Gates Tennis Club.

Horizon softball got a steady stream of runs across the plate to erase an early deficit and beat Monarch 9-5 on Saturday.

At the Monarch Invite, cross country runners continued to lower their times as regionals loom on the horizon.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — Everything surrounding Greeley West’s Nico Jamison should feel different. His boys tennis state tournament venue is different. The teams he’s playing are different. But at the end of the day, it’s just tennis to him and his goals haven’t changed event, even with the Spartans dropping down to Class 4A this year.

Jamison wants to win a championship. And the feeling with the way he played in his first round and quarterfinal matches is that he can do it. As a freshman last year, Jamison advanced to the 5A No. 1 singles semifinals before falling to Regis Jesuit’s Morgan Schilling, the eventual state champ.

At the 4A tournament at Pueblo City Park, he’s aiming for that No. 1 singles title and has found some additional benefits in his team’s change in classification.

“More of my teammates are here this year so that’s super fun,” he said. “There’s a lot more energy. It feels the exact same and I’m bringing the same energy I brought to Gates. And it’s still a good experience.”

And it didn’t look difficult, at least on paper. He took down Colorado Academy senior Nick Deitrich 6-0, 6-1 in his first match and Denver South freshman Raphael Weiland 6-0, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

This was certainly an easier trip to the semis than last year when he won his first matches 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4, 7-5 before falling to Schilling in the semis. Since then, he’s been using that loss to fuel himself for another run at a state title.

“Last year I had to play Morgan who is a very good player,” Jamison said. “Since then I’ve been training and training and preparing for whoever I reach next. I’ve learned that you can’t think about the past. This is state. I’m excited to see what I can do.”

This year’s adjusted single-elimination format condensed the tournament to two days. Normally, the semifinals would be the only match played on the second day for the players reaching the championship. Retiring his opponents in straight sets is certainly an advantage for Jamison, but the defending champion might be a tad more rested.

Niwot’s Neil Wilcox advanced to the semifinals after Cheyenne Mountain’s Robbie Mertz was retired with an injury during their quarterfinal match.

“Ultimately I’ll go into tomorrow with more energy,” Wilcox said while acknowledging that the way he advanced was unfortunate.

With 19 points, Mullen came out of the first day of the tournament with the team lead after advancing positions to Saturday’s semifinals. Cheyenne Mountain claimed the team championship last year after clinching at least a share of the title after the second day of the tournament.

The semifinal matches at Pueblo City Park are slated to begin at 9 a.m. with the championship matches tentatively scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

D’Evelyn softball scored six runs in the third inning and was just as good defensively in getting a 7-0 win over Golden on Friday.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — In reality, Niwot’s Class 4A boys tennis championship hopes were pretty simple. With three positions advancing to finals, the main priority was getting wins in No. 1 and No. 3 singles. That was going to be enough.

Luke Weber took care of No. 3 singles as he was the first match off the court during Saturday’s finals at Pueblo City Park. For the rest of the afternoon it was Cheyenne Mountain and Mullen jockeying for position with hopes of coming out on top.

The Cougars just needed the hammer to drop. And when the hammer is defending No. 1 singles champion Neil Wilcox, it’s going to drop hard.

Just like he did a year ago, Wilcox dropped the first set but rallied to beat Greeley West sophomore Nico Jamison to give himself a second individual title while also giving Niwot its first boys tennis championship in program history. Cheyenne Mountain and Mullen ended tied for second.

“I had no idea until I walked off the court after my match,” Wilcox said. “Everyone was screaming and I just looked at them and asked what happened. When they told me, I couldn’t believe it.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Wilcox’s second title looked nearly identical to his first. Jamison took the first set in a tiebreaker, but Wilcox rallied and dominated the last two to win the match 6-7, 6-1, 6-2. Jamison had reached last year’s 5A semifinals an dbeat Mullen’s Mac Caldwell in the 4A semis Saturday morning to advance to his match against Wilcox.

After battling heavey through the first two sets, Jamison started dealing with a leg cramp that clearly bothered him in the third and final set. But he never once thought of quitting. Although Wilcox and Jamison have known each other for a long time, the now two-time champ has more respect for the Greeley West sophomore than he did a day ago.

“It was incredible,” Wilcox said. “It takes amazing spirit to be out there, win the first set and then start cramping. A lot of people would have quit. That’s tough to deal with mentally.”

As the boys all players took turns hold the team trophy and recounting the experience of the week, and even the season overall, coach Mikka Keronen couldn’t help but let his emotions show through his sunglasses and mask. He’s spent years coaching the boys through good and bad trips to state and couldn’t be happier for the kids that got to share in the experience of bringing a school its first state title.

And while the day ended with cheers around Wilcox’s second title, Keronen was quick to point out just how much Weber’s win meant to the whole experience.

“I think Luke was our biggest surprise,” Keronen said. “He’s a very good No. 3 and he just needed to get a little bigger and stronger and he’ll be a great singles player next year.”

As is tradition at each state tournament, the Vicky Matarrazo Sportsmanship Award was also handed out to acknowledge the team with standout sportsmanship through the course of the event. This year’s recipient was Durango who despite only winning a match in two positions on Friday, showed respect to each opponent and gratitude toward tournament staff and tournament director Ed Francis.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)