Grandview 14, Pine Creek 10, Arvada West 6, Legend 6, Abraham Lincoln 5, Highlands Ranch 5, Mountain Vista 4, Adams City 3, Chatfield 2, Cherokee Trail 2, Liberty 1, Rangeview 1.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Battle Mountain (7)
1-0-0
88
1
1-0-0
2
Broomfield (2)
0-0-1
80
3
0-0-1
3
Niwot
1-0-0
55
7
1-0-0
4
Cheyenne Mountain
0-0-0
49
8
0-0-0
5
Air Academy
1-0-0
43
–
1-0-0
6
Denver South
1-0-0
42
5
1-0-0
7
Evergreen
0-1-0
32
6
0-1-0
8
Ponderosa
1-0-0
29
9
1-0-0
9
Sand Creek
1-0-0
20
10
1-0-0
10
Valor Christian
2-0-0
19
–
2-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Pueblo West 12, Palmer Ridge 6, Silver Creek 4, Windsor 4, Denver North 3, Wheat Ridge 3, Longmont 2, Mullen 2, Golden 1, Lewis-Palmer 1.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Colorado Academy (6)
1-0-0
73
1
1-0-0
2
The Classical Academy (2)
3-0-0
72
3
3-0-0
3
Basalt
2-0-0
55
9
2-0-0
4
Holy Family
1-0-0
45
6
1-0-0
5
Kent Denver
1-1-0
39
2
1-1-0
6
Coal Ridge
0-0-0
38
5
0-0-0
7
Faith Christian
1-1-0
34
4
1-1-0
8
Jefferson
1-0-0
20
8
1-0-0
9
Salida
2-0-0
14
–
2-0-0
10
Peak to Peak
2-1-0
13
–
2-1-0
Others receiving votes:
Manitou Springs 9, Lake County 8, Frontier Academy 7, St. Mary’s 6, Denver Christian 2, Heritage Christian 2, Roaring Fork 2, Machebeuf 1.
The Classical Academy Cross country coach Alan Versaw. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — Here was the initial roster: Seven boys, three girls. Six of those kids were still in middle school.
“We were running as individuals,” coach Alan Versaw said recently. “But it was fun.”
“To this day,” he added, “the things I learned from them, the sort of team things they set in place, are still present. It is uncanny how much harkens back to the first year or two when there were just so few kids there. They just wanted to go out and conquer everything they could conquer.”
Versaw’s program has grown to the point that it is now among the state’s elite. The girls have won ten consecutive state championships dating to 2003 and the boys have five in that same span.
“I was completely unaware of the sort of stuff that would follow,” Versaw said. “Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine the kind of program it became.”
The coach himself didn’t even run cross country in high school. He went to Sangre de Cristo, near Alamosa, where he played football and ran track. The school didn’t have a cross country program.
“I don’t think I would’ve run cross country if we had,” Versaw said. “I wasn’t tuned that way quite yet.”
In college, he started participating in road races, but a bone chip in his knee forced surgery and he stopped running — for 20 years. He didn’t pick it back up again until started TCA’s program.
“I knew that I really, really liked the kind of mindset that came out for cross country,” Versaw said.
By 2003, the girls had won a Class 3A state title. A year later, the boys won their first. Things exploded from there, and Versaw’s Titans started to dominate. In 2006, both teams won state championships. In 2009, TCA girls went 1-2-3, placed five runners in the top ten and six in the top 13.
Last year, both programs made the leap to 4A. The boys finished eighth — “Last year was kind of a tough year for the guys to bridge up to 4A,” Versaw said, noting they returned just one runner from the 2011 state meet — and the girls won.
“The depth of the other teams is so different” in 4A, Versaw said. “3A has some really talented individuals, but we were going, any given year, seven or eight or nine girls deep and there weren’t 3A schools that could match up.
“You know, a couple of (the girls) told me that at the end of the season: ‘Coach, I was really kind of skeptical at the beginning of the season, not sure what to make of it, but it was a lot more fun at the end,’ ” Versaw added. “And that’s easy to understand. What’s more fun? Going up a 14er where you’ve got to use your hands and you’re hanging out in the air a little, or just strolling up? That’s the kind of difference it is.”
The girls return five of the seven girls from last year’s state meet team.
“We went about 11 girls deep, really strong last year, and we only lost two as seniors,” Versaw said. “We just had a really good summer. A lot of dedication from the kids. Yes, they lifted the level of their training, but I think they also did it in a smart way. There’s a pretty tight bonding among these girls, and I think they’re committed to one another.
“They know what it takes,” he continued. “The eyes were open kind of wide last year, in 4A, and they didn’t know what to expect. I think they made some adjustments over the last year and I think that’s why I saw the kind of summer I did with their training.”
Six of seven boys from last year’s state meet team are back.
“Eighth isn’t bad, but they had a whole new picture and a whole new mindset this year of what it takes,” Versaw said. “They worked harder this summer than ever before, and their sights are high.”
[divider]
The Classical Academy at the state meet
A look at how TCA’s cross country teams have fared at the state meet since 2001, including a breakdown of how individual runners finished.
Three defending champions head the preseason boys cross country polls released on Tuesday.
Mountain Vista (5A), Coronado (4A) and Lyons (2A) won championships in their respective classifications last season and opened 2013 at the top spot in the Colorado Track XC/CHSAANow.com boys cross country rankings.
Fort Collins (5A) and The Classical Academy (4A) are among top-ranked teams in the Colorado Track XC/CHSAANow.com girls cross country preseason rankings.
Valor Christian is the preseason No. 1 team in Class 5A. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Football is back, and things seem to be picking up right where we left them.
Valor Christian leads the first-ever CHSAANow.com 5A football poll, which is voted on by coaches and media members across the state. The Eagles are four-time defending champions across three classifications, and beat Cherokee Trail to win last year’s 5A crown. Cherokee Trail, not surprisingly, is No. 2 in the preseason poll.
ThunderRidge, a semifinalist a year ago, is third, followed by Cherry Creek and Pomona. Grandview is No. 6 to begin the season, Ralston Valley is No. 7, while Columbine (No. 8), Chaparral (No. 9) and Regis Jesuit (No. 10) round out the 5A poll.
A total of three teams received first-place votes in the ranking: Valor Christian got 14, while Cherokee Trail and Cherry Creek received one each.
Monarch, the defending 4A champion, leads the preseason ranking in that classification, while Denver South, runner-up a year ago, is second. Wheat Ridge, Pine Creek and Pueblo West round out 4A’s top five teams.
In fact, each of the defending champions lead their respective preseason rankings. That includes Silver Creek (3A), Kent Denver (2A), Cedaredge (1A), Hoehne (8-man) and Fleming (6-man).
