CHSAANow

Month: April 2021

  • Photos: Overland claims 5A team title on Day 1 of state gymnastics meet

    The first day of the state gymnastics meet saw Overland claim the Class 5A team championship while individuals advanced to Saturday’s finals.

  • Photos: Evergreen girls volleyball beats Littleton in three sets

    Evergreen girls volleyball remains in first place in the Class 4A Jeffco League after beating Littleton 3-0 on Thursday.

  • Field hockey rankings: Colorado Academy ends regular season at No. 1

    In the final poll of the regular season, Colorado Academy remained in the No. 1 spot.

    The rankings, voted upon by coaches, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.

    Complete rankings are below.

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    CHSAANow.com Field Hockey Polls

    Voted upon by coaches around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing bcochi@chsaa.org. These rankings are part of the postseason seeding process.

    Class 5A
    RK TEAM W-L PTS PVS LW
    1 Colorado Academy (5) 7-0-2 143 1 0-0
    2 Cherry Creek (3) 9-1 138 2 0-0
    3 Regis Jesuit (1) 7-1 131 5 0-0
    4 Palmer Ridge (1) 5-0-4 125 3 0-0
    5 Kent Denver 6-4 109 4 0-0
    6 Mountain Vista 5-2-1 100 7 0-0
    7 Liberty 6-3-1 90 6 0-0
    8 Grandview 5-5 74 13 0-0
    9 Arapahoe 3-6 66 8 0-0
    10 Denver East 3-5 59 9 0-0
    11 Fossil Ridge 2-3-1 52 11 0-0
    11 St. Mary’s Academy 2-5-1 52 14 0-0
    13 Dakota Ridge 0-9 25 10 0-0
    14 Cheyenne Mountain 0-8 22 12 0-0
    15 Smoky Hill 0-8 14 15 0-0

  • The Season C field hockey state tournament bracket

    The Season C state tournament bracket for field hockey.

    CHSAA State Field Hockey Championships CHSAA State Field Hockey

  • Photos: Mountain Vista field hockey gets past Dakota Ridge

  • Cherry Creek’s Parker Wolfe wins the Gatorade boys cross country national runner of the year

    (Parker Wolfe)

    In a word, Parker Wolfe’s cross country season was interesting. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last March, the question of whether or not Colorado would see a true cross country season lingered through the summer.

    And in the middle of it, Wolfe got COVID. He battled through the virus and won. He then battled the Class 5A boys cross country field and won that too. He claimed the state championship with a time of 15 minutes, 10.4 seconds to break the record previously held by his friend Cole Sprout.

    Just last week, he was named the Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year for cross country. And his performance didn’t go unnoticed through the rest of the country as he claimed the Gatorade National Player of the Year honor this week.

    “It’s definitely a product of all the work I’ve put in,” Wolfe said. “I wasn’t planning on trying to get this award, exactly. It kind of just came from all the hard work and dedication I put in.”

    That dedication started with recovery. COVID-19 has impacted a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Wolfe felt infection most in his lungs which wasn’t the best news he could have received as a runner heading into his senior season and looking forward to joining the cross country team at the University of North Carolina.

    The lung issues were just the beginning and Wolfe found himself getting knocked down for an extended period of time.

    (Parker Wolfe)

    “I was out for a good month with lung issues,” he said. “I had some heart issues right before my national race. I had enlarged arteries from COVID and I had to go in and get an IV to reduce the inflammation and dilation from those arteries.”

    Fortunately, it didn’t cause him to miss a lot of the high school year and he took advantage of every opportunity to compete.

    Adjustments were made as the overall style of the races were changed because of COVID. Rather than all competitors heading out at the same time, they were staggered and the races were conducted via time trials.

    “I knew that it was mostly going to be myself racing against the clock,” he said. “I had to change my strategy from race with a few people and sit back and wait or get out in front, it was kind of just go by yourself and see how you can run all alone for the whole race.”

    He took on the challenge and even thrived judging by the result of the state meet back on Oct. 17. His goal was to go sub-15, but he couldn’t quite achieve that mark.

    That won’t have any bearing on his status of one of the state’s all-time best runners. He is the third Colorado athlete win national cross country Player of the Year honors and the first boy in state history to do it. Air Academy’s Katie Rainsberger won in 2016 and Grandview’s Brie Oakley won the award just a year later.

    “I think we always tend to be a very talented state with cross country,” Wolfe said. “Being at altitude with going down to low altitude. I think it’s really cool that I won this for the first time (for the boys). I think there are going to be more to come from this state. I think we have a lot of great athletes that are hopefully going to step in the next few years.”

    Wolfe is now the 11th Colorado high school athlete to claim Gatorade national honors and the second from Cherry Creek. Darnell McDonald won the Gatorade national baseball Player of the Year in 1997 before embarking on a career in Major League Baseball.

    Should Wolfe follow suit, it won’t be a surprise to see him doing remarkable things on a national or global scale when it comes to distance running.

