Among the returning starters who received all-state recognition last fall are 5-foot-11 middle hitter Timmi Keisel, 5-foot-2 libero Megan Chintala and 5-foot-6 setter Rachel Frantz — all first-team selections — along with second-team all-state outside hitter Deborah Kurtzer. Keisel was the 1A player of the year.
“We’ve got some talent,” an understated Herbert said, “but our biggest key is how we work together. A lot still has to come together.”
Fleming lost only two games in winning pool play, the semifinals and the championship match to take last year’s state title.
“It takes a lot of chemistry,” Herbert said of the main ingredient of earning a state championship. He should know. Last year’s title victory was Fleming’s fourth in seven years.
Fleming is No. 1 in CHSAANow.com’s preseason poll. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
The road to a second straight state title will not be without its challenges. Of the eight teams qualifying for last year’s state tournament, only Dove Creek, which lost to Fleming in the title match, and Caliche were senior dominated. Caliche has since moved up to 2A.
Otis, a four-time state champion, graduated just one player. Idalia, which had no seniors on its state qualifying squad, could have perhaps the tallest team in 1A with 5-10 outside hitter Reagan Shaffer and 5-10 right-side hitter Stephanie Helling. The Bulldogs and Wolves should compete for supremacy in the YWKC League.
Sangre de Cristo, which qualified for last season’s 2A tournament, drops to and could be the team to get past in the Southern Peaks League. It also graduated just one player.
Look for 6-3 senior outside hitter Tanaia Hansen of Eads to be among the dominant forces on net. Kit Carson, another High Plains League power, is also expected to make a strong run toward a return state tournament appearance.
Another frequent state qualifier, Flager, will again be a force in the Lower Platte League.
Then there are teams such as Weldon Valley, which gave Fleming all it could handle in the district playoffs last November. The Warriors, which were a sophomore-dominated team, got better as the season progressed.
“1A’s going to be really tough,” said Herbert, who’s in his 11th season as the Wildcats’ head coach.
Fortunately for him, that starts with the defending state champs.
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Class 1A volleyball
Defending champion: Fleming
Runner-up: Caliche (moved up to 2A)
Returning All-State players: Megan Chintala, Fleming, Sr. (1st); Rachel Frantz, Fleming, Sr. (1st); Tanian Hansen, Eads, Sr. (1st); Timmi Keisel, Fleming, Sr. (1st); Kylee Kuntz, Otis, Jr. (1st); Antonya Schaffert, Otis, Jr. (1st); Hanna Herman, Fleming, Sr. (2nd); Aurelia Isenbart, Kit Carson, Sr. (2nd); Brooklyn Krehmeyer, Weldon Valley, Jr. (2nd); Deborah Kurtzer, Fleming, Sr. (2nd); Reagan Shaffer, Idalia, Jr. (2nd).
Valor Christian is the preseason No. 1 in 5A. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
Defending champions head six of football’s seven preseason CHSAANow.com rankings, which were unveiled Monday morning.
The lone exception is Lutheran in Class 3A — which saw both its champion (Coronado) and runner-up (Silver Creek) move up to 4A this cycle.
In fact, that ranking was also the most split of any other, with both Lutheran and preseason No. 2 Delta both getting three first-place votes. Lutheran got the No. 1 nod with 65 total points. Delta had 53 points.
Lutheran was eliminated in the first round of the 3A playoffs last season, while Delta made the semifinals. Lutheran is entering its first season under new coach Blair Hubbard, formerly of Faith Christian.
Other preseason No. 1 teams are Platte Valley (2A), Paonia (1A), Dayspring Christian (8-man) and Stratton/Liberty (6-man).
The rankings are voted upon by coaches and select media members, and are the official polls of the Association. During the regular season, rankings will be released each Monday.
ThunderRidge 31, Overland 16, Monarch 7, Legend 5, Douglas County 3, Grand Junction 3, Mullen 2, Doherty 1, Fountain-Fort Carson 1.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Pine Creek (11)
110
2
Montrose
81
3
Pueblo South
75
4
Longmont
67
5
Denver South
53
6
Broomfield
43
7
Standley Lake
36
8
Dakota Ridge
28
9
Pueblo Centennial
26
10
Windsor
25
Others receiving votes:
Pueblo West 18, Vista Ridge 17, Loveland 13, Fort Collins 5, Coronado 3, Palmer Ridge 2, Wheat Ridge 2, Falcon 1.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Lutheran (3)
65
2
Delta (3)
53
3
Holy Family
52
4
Rifle (1)
40
5
Roosevelt
33
6
Evergreen
25
7
The Classical Academy
19
8
Palisade
16
9
Lewis-Palmer (1)
15
10
Vista PEAK
11
Others receiving votes:
Fort Morgan 9, Northridge 9, Pueblo East 7, Mead 4, Conifer 3, Discovery Canyon 3, Erie 3, Frederick 3, Woodland Park 2, Eagle Valley 1, Pueblo Central 1.
