Kent Denver is No. 1 in 2A. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Six of the seven defending champions lead CHSAANow.com’s preseason football rankings.
The lone non-champion to head a classification’s poll is Kent Denver, which is No. 1 in Class 2A.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday during the regular season.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
The 2017 all-state baseball teams honor the best players in the sport as judged by the leagues and coaches. They are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues, and then a vote of head coaches.
Player and coach of the year was also selected by a vote of the coaches.
[divider]
Class 5A
(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Player of the year: John Sorensen, Rocky Mountain
Coach of the year: Scott Bullock, Rocky Mountain
First Team
Name
School
Pos.
Year
Liam Eddy
Brighton
P/RF/3B
Senior
Matt Givin
Rock Canyon
RHP/SS/2B
Senior
Tyler Hyland
Rocky Mountain
OF/P
Senior
James Notary
Broomfield
P/INF
Senior
Casey Opitz
Heritage
C/INF
Senior
Tanner O’Tremba
Cherry Creek
OF
Junior
Caleb Sloan
Regis Jesuit
RHP
Senior
John Sorensen
Rocky Mountain
SS/P
Senior
Jordan Stubbings
Legend
3B/1B/C
Senior
Second Team
Name
School
Pos.
Year
Carter Akerfelds
Dakota Ridge
RHP
Senior
Jacob Arellano
Mountain Range
Senior
Tyler Carpenter
Fairview
1B/P
Senior
Drake Davis
Ralston Valley
RHP/OF
Senior
Kalen Hammer
Rocky Mountain
INF
Senior
Jacob Hilton
Heritage
RHP/INF
Senior
Jack Liffrig
Mountain Vista
LHP
Junior
Garrett Tisdall
Eaglecrest
RHP/C/3B
Senior
Jack Winkler
Chatfield
INF/P
Senior
Honorable mention:
Sean Arnold, Highlands Ranch, 1B/OF, Junior
Michael Baer, Regis Jesuit, 1B, Senior
Alex Bumpus, Coronado, CF/P, Senior
Kyle Cardona, Legend, SS/RHP, Senior
Joshua Chamberlain, Legacy, RHP/2B, Senior
Andrew Chavez, Cherry Creek, C, Senior
Riley Cornelio, Pine Creek, SS/RHP, Sophomore
Jeff Cyr, Ralston Valley, SS/RHP, Senior
Andrew Danko, Eaglecrest, SS/RHP, Junior
Colby Deaville, Legacy, SS, Senior
Moses Dokes, Denver East, Freshman
Spencer Gendreau, Rocky Mountain, 1B/OF, Senior
Mikey Griebel, Columbine, CF, Senior
Colton Hill, Rock Canyon, OF, Senior
Sam Ireland, Mountain Vista, 1B/RHP, Sophomore
Patrick Kauffmann, Denver East, Senior
Hunter Kelchner, Grand Junction Central, RHP/1B, Senior
Ryan Kirby, Grand Junction Central, INF, Sophomore
Cooper Legault, Dakota Ridge, OF/RHP, Junior
Jordan Medina, Highlands Ranch, UTIL/P, Junior
Mitch Morales, Broomfield, P/OF, Sophomore
Trey Morrill, Fruita Monument, P/OF, Junior
Conner Nantkes, Cherokee Trail, P/UTIL, Senior
Jakob Pigati, Bear Creek, CF/LF/RF, Senior
Jack Radford, Bear Creek, P, Senior
Cody Schultz, Cherry Creek, INF, Senior
Mason Speirs, Broomfield, C/C, Senior
Jose Treto, Brighton, P/SS/OF, Senior
Matt Turner, Broomfield, 1B, Senior
Jadon Uhrich, Rocky Mountain, C/INF/OF, Senior
Quincey Ulrich, ThunderRidge,
Jake Willemsen, Fairview, OF, Senior
[divider]
Class 4A
(Lance Wendt/LanceWendt.com)
Player of the year: Luke Ziegler, Valor Christian
Coach of the year: Steve Jones, Evergreen
First Team
Name
School
Pos.
Year
Mike Berg
Thompson Valley
C/OF/3B
Senior
Micah Bregard
Air Academy
INF/P
Junior
RJ Dabovich
Pueblo West
Senior
Noah Kuzma
Valor Christian
C
Junior
Ben Muscatello
Evergreen
P/SS/INF
Junior
JD Wadleigh
Green Mountain
RHP/OF
Junior
Judah Wilbur
Denver North
SS/2B/RHP
Senior
Cole Winn
Silver Creek
INF/P
Junior
Luke Ziegler
Valor Christian
3B/RHP
Junior
Second Team
Name
School
Pos.
