THORNTON — Fairview won girls swimming’s annual Coaches Invite at VMAC on Saturday. The Knights’ 271 total team points bested second-place Cherry Creek (238) and third-place Regis Jesuit (217).
Chatfield senior Darius Reiter glides to the basketball for a layup during the second half Thursday night. Reiter scored a team-high 28 points for the Chargers in their second league victory of the season. (Dennis Pleuss)
LITTLETON — It was a mixed bag for Chatfield senior Darius Reiter in the opening minutes Thursday night.
Reiter scored the Chargers’ first seven points of the Class 5A Jeffco League game against Lakewood in the first few minutes, but with 4:38 left in the first quarter he picked up his second foul. Even with Reiter being a spectator for the remainder of the first quarter, Chatfield (6-2, 2-0 in league) kept things on track. And the Chargers scored a 77-67 home victory heading into the holiday break.
“It wasn’t necessarily the flow I wanted, but it came out well,” said Reiter, who finished with a team-high 28 points. “I was able to get some stuff going.”
Chatfield coach Stephen Schimpeler was encouraged with how his team responded with some adversity in the opening half.
“That whole first half we were in foul trouble. I really liked how we handled the situation,” Schimpeler said. “It’s important that your bench performs because there are times you are going to need them.”
Sophomore Riley Welch led Chatfield’s bench players with 14 points. Starters Alec Wray (14 points) and Andrew St. Germain (11 points) also had strong games in the Chargers’ fourth straight win.
Reiter did plenty of damage at the free-throw line, making 12-of-13 shots from the charity stripe. The second conference game for both teams turned into a physical affair with a total of 56 fouls being called.
Lakewood (4-4, 0-2) only led once in the game at 2-0. Chatfield extended its lead to as much as 21 points late in the third quarter, but the Tigers turned it on offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring 31 points to make a game of it.
Chatfield sophomore Riley Welch, left, and Lakewood freshman Kolton Peterson scramble after a loose ball Thursday night at Chatfield High School. Welch and Peterson both had strong games coming off the bench for their teams. Welch had 14 points, while Peterson threw in 16 points. (Dennis Pleuss)
“We had the opportunity to shoot instead of handing it to Chatfield,” Lakewood coach Daryl Johnson said of the fourth quarter. “We actually got shots up instead of turning it over.”
Lakewood senior Evan O’Dorisio led all scorers with 32 points. Senior Irhad Kozic found his shooting touch with a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and freshman Kolton Peterson came off the bench to score 16 points for the Tigers.
“It’s a matter of execution and trust,” Johnson said after the Tigers’ second straight league defeat. “We’ve got to weave our strengths together. We’ll get it together.”
Lakewood will get back into action after winter break with a 2 p.m. game Saturday, Jan. 4, when it hosts Ralston Valley.
Chatfield has a long road ahead to defend its conference championship it grabbed with an undefeated 16-0 mark last season. Each of the nine 5A Jeffco teams faces their league foes twice (home and away) during the conference schedule.
“We aren’t necessarily aiming for that, but we know it’s there and we want to repeat it,” Reiter said of Chatfield attempting to match last year’s undefeated run in the conference.
Schimpeler stated that he believes the 5A Jeffco league is “getting better” and it will be no easy task in repeating as league champs.
“It’s going to be really hard this year when everyone is gunning for you being league champs and you are Chatfield,” Schimpeler said. “We told these guys it’s going to be tougher this year than last year. I think that was evident tonight.”
After playing eight games in 17 days since the start of the basketball season, Chatfield will get back to action after the holidays by hosting Pomona at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4.
Chatfield sophomore Riley Welch, right, drives toward the basketball against Lakewood senior James Hofmann on Thursday night at Chatfield High School. Welch threw in 14 points off the bench for the Chargers in a 77-67 victory. (Dennis Pleuss)Lakewood senior Guy Young, left, is able to get a hand in the face of Chatfield senior Grant Haines during the first half Thursday at Chatfield High School. The Chargers won the Class 5A Jeffco League game 77-67 to head into winter break with a 6-2 record. (Dennis Pleuss)
Lakewood is No. 7 in this week’s 5A poll. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
Lakewood, coming off a 4-0 week, has jumped into the 5A CHSAANow.com girls basketball ranking.
The Tigers (6-0) are No. 7 this week, and are joined by fellow newcomer Cherry Creek (3-1), which is No. 9 this week.
Regis Jesuit remained as the unanimous No. 1 pick in 5A. In fact, the Nos. 1-4 teams stayed the same this week. The Raiders continued to be followed by No. 2 Highlands Ranch, No. 3 ThunderRidge and No. 4 Grandview.
Fossil Ridge jumped up from ninth to fifth, and Rock Canyon from eighth to sixth. Castle View is eighth, and Monarch is tenth.
Broomfield (4A), Holy Family (3A), Yuma (2A) and Caliche (1A) all remained atop their respective rankings this week.
PARKER — Mackenzie Forrest had 23 points and eight steals, Jessica Brooks added 19 points and nine rebounds, and Lakewood girls basketball beat Chaparral 62-43 on Tuesday.
