Regis Jesuit heads the field as the No. 1 seed in 5A boys lacrosse. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
The teams that were seen as the top dogs at the end of the boys lacrosse regular season will hold on to their distinctions in the 2016 state tournament.
Regis Jesuit earned the No. 1 overall seed in the Class 5A boys lacrosse bracket that was released Monday morning. Dawson assumes the top spot in the 4A bracket.
The Bruins, Raiders and Golden Eagles all advanced to last year’s Final 4. Kent Denver, the other Final 4 team from 2015, lands at No. 14 this year.
This year’s bracket sees three fresh faces as Palmer (No. 10), Chaparral (No. 13) and Legend (No. 16) all made it into this year’s tournament after failing to qualify last year.
First round games for the 2016 5A state lacrosse tournament will be played on Wednesday.
Dawson is the No. 1 seed in the 4A field. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
After starting this season 0-3 Valor Christian won 11 of their final 12 games to play up to the No. 2 seed. Following the Eagles are Conifer at No. 3, Windsor and No. 4 and Cheyenne Mountain at No. 5.
Defending champion Aspen lands at No. 11 and will face No. 6 Air Academy for its first round game.
Dawson School, Valor Christian and Cheyenne Mountain all joined Aspen in last year’s semifinals and with the layout of the bracket, it’s possible for all those teams to return to that point.
Like in 5A, there are three teams in this year’s bracket that did not qualify in 2015. Golden lands at No. 7, St. Mary’s is No. 8 and Vail Mountain is the No. 14 team.
First round games for the 4A tournament will be played on Tuesday.
There were no new teams in this week’s 4A rankings.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
With the regular season wrapping up this week, these will serve as the final rankings of the regular season. The state tournament brackets will be announced on CHSAANow.com next Monday.
Top-ranked Dawson boys lacrosse edged No. 3 Conifer in double OT on Wednesday. (Brie Thomas/CHSAANow.com)
LAFAYETTE — A true battle test emerged between the No. 1 Dawson Mustangs and the No. 3 Conifer Lobos as each team left everything on the field on Wednesday.
The Mustangs (now 10-1, 4-0) were able to pull off a comeback win in double overtime, winning 12-11 over the Lobos (9-1, 4-1) in an important Class 4A Foothills Conference game.
The game started off with both teams playing great defense, causing turnovers and limiting the score to 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
“It’s two really high-caliber teams both coming out,” Lobos coach Clint Frost said. “I don’t think anyone would have told you that it would be 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.”
Both teams were able to find their intensity in the second quarter, as Conifer kept inching closer and closer to Dawson. And finally all that intensity transitioned into goals, as the Lobos were able to take the lead in the third quarter, going up 9-8.
Conifer found itself winning ground ball after ground ball and continued to find the back of the net.
Sophomore Nick Williams scored three goals for Conifer, which helped extend the lead to three with just under four minutes remaining.
But little did they know that Dawson wasn’t ready to throw in the towel quite yet.
Dawson came back with three goals of its own to tie the game with 4.8 seconds left.
(Brie Thomas/CHSAANow.com)
Gavyn Pure was pure gold for the Mustangs has he knocked in four goals, including the tying tally and the game-winning goal in overtime.
“That game was a lot of fun and intense, they are a really good team and we kind of lost our intensity but then we picked it up in the last three minutes,” Pure said after the game.
The Mustangs were out to prove to the Lobos why they are ranked No.1 in 4A and they did just that at the time they needed to the most.
“I’m just so proud of the guys, that was an unbelievable effort,” Dawson coach Peter Devlin after the crazy win. “Just the resilience they showed, it would have been so easy to pack it in when they went up by three with three-and-half minutes to go, but they didn’t. They just kept on trying.”
After Pure’s tying goal, the Mustang crowd began to get back into the game and the players began to feed off of their energy. And they needed all the energy they could get heading into the second overtime, still tied at 11 all.
One player in particular gave the Mustangs the glimmer of hope they needed for the win, as he was able to break through the double team and find Pure for the go head game winning goal.
“Wyatt Watts doesn’t get enough credit, that was a great pass, it’s hard to look when you’re getting double covered and I had the easy part, just put it in on a open goal,” Pure on his senior teammate. “You got to give Wyatt the credit there.”
And for Dawson this win was made possible by their brick wall of a goalkeeper Chad Dunnell as he had 23 saves, three of which came during the second overtime.
“Both overtimes our goalie made some huge saves, in that kind of pressure situation, I’m just so so happy for them,” Devlin said.
Both teams are looking forward to a potential rematch in the playoffs, but for now they will both have to keep pushing through the rest of their season in order to get there.
St. Mary’s is the only new team in the rankings as they come in at No. 10.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, they are released each Monday.
Colorado Academy is one of two new teams in this week’s 5A boys lacrosse ranking, joining at No. 9. (Lance Wendt/LanceWendt.com)
Colorado Academy and Chaparral are starting to get noticed at the right time.
The Mustangs and the Wolverines each won two crucial games last week and those wins were good enough to get them into the Class 5A CHSAANow.com boys lacrosse rankings.
Colorado Academy breaks in at No. 9 and Chaparral lands at No. 10.
An overtime win over Regis Jesuit ensured that Cherry Creek would remain the top team in the rankings. The Raiders stayed put at No. 3, with the loss not affecting their position.
In fact, the top five teams last week all held on to their spots this week.
The Dawson School is still the No. 1 team in 4A, taking eight of nine first-place votes.
Thanks to a comeback win over Golden, Windsor held on to their spot at No. 2.
Air Academy and Valor Christian each jumped two spots from a week ago with the Kadets coming in at No. 7 and the Eagles landing at No. 8.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, they are released each Monday.
Rock Canyon boys lacrosse joined this week’s 5A ranking at No. 8. (Josh Watt/CHSAANow.com)
The top teams remained on top in this week’s CHSAANow.com boys lacrosse rankings.
Despite a loss to out-of-state Torrey Pines last week, Cherry Creek remains the top team in the Class 5A poll. The top five teams from last week all held on to their positions.
The big jump of the week was Palmer landing at No. 7, up three spots from a week ago.
Rock Canyon and Columbine each played their way into the 5A rankings with the Jaguars coming in at No. 8 and the Rebels rounding out the poll at No. 10.
The Dawson School has proven in the last week that they are the undisputed No. 1 team in 4A after beating No. 3 Cheyenne Mountain on Apr. 2 and easily handling No. 2 Windsor on Friday.
Like the 5A poll, the top five teams in the 4A rankings all held on to their positions from last week.
The only newcomer in 4A this week was Valor Christian at No. 10.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, they are released each Monday.
Chaparral joined the 5A boys lacrosse ranking at No. 6 this week. (Lance Wendt/LanceWendt.com)
Between the Class 5A and 4A CHSAANow.com boys lacrosse rankings, Chaparral is the only fresh face of the bunch.
Behind a 6-0 record, the Wolverines land at No. 6 in this week’s poll.
Defending champion Cherry Creek remains the top team in 5A, with Mountain Vista staying put at No. 2 and only trailing the Bruins by 10 points in the polls.
There were no new teams in the 4A rankings this week, but Golden was able to jump three spots to land at No. 6.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, they are released each Monday.