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Platte Valley (5)
66
2
Faith Christian (1)
64
3
Brush (1)
54
4
Manitou Springs
41
5
Kent Denver
38
6
Florence
31
7
Strasburg
24
8
Bennett
23
9
Lamar
16
10
Olathe
9
Others receiving votes:
Gunnison 7, La Junta 4, Sterling 4, Eaton 2, Middle Park 1, Moffat County 1.
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
PTS
1
Paonia (4)
63
2
Centauri (2)
58
3
Limon (1)
53
4
Buena Vista
49
5
Resurrection Christian
40
6
Burlington
36
7
Monte Vista
30
8
Yuma
13
9
Wray
10
10
Cedaredge
8
Others receiving votes:
Platte Canyon 6, Colorado Springs Christian 5, Meeker 4, Holyoke 3, Hotchkiss 3, Rye 2, Front Range Christian 1, Wiggins 1.
Lewis-Palmer, the defending 4A volleyball champion, heads the preseason ranking in that class. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
Rampart, Lewis-Palmer, Manitou Springs, Resurrection Christian and Fleming are the preseason No. 1 volleyball teams in their respective classifications.
CHSAANow.com’s preseason poll was released on Monday, and three of last year’s champions are atop the rankings. Those are Lewis-Palmer, Resurrection Christian and Fleming.
Rampart, which received eight of the 11 first-place votes, heads the Class 5A poll. The Rams made the state tournament last season, where they went 1-1 in pool play. They return a number of top players from that team.
Cherokee Trail is No. 2 to start the year, and is followed by No. 3 Fossil Ridge, No. 4 Grandview — the defending champion — and No. 5 Cherry Creek.
Pine Creek is sixth, Eaglecrest is seventh, Legend is eighth, Arapahoe is ninth and Mountain Vista rounds out the ranking.
Lewis-Palmer heads 4A. Ponderosa is No. 2, and Air Academy, last year’s runner-up, is third.
Manitou Springs is on top of the 3A ranking, just ahead of defending champ Eaton. Manitou was runner-up last season.
Resurrection Christian leads 2A, while Fleming is on top of 1A.
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 media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Regis Jesuit is No. 1 in this week’s 5A baseball ranking. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
For the second consecutive week, there’s a new team atop CHSAANow.com’s Class 5A baseball ranking. This time, Regis Jesuit has ascended to the top.
The Raiders, now 14-3, went 3-0 last week — including a 7-5 win over then-No. 6 ThunderRidge. They are now 9-0 in the always tough Continental League, and are riding an 11-game winning streak.
Fairview actually received the same amount of first-place votes (six) that Regis Jesuit did, but remained at No. 2 with 125 overall points to the Raiders’ 137. The Knights are now 16-1 — 13-0 against in-state teams.
Arvada West jumped into the rankings at No. 6, just behind No. 5 Chatfield and No. 4 Mountain Vista.
ThunderRidge dropped to No. 7, Rocky Mountain is No. 8 and Chaparral is No. 9. Cherry Creek rejoined the poll at No. 10.
There are also new teams atop the 3A and 2A polls. In 3A, Eaton received nine of the 10 first-place votes to overtake Holy Family, which dropped to No. 2. In 2A, Resurrection Christian got five of the seven first-place votes and took over for Swink, which also fell to No. 2.
Windsor retained its spot atop the 4A ranking, and Stratton held firm atop 1A.
The 4A poll added Pueblo East at No. 9, and also saw Lewis-Palmer move from No. 5 to No. 3, and Evergreen go from No. 7 to No. 4.
3A added Bayfield (No. 8), while 2A added Limon (No. 9) and Lyons (No. 10).
With the regular season ending Tuesday, these rankings will serve as the final poll of the regular season.
Chatfield is the No. 1 team in this week’s 5A baseball poll. (Pam Wagner)
Chatfield, 13-0 to start the 2014 season, has taken over atop this week’s Class 5A baseball poll from CHSAANow.com.
The Chargers moved up from No. 3 and received seven of the 15 first-place votes. They had 131 total points to top the ranking.
A total of six teams got first-place votes, including former No. 1 ThunderRidge, which dropped to No. 6 following its loss to Mountain Vista last week.
Fairview got two of those first-place votes and is No. 2 this week. Columbine, which plays Chatfield on Wednesday, is third, and Regis Jesuit is fourth. Mountain Vista rounds out the top five.
After ThunderRidge, Arapahoe is seventh and Ralston Valley is eighth. Chaparral is No. 9 this week, and Rocky Mountain is No. 10.
The 4A ranking also got a new No. 1 team this week when Windsor overtook Montrose. The Wizards received six of the 13 first-place votes, and had 115 overall points.
Montrose dropped to second this week, and is followed by No. 3 Niwot. Wheat Ridge bumped up one place to No. 4, while Lewis-Palmer is No. 5 after 3-0 week which included a win over then-No. 10 Palmer Ridge on Saturday.
Longmont is the lone newcomer to the 4A poll, joining at No. 10.
The other No. 1 teams held firm atop their respective rankings. Holy Family continued to lead 3A, Swink remain atop of 2A and Stratton continued to lead 1A.
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.
Fairview, and shortstop Cameron Frazier (3) are No. 4 in this week’s 5A baseball poll. (Dennis Pleuss)
Perhaps no win was bigger for Fairview in recent years than last Thursday’s decision over then-No. 5 Rocky Mountain.
But the win for the Knights was just one-fourth a tough 4-0 week last week, and now they find themselves ranked No. 4 in this week’s CHSAANow.com Class 5A baseball poll. Fairview was seventh last week.
The Knights are actually 7-0 in Colorado, with the lone loss coming in Arizona during a Spring Break tournament. Their lineup has produced double-digit scoring outputs the past four games.
ThunderRidge remained in its top spot in the 5A ranking, where it has been since the preseason. Regis Jesuit stayed at No. 2, and Chatfield held firm at No. 3.
Behind Fairview, Columbine rounds out the top five.
Ralston Valley is No. 6, Mountain Vista is No. 7 and Arapahoe is No. 8. Rocky Mountain dropped to No. 9 after going 1-2 last week.
Chaparral is the lone newcomer to 5A this week. The Wolverines rejoined the poll at No. 10.
Elsewhere, Swink took over the top spot in the 2A ranking. At 9-0, Swink moved up from No. 2. Former No. 1 Resurrection Christian dropped to No. 3.
The 2A poll added Kiowa (No. 8) this week.
The other No. 1 teams remained the same. Those are Montrose (4A), Holy Family (3A) and Stratton (1A).
The 4A poll has two new teams this week: Wheat Ridge, which joined all the way at No. 5, and Elizabeth, which is No. 7.
Cherry Creek 16, Central (G.J.) 10, Fruita Monument 6, Legacy 4, Rock Canyon 3, Dakota Ridge 2, Pine Creek 2, Brighton 1.
Dropped out
Dakota Ridge (10).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Montrose (5)
9-2
112
1
1-1
2
Niwot (4)
10-1
106
4
3-0
3
Windsor (4)
12-1
101
2
3-0
4
Delta (1)
11-1
77
5
0-1
5
Wheat Ridge
7-2
64
–
3-0
6
Lewis-Palmer
8-3
50
9
3-0
7
Elizabeth
10-1
41
–
3-0
8
Valor Christian
7-5
38
3
0-2
9
Evergreen
7-2
36
10
3-0
10
Palmer Ridge
8-3
31
7
3-1
Others receiving votes:
Pueblo Centennial 19, Longmont 17, Air Academy 16, Ponderosa 12, Mesa Ridge 10, Mountain View 9, Skyline 7, Pueblo East 4, Canon City 3, Falcon 3, Pueblo West 2, Widefield 2, Durango 1, Green Mountain 1, Pueblo South 1.
Dropped out
Longmont (6), Falcon (8).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Holy Family (6)
12-0
85
1
4-0
2
Eaton (3)
8-0
84
2
1-0
3
Faith Christian
9-1
67
3
4-0
4
Gunnison
10-0
49
7
3-0
5
Valley
10-1
46
5
2-1
6
Cedaredge
11-0
41
6
2-0
7
Lamar
9-3
38
4
2-2
8
University
7-2
28
9
1-1
9
Brush
7-1
24
–
4-0
10
The Classical Academy
7-2
18
8
3-1
Others receiving votes:
Bayfield 14, La Junta 1.
Dropped out
Bayfield (10).
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Swink (3)
9-0
63
2
4-0
2
Rye (1)
9-1
55
4
3-0
3
Resurrection Christian (2)
8-2
52
1
2-1
4
Hotchkiss (1)
11-2
42
7
2-0
5
Peyton
9-1
39
6
2-1
6
Sedgwick County
7-1
36
8
2-0
7
Lutheran
5-4
21
5
2-1
8
Kiowa
7-3
15
–
5-1
9
Limon
6-3
13
10
1-1
10
Denver Christian
4-3
11
3
2-1
Others receiving votes:
Haxtun 6, Holyoke 6, Dolores 5, Front Range Christian 5, Lyons 5, Sierra Grande 4, Byers 2, Nucla 2, Rocky Ford 2, Yuma 1.
Dropped out
Ignacio (9).
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Stratton (5)
5-1
50
1
1-1
2
Granada
3-2
40
3
0-1
3
Elbert
5-1
38
2
1-0
4
Caliche
5-6
29
4
2-0
5
Eads
4-7
28
7
2-1
6
Briggsdale
5-4
20
–
3-1
7
Community Christian
5-5
15
6
2-0
8
Peetz
1-2
14
8
0-1
9
Fleming
3-3
11
10
0-0
10
Dove Creek
2-8
9
9
0-2
Others receiving votes:
Cornerstone Christian 7, County Line 7, Holly 3, Manzanola 3, Cotopaxi 1.