Arvada West, which placed eighth at last season’s Class 5A state wrestling tournament, begins the season atop the On The Mat rankings.
Defending champions Broomfield (4A) and Paonia (2A) also open the season as preseason No. 1s. Brush, a fifth-place finisher last season, is atop the 3A ranking.
Pomona, the defending 5A champion, opens the season at No. 4.
Alamosa won the 3A title last year, and is No. 5 in that preseason ranking.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
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Fairview is the No. 1 seed in 5A. (Courtesy photo)
The groundwork, as is so often the case, was laid four years ago. Tom McCartney saw it in his freshmen then. Those freshmen are now seniors, and that group has Fairview seeded No. 1 overall in the Class 5A football playoffs.
“We knew that it was a special group,” McCartney, Fairview’s coach, said Sunday morning. “We also knew that for them to do the things and reach some of the goals they’ve set, you’ve got to have junior compliments. You want to know that your juniors are also part of that.
“We’ve been kind of waiting on this group of seniors for a while, and a lot of them have gotten a lot of playing time as sophomores and juniors,” he continued. “When you get in those kinds of battles against teams like Pomona and Ralston Valley, and Legacy and Arvada West and Boulder — and Grandview in the playoffs last year, and Regis the year before — all of those experiences help. So, yes, to be honest with you, we’ve seen this coming from this particular group. We knew this was a talented group.”
The Knights were the lone 5A team to finish the regular season unbeaten (9-0). They were ranked No. 2 in the CHSAANow.com football poll in recent weeks, but were No. 1 in Wild Card points during that stretch, and finished atop the final Wild Card standings released Sunday morning.
And so, when the 5A bracket was unveiled, it was Fairview in the No. 1 spot. (See the full bracket.)
“It feels awesome,” McCartney said. “It’s playoff football. We’re just going to prepare. We understand that if you win you move on, and if you don’t you’re done. We want to keep playing. The best way to keep playing is to be prepared and to improve.”
Fairview draws No. 32 Mountain Vista (3-6) in the first round. The two teams played in 2010 and 2011, both Mountain Vista wins.
“Our seniors, when they were freshmen, played them. And so we know a little bit about them,” McCartney said. “We’ve got a ton of respect for coach (Ric) Cash. His teams are always prepared. They’re always hard-nosed.”
Rounding out the top-5 seeds in 5A were No. 2 Valor Christian, No. 3 Cherry Creek, No. 4 Regis Jesuit and No. 5 ThunderRidge.
The top 16 seeds host in the first round, meaning No. 6 Cherokee Trail, No. 7 Columbine, No. 8 Pomona, No. 9 Chatfield, No. 10 Grand Junction, No. 11 Mountain Range, No. 12 Doherty, No. 13 Prairie View, No. 14 Rangeview, No. 15 Ralston Valley and No. 16 Douglas County will get home games.
The 2A, 1A, 8-man and 6-man brackets were also released on Sunday.
Brush is 2A’s top seed. As the top-8 host in the first round, No. 2 Manitou Springs, No. 3 Platte Valley, No. 4 Faith Christian, No. 5 Gunnison, No. 6 Bennett, No. 7 Kent Denver and No. 8 Florence will all get home games.
Also qualifying in 2A were No. 9 Strasburg, No. 10 Lamar, No. 11 Olathe, No. 12 Fort Lupton, No. 13 Aspen, No. 14 Ridge View Academy, No. 15 Jefferson and No. 16 The Academy.
In 1A, Buena Vista got the top seed. No. 2 Limon, No. 3 Centauri, No. 4 Paonia, No. 5 Monte Vista, No. 6 Hotchkiss, No. 7 Yuma and No. 8 Platte Canyon will also host first-round games.
Additional 1A qualifiers were No. 9 Resurrection Christian, No. 10 Rye, No. 11 Burlington, No. 12 Cedaredge, No. 13 Colorado Springs Christian, No. 14 Wray, No. 15 Lyons and No. 16 Front Range Christian.
Hoehne is 8-man’s top seed. Also hosting in the first round will be No. 2 Dayspring Christian, No. 3 Norwood, No. 4 Simla, No. 5 Caliche, No. 6 Kiowa, No. 7 Sargent and No. 8 Dove Creek. Also qualifying were No. 9 Sanford, No. 10 Vail Christian, No. 11 Merino, No. 12 Walsh, No. 13 Akron, No. 14 West Grand, No. 15 Fowler and No. 16 Granada.
Liberty/Stratton grabbed 6-man’s top seed. Also qualifying were No. 2 Hi-Plains, No. 3 Eads, No. 4 Prairie, No. 5 Otis, No. 6 Peetz, No. 7 Hanover and No. 8 Flagler
Windsor (4A), Lamar (3A), Vail Christian and Rocky Mountain Lutheran (1A) are newcomers to this week’s CHSAANow.com volleyball polls.
The five No. 1s from last week — Grandview (5A), Lewis-Palmer (4A), Manitou Springs (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Caliche (1A) — all stayed put.
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.
After weeks