Year
Josh Danyliw
Valor Christian
P/RF
Junior
Alan Garcia
Pueblo West
Senior
Trystan Kimmel
Thomas Jefferson
INF/RHP
Senior
Skyler Messinger
Niwot
P/INF
Senior
Dylan Norsen
Mountain View
P/INF
Senior
Joel Pierce
Valor Christian
LF/RF
Senior
Jose Robles
Denver North
RHP/C
Senior
Andrew Shaw
Summit
LHP/OF/1B
Senior
Corte Tapia
Windsor
Senior
Honorable mention:
Mason Bennett, Ponderosa,
Matt Berg, Thompson Valley, SS/2B/OF, Senior
Aaron Berkhoff, Cheyenne Mountain, 3B, Sophomore
Brody Bettis, Green Mountain, 2B, Senior
Dalton Bishop, Mesa Ridge, C/INF/SS, Senior
Nick Bowermaster, Thomas Jefferson, SS/RHP, Sophomore
AURORA — The baseball regional tournament brackets for Class 5A, 4A and 3A were released on Wednesday.
Cherry Creek, Denver North and Lamar are the top seeds in their respective classes.
[divider]
Cherry Creek claims top overall seed in 5A
(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Cherry Creek edged out Legend to claim the top overall seed in 5A. The Bruins (14-5) got back on track after a two-game skid just in time for the state tournament.
No. 2 Legend will host Region 5 which includes No. 31 Pomona, No. 19 Grand Junction Central and No. 18 Fairview.
No. 5 Rock Canyon gets Grandview in the first round in Region 4. No. 12 Heritage and No. 21 Grand Junction are on the other side of the bracket.
Mountain Range grabbed the No. 6 spot and will host Region 8.
No. 7 Regis Jesuit and No. 10 Broomfield are set up for a potential matchup in Region 6 if they can get past No. 26 Loveland and No. 23 Arapahoe, respectively.
Denver North is on top in 4A after capping an undefeated regular season. The Vikings went 18-1 in the regular season last year, before losing to Niwot in district play.
The Mustangs are in Region 5, hosted by Lutheran — the No. 2 overall seed.
No. 3 University will host Region 7 that includes defending champion Faith Christian and The Academy. The Bulldogs will face Kent Denver in the first game.
La Junta and Peak to Peak are the No. 4 and 5 seed, respectively.
Delta came in at No. 6, earning a Region 4 host. The Panthers are on an 11-game win streak.
Bayfield is the No. 7 seed and Region 6 host. Resurrection Christian faces Salida, while Bayfield gets Denver Science & Tech: Stapleton.
Bennett (14-4) rounds out the top eight seeds. The Tigers are a strong No. 8 seed, with No. 9 Colorado Academy on the other side of their bracket.
It might be too early to say that Cheyenne Mountain is back at a championship level, but a 11-0 start to the season has certainly gotten the attention of voters across the state.
Fresh off a win over Falcon on Thursday and Canon City on Saturday, the Indians are the new No. 1 in the Class 4A CHSAANow.com baseball rankings.
The Indians only broke into the poll a week ago and after leaping over Northridge, Windsor and Ponderosa, they are looking closer and closer to being in championship contention once again.
Valor Christian made a decent jump this week, gaining three spots to land No. 4.
Silver Creek is the only team to join the poll, coming in at No. 9
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Lamar regains the top spot in the 3A poll after being overtaken by league rival La Junta last week.
University gains some ground to come in at No. 3 as does Manitou Springs who jumps a spot to land at No. 5.
Eaton rejoins the top 10 this week, rounding out the 3A at No. 10.
In 5A, Rock Canyon holds on to the top spot in the poll. Mountain Range, however, made a four-spot jump to come in at No. 2.
Cherry Creek gets back into the top three, getting a few first-place votes in the process.
Fruita Monument (No. 8) and Legacy (No. 9) are the two newcomers to the 5A rankings.
Paonia held on to the top spot in the 2A poll, as did the top four overall teams from last week’s rankings.
Rocky Ford is two spots better this week at No. 7.
Lyons is the only new team in the 2A poll, coming at No. 9 this week.
Holly also held on to its No. 1 ranking, hanging on to the top spot in the 1A poll. Eads (No. 2) and Fleming (No. 3) also held on to their positions from a week ago.
At No. 8, Kiowa is new to this week’s top 10, as is Granada who rounds out the poll at No. 10.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
During the regular season, new polls are released each Monday.
Broomfield 15, Douglas County 9, Regis Jesuit 9, ThunderRidge 8, Bear Creek 5, Cherokee Trail 5, Pine Creek 4, Grand Junction Central 3, Brighton 2, Highlands Ranch 1.