    (Steve Abeyta)

  • Photos: Castle View girls volleyball gets a big league win over Rock Canyon

    Castle View girls volleyball got a big Continental League win with a 2-0 sweep over Rock Canyon on Wednesday.

  • Photos: No. 1 Mountain Vista girls volleyball remains undefeated after beating Castle View

    Class 5A No. 1 Mountain Vista girls volleyball kept its undefeated record intact after beating Castle View 2-0.

  • No. 7 Ralston Valley girls volleyball clinches 5A Jeffco title with win over No. 10 Valor

    ARVADA — The girls volleyball Class 5A Jeffco League title is returning to Ralston Valley High School.

    The Mustangs — No. 7 in the latest 5A CHSAANow.com rankings — officially wrapped up the conference title with a straight set 25-12, 25-20, 25-14 victory over No. 10 Valor Christian on Wednesday night at Ralston Valley. It’s first league title for Ralston Valley’s volleyball program since 2015.

    “I think it was all excited nerves,” Ralston Valley junior Morgan McChesney said of the Mustangs having the chance to clinch the conference title at home. “We are just super excited to have this opportunity this season to go really far and do something really cool out here.”

    Ralston Valley junior Emerson Reinke serves during the Mustangs’ conference game against Valor Christian on Wednesday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

    Valor and Chatfield had split the past four 5A Jeffco League titles. Valor won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019 after Chatfield won two straight in 2016 and 2017.

    “It is something we’ve talked. We look at that banner in the corner of the gym frequently and say we are next,” Ralston Valley coach Ashley Ahlman said of the 2015 5A Jeffco League championship banner. “We talk about where they are going to hang our banner. For them to celebrate that tonight and see all their hard work payoff. Not a lot of teams get to set a goal and then come out and earn it. It’s really special.”

    It was an outstanding 24 hours for the Mustangs (12-0, 7-0 in 5A Jeffco). Ralston Valley rallied from a 1-0 deficit against Columbine the night before to eventually take a 3-1 victory against the Rebels (8-1, 5-1) with the conference lead on the line.

    There was no letdown after the emotional victory against Columbine. It was all Mustangs against the defending 5A state champion Eagles on Wednesday night.

    “Columbine and Valor are both great teams. We had so much fun playing both of them,” Ralston Valley senior Taylor Scherff said. “We were ready and so excited to play both teams.”

    Ralston Valley dominated the first set with junior Jordan Wisner shining with a handful of kills from her right outside-hitter position. Freshman Maddy Dominick won four straight service points for the Mustangs to stretch out Ralston Valley’s lead to double-digits.

    The second set was a little closer. Valor sophomore Taylor Bowman got the Eagles (5-3, 4-3) going offensively and also had a monster block to help Valor get out to an early lead.

    “Out of that timeout there was a little bit of a wake-up call,” Ahlman said of her timeout she called with Ralston Valley trailing 10-6 in the second set. “Valor wasn’t going to give us anything. Everyone wants to beat that team on top. It proved this team can flip a switch and go into another gear.”

    Ralston Valley junior Morgan McChesney helped the Mustangs dominate Valor Christian in a straight-set victory Wednesday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

    Junior setter Emerson Reinke showed off her creatively with a brilliant dink out of the timeout that caught Valor off guard. Ralston Valley then went on a 7-0 run on Reinke’s serve to take command of the set.

    “I think this team is really good job at failure recovery. Volleyball is a game of mistakes,” McChesney said. “Once we make a mistake the team really rallies around each other.”

    There were few errors for Ralston Valley to close out the third set and the sweep. McChesney dominated the middle of the net with a handful of kills and a few blocks defensively for good measure.

    “It was a normal game tonight. We weren’t super nervous,” Scherff said summing up the regular-season home finale for Ralston Valley. “We just trust each other so much. We know at the end of the day we are going to show up, try our hardest and show a lot of effort.”

    Ralston Valley closes out its regular season with its league finale at Bear Creek on Thursday night, followed by a good non-league test on the road against Broomfield (7-3).

    The Mustangs are in-line to be one of the top-8 seeds that will host regional tournaments Saturday, May 1. During a normal season the top-12 seeds host regionals.

    “This year it’s more important than ever,” Ahlman said about hosting a regional. “With only 8 host sites the competition is going to be a little tougher at regionals. The higher we finish the better.”

    Scherff is excited to play a few more matches at Ralston Valley before the Mustangs hopefully head to the state tournament May 12 and 13 at the World Arena in Colorado Springs.

    “It’s such an advantage playing at home,” Scherff said. “I love our gym. It is home for us. We feel so comfortable here.”

    Ralston Valley junior Jordan Wisner (7) and senior Jamie Dorczuk (16) combine for a block on Valor sophomore Skyla Morgan in the first set Wednesday at Ralston Valley High School. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

  • Photos: No. 12 Denver East field hockey avenges previous loss to No. 9 Grandview

    Just one day after a close loss, No. 12 Denver East field hockey got vengeance with a 2-1 win over No. 9 Grandview.