Legacy opens as the No. 1 team in the preseason 5A softball poll. (Pam Wagner)
Two teams that finished runner-up a season ago head CHSAANow.com’s preseason softball rankings.
Erie (4A) and Sterling (3A) both fell in the championship games of their respective classifications last season. A year later, they’re both the preseason favorites.
In 5A, defending champion Legacy is the unanimous preseason No. 1. Legend, runner-up last year, is No. 2, and is followed by No. 3 Brighton, No. 4 Fossil Ridge and No. 5 Eaglecrest.
Dakota Ridge is sixth, Douglas County is seventh and Loveland is eighth. Rock Canyon (No. 9) and Fort Collins (No. 10) round out the 5A ranking.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, polls will be released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 17 are below.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 9 are below.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 2 are below.
Valor Christian and Resurrection Christian have risen to the top of their respective baseball rankings this week.
Valor, No. 2 in the Class 4A preseason, bumped up one spot following preseason No. 1 Mountain View’s 1-2 start. The Eagles received seven of the 11 first-place votes and lead this week’s CHSAANow.com ranking. Mountain View slipped to No. 9.
Montrose moved from No. 4 to No. 2, Windsor is now No. 3 and Longmont — which beat Mountain View twice — is No. 4. Air Academy rounds out the top 5.
Falcon (No. 7) and D’Evelyn (No. 8) are newcomers to the 4A poll.
Resurrection Christian, meanwhile, takes over atop 2A. The Cougars got four first-place votes and edged No. 2 Lutheran by four overall points.
Denver Christian, the preseason No. 1 in 2A, dropped to No. 3. That ranking added Front Range Christian at No. 9.
The other No. 1 teams remained the same this week. Those are ThunderRidge (5A), Holy Family (3A) and Stratton (1A).
The 5A poll added No. 9 Dakota Ridge, which beat preseason No. 4 Cherry Creek last weekend.
New to 3A are Valley (No. 7) and Basalt (No. 10). The 1A ranking added No. 9 Dove Creek.
Grand Junction 14, Arapahoe 12, Chatfield 11, Mountain Vista 10, Fairview 7, Pine Creek 6, Columbine 5, Legacy 5, Central (G.J.) 2, Fossil Ridge 1.
Dropped out
Mountain Vista (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Valor Christian (7)
1-0
93
2
1-0
2
Montrose (2)
4-0
82
4
3-0
3
Windsor
3-0
72
7
3-0
4
Longmont
2-1
59
9
2-1
5
Air Academy
0-0
47
3
0-0
6
Cheyenne Mountain
0-0
34
8
0-0
7
Falcon
2-0
32
–
2-0
8
D’Evelyn
0-0
27
–
0-0
9
Mountain View (2)
1-2
26
1
1-2
10
Durango
2-2
19
6
2-2
Others receiving votes:
Delta 18, Palmer Ridge 14, Niwot 13, Evergreen 9, Green Mountain 8, Ponderosa 8, Wheat Ridge 8, Thomas Jefferson 7, Pueblo West 6, Frederick 5, Northridge 5, Canon City 4, Pueblo South 4, Pueblo East 3, Skyline 3.
Dropped out
Pueblo West (5), Green Mountain (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Holy Family (6)
0-0
69
1
0-0
2
Eaton (1)
1-0
64
2
1-0
3
Faith Christian
1-0
55
3
1-0
4
Lamar
1-0
36
4
1-0
5
Brush
2-0
33
5
0-0
6
Bayfield
4-0
31
9
3-0
7
Valley
4-0
23
–
4-0
8
Kent Denver
0-0
17
7
0-0
9
La Junta
1-2
13
6
1-2
10
Basalt
2-0
7
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Bishop Machebeuf 6, Manitou Springs 5, Peak to Peak 5, Bennett 4, Gunnison 4, Olathe 4, St. Mary’s 3, The Classical Academy 3, Platte Valley 2, Cedaredge 1, University 1.
ThunderRidge is the preseason No. 1 in 5A. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Defending champions lead CHSAANow.com’s preseason baseball rankings in four of the five classifications heading into the 2014 season.
Those No. 1 teams: ThunderRidge (5A), Mountain View (4A), Holy Family (3A) and Denver Christian (2A). Stratton (1A) is the lone preseason No. 1 to not win a title last season; defending champ Fleming opens at No. 5.
ThunderRidge received 11 of the the 17 first-place votes in the 5A poll, and topped the ranking with 154 overall points. The Grizzlies return a number of key pieces, including shortstop Brody Westmoreland, pitcher/outfielder AJ Jones, pitcher/outfielder Tyler Loptien and infielder Josh Brown.