Dropped out:
Grand Junction Central (8), Broomfield (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Cheyenne Mountain (7)
11-0
86
4
3-0
2
Ponderosa (1)
9-2
70
3
2-1
3
Windsor
9-1
65
1
2-1
4
Valor Christian (2)
9-3
63
7
3-0
5
Green Mountain
10-1
59
5
2-1
6
Denver North
12-0
52
6
3-0
7
Mountain View
11-3
33
8
3-0
8
Northridge
10-3
29
2
0-2
9
Silver Creek
10-5
23
–
2-0
10
Fort Morgan
9-2
18
10
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Summit 16, Wheat Ridge 9, Holy Family 8, Air Academy 7, Falcon 6, Pueblo West 6.
To say that there was some shakeup in the CHSAANow.com baseball rankings would be a gross understatement of what happened since the last set of rankings were released two weeks ago.
And if there is a prime example, one should look no further than the Class 4A rankings.
Windsor jumped a staggering eight spots to take over the No. 1 spot in that poll.
The four teams sitting right behind the Wizards? Well, they were all previously unranked. Northridge, Ponderosa, Cheyenne Mountain and Green Mountain all join the rankings this week.
Wheat Ridge (No. 9) and Fort Morgan (No. 10) are also newcomers. Denver North, Valor Christian and Mountain View remain in the rankings at No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 respectively.
The 5A rankings also saw a significant shakeup, though not as extreme as 4A. Rock Canyon takes over the No. 1 spot, replacing Rocky Mountain who falls to No. 3. Legend jumps to No. 2 while Mountain Vista climbs to No. 4.
Mountain Range (No. 6), Eaglecrest (No. 7), Grand Junction Central (No. 8) and Heritage (No. 10) all broke into the top 10.
While 3A saw the most consistency in terms of who was ranked, the overall placement of the ranked teams certainly saw changes.
La Junta jumped to the No. 1 spot, taking over for Lamar.
Manitou Springs jumps a couple of spots to No. 6 while Valley leapt up to No. 7. At No. 9, Gunnison is the only new team in the 3A rankings.
Paonia hangs on to the No. 1 spot in 2A, but Peyton climbs to No. 2 and Holyoke jumps seven spots to No. 3.
County Line, Yuma and Sanford all join the 2A poll this week.
Holly remains the No. 1 team in 1A and Eads holds on to its spot at No. 2.
Caliche, Petz and Antonito are the three newcomers to the 1A poll.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
During the regular season, new polls are released each Monday.
Dawson 8, Front Range Christian 8, Lyons 8, Dayspring Christian 7, Burlington 6, Denver Christian 6, Dolores Huerta 6, Limon 6, Evangelical Christian 4, Calhan 3, Dolores 3, Meeker 1.
Dropped out:
Front Range Christian (2), Dawson (4), Calhan (9).
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Holly (7)
5-1
88
1
3-0
2
Eads (2)
5-0
71
2
4-0
3
Fleming
5-1
66
4
5-0
4
Cheyenne Wells
2-1
53
6
1-1
5
Nucla
5-5
46
3
3-2
6
Caliche
4-5
35
–
2-3
7
Cotopaxi
5-2
25
8
2-1
8
Stratton/Liberty
1-3
22
9
0-1
9
Peetz
4-2
17
–
2-0
10
Antonito
2-0
15
–
1-0
Others receiving votes:
Denver Jewish Day 12, Granada 12, Kiowa 10, Rocky Mountain Lutheran 6, Otis 5, Community Christian 4, Manzanola 3, Idalia 2, Mile High Academy 2, Elbert 1.
DENVER — Valley wrestling won its fourth-straight Class 3A state championship Saturday night. The Vikings previously won in 2014, 2015, 2016 and now 2017.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was getting that four-peat,” senior Aaron Trujillo said. “It’s one of the biggest things in making history in our town, school, team, and all of Colorado. We’ve been working hard all year long and we got that four-peat.”
Heading into the championship matches, just 3.5 points separated first and third place, with Valley leading Alamosa and Jefferson. That margin was even slimmer with five matches left as Joshua Flanagan entered the ring for his match in the 170 bracket.
“I knew how close it was, it never escaped my mind,” said first-year Valley coach Ryan Linsacum. “We knew Alamosa was going to be a tough pill to swallow. From the beginning of the season, we knew they were top dog. Jefferson, I was not prepared for. Those guys put together a heck of a tournament.”
Trujillo said Linsacum told the team throughout the year to “keep working hard in the wrestling room, it’ll pay off here.”
It paid off. Flanagan won 5-4 over and unofficially celebrated the team championship with Linsacum, putting Valley up 102.5 to 98 ahead of Alamosa.
“Everybody had the same focus from day one of the season; and that was a four-peat,” Linsacum said. “I put all the credit in my kids hands. They knew what was at stake, they knew what needed to be done, and they came here and did it.
Jefferson sat at 95 with no shot to win the title, but a shot at second place in the 220 match with Oscar Lopez facing Grand Valley’s Evan Hoff. Lopez’s 10-5 sudden victory gave the Saints the points they needed to leap Alamosa in the team scores.
The final team scores were: Valley, 102.5; Jefferson, 99; Alamosa, 98.
A big swing match came in the 132 final, pitting Valley’s Brandon Damian and Jefferson’s Kyle Cisneros head to head. Sisneros took the win and gave Jefferson separation.
“We knew that was a very important match,” Linsacum said. “Sometimes things happen for a reason, you know, put a little extra stress on us. Aaron and Josh all year have welcomed that stress. They’ve never faltered from their gameplan, regardless of the situation.
The Vikings fought right back in the 145 bracket as Aaron Trujillo capped his career with back-to-back individual titles.
“Its so big,” Trujillo said. “At the beginning of the season, my ultimate goal was to get that second state title, and I’m more pumped than ever that I got that. I knew I was going to take it at this weight class and I did.”
All that was left was Flanagan to win his match at 170 and Valley was able to hold on to the team championship.
“It did come down to that 170 match,” Linsacum said. “We were 1-1 with that kid on the season. So, that was the make it or break it time. We had a gameplan going in and we accomplished what we needed to accomplish.”
Valley had two individual champions: Flanagan at 170 and Trujillo at 145. Trujillo won the 138-pound final last year and earned his fourth team championship ring Saturday night.
“(Trujillo) was part of a state championship team his entire high school career, not many people can say that,” Linsacum said. “He’s gonna be missed. He’s going to be hard to replace. He’s one of those kids that you dream about as a coach.”
“You can’t coach kids to the style that Aaron Trujillo has. You either have it or you don’t.”
Freshman Jaziah Whaley also took third place in a hard-fought 4-3 tiebreaker win in the 152 division.
“Right now we’re relishing in this and we’re super excited for what we’ve accomplished, but tomorrow it’s back to the drawing board,” Linsacum said. “Let’s get five, let’s get one for the thumb.”
Isaiah DelLaCerda. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Alamosa’s Isaiah DeLaCerda and Fort Lupton’s Jody Sandoval II became three-time champions. DeLaCerda pinned A.J. Serna in the 113 bracket, while Sandoval II beat Moises Juarez in the 126 bracket.
“I was nervous more for the first and the second more than I was for this one,” DeLaCerda said. “I’ve always said that I don’t know if I deserve to be with names like Sonny and Cody (Yohn) and all those guys.”
Of course, DeLaCerda is referring to former Alamosa three-time champions Sonny and Cody Yohn.
DeLaCerda watched his brother, Elijah DeLaCerda lose a tough match in the 106 bracket to Fort Lupton’s Jacob Duran just before his match. He gave off an aura of controlled anger and let it out on his opponent.
“We were hoping that we could both come away with a title today, so I went out there upset that he didn’t get it,” DeLaCerda said. “I went out there and had to do it for both of us. I was fighting extra hard for that.”
DeLaCerda put himself with exactly those wrestlers he named Saturday.
Sandoval II came away with a 2-0 win. As for what was going on in his head, Sandoval II kept pushing himself to persevere.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“I had to keep working, the match wasn’t over yet,” Sandoval II said. “So, keep on working, keep on pushing.”
The thoughts about a possible three-peat came into his head right before the match, but Sandoval II let it carry him rather than weigh him down.
“After the 113-pounder won it, and they announced it, it got in my head that this is my third,” Sandoval II said.
In the 285 bracket, Delta’s Logan Church made his way through the one and four seeds, but was unable to claim the title over Sheridan’s Ricky Ayala. Ayala was the 220 champion last year, and now adds the 285 title to his accolades.
In 195, Alameda’s Fabian Estrada pinned Ridge View’s Deven Mosman.
Centauri’s Joe Chavez won his 120-pound match by major decision, 17-3. Holy Family’s Kolsen Welham added his own title win by major decision in the 160 bracket.
In the 138 bracket, Noah Hermosillo of Eagle Valley topped former 2A title holder Quinton Montague.
Eaton’s Isaiah Salazar won a close 3-1 match at 152 over Jimmy Laconte, and La Junta’s William Tyler beat Nathan Johns of The Classical Academy 3-2 in 182.
The 2016 all-state football teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues, and then a vote of head coaches across the state.
Players were placed onto the first-team, second-team and honorable mention based upon the number of votes they received. In 5A-1A, spots were reserved for linemen and one kicker/punter, while 8-man reserved spots for linemen.
CHSAA does not determine who makes or doesn’t make the team; they are created entirely from the results of the coaches’ vote.
[divider]
Class 5A
(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Player of the year: Dylan McCaffrey, Valor Christian