Regis Jesuit got three first-place votes, and is No. 2. Rocky Mountain is No. 3, Cherry Creek is No. 4 and Grandview rounds out the top five.
Mountain View, No. 1 in 4A, returns the bulk of its team from last season’s title team, including star shortstop and pitcher Adam Baumann.
The rest of the 4A top five includes No. 2 Valor Christian, No. 3 Air Academy, No. 4 Montrose and No. 5 Pueblo West.
Holy Family leads the 3A poll and is followed by No. 2 Eaton, No. 3 Faith Christian, No. 4 Lamar and No. 5 Brush.
In 2A, Denver Christian leads the way. Resurrection Christian is second, and is followed by Lutheran, Las Animas and Paonia.
Stratton is on top of the preseason 1A poll. No. 2 Caliche, No. 3 Elbert, No. 4 Eads and No. 5 Fleming compile the top five.
Fairview 21, Pine Creek 18, Dakota Ridge 14, Chatfield 12, Monarch 12, Legacy 11, Columbine 10, Fossil Ridge 8, Northglenn 8, Cherokee Trail 6, Smoky Hill 6, Arapahoe 5, Rock Canyon 4, Heritage 2, Mullen 2.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Mountain View (10)
0-0
113
–
0-0
2
Valor Christian (2)
0-0
76
–
0-0
3
Air Academy (1)
0-0
58
–
0-0
4
Montrose
0-0
56
–
0-0
5
Pueblo West
0-0
49
–
0-0
6
Durango
0-0
38
–
0-0
7
Windsor
0-0
37
–
0-0
8
Cheyenne Mountain
0-0
34
–
0-0
9
Longmont
0-0
29
–
0-0
10
Green Mountain
0-0
25
–
0-0
Others receiving votes:
Pueblo South 22, Canon City 21, Evergreen 19, D’Evelyn 18, Ponderosa 17, Wheat Ridge 17, Erie 12, Broomfield 11, Palmer Ridge 11, Northridge 10, Mesa Ridge 8, Fort Morgan 7, Falcon 6, Thompson Valley 6, Centaurus 5, Pueblo East 5, Widefield 3, Thomas Jefferson 2, Niwot 1.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Holy Family (7)
0-0
70
–
0-0
2
Eaton
0-0
63
–
0-0
3
Faith Christian
0-0
53
–
0-0
4
Lamar
0-0
42
–
0-0
5
Brush
0-0
33
–
0-0
6
La Junta
0-0
27
–
0-0
7
Kent Denver
0-0
18
–
0-0
8
Olathe
0-0
15
–
0-0
9
Bayfield
0-0
12
–
0-0
10
Bennett
0-0
10
–
0-0
Others receiving votes:
Basalt 7, Peak to Peak 7, Manitou Springs 5, The Classical Academy 5, St. Mary’s 4, Sterling 4, Valley 4, Platte Valley 2, Strasburg 2, Trinidad 2, Gunnison 1.
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Denver Christian (3)
0-0
57
–
0-0
2
Resurrection Christian (2)
0-0
49
–
0-0
3
Lutheran (1)
0-0
44
–
0-0
4
Las Animas
0-0
34
–
0-0
5
Paonia
0-0
26
–
0-0
6
Swink
0-0
23
–
0-0
7
Holyoke
0-0
21
–
0-0
8
Rye
0-0
19
–
0-0
9
Kiowa
0-0
18
–
0-0
10
Limon
0-0
17
–
0-0
Others receiving votes:
Yuma 7, Peyton 6, Front Range Christian 3, Byers 2, Sargent 2, Burlington 1, Del Norte 1.
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Stratton (4)
0-0
53
–
0-0
2
Caliche (1)
0-0
43
–
0-0
3
Elbert
0-0
40
–
0-0
4
Eads
0-0
36
–
0-0
5
Fleming
0-0
32
–
0-0
6
Granada
0-0
30
–
0-0
7
Holly
0-0
28
–
0-0
8
Community Christian (1)
0-0
20
–
0-0
9
Baca County
0-0
13
–
0-0
10
Cheyenne Wells
0-0
11
–
0-0
Others receiving votes:
Dove Creek 7, Briggsdale 6, Peetz 4, Pawnee 3, Walsh 2, Cotopaxi 1, Weldon Valley 1.
Haley Smith is the 5A softball player of the year. (Pam Wagner)
The 2013 all-state softball teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These team were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues and coaches, and then a vote of coaches. Find more information here.
The players who received the most votes in their classification were selected as the player of the year in their class.
Scroll down to see the teams, or use the menu below to navigate to the class of your choosing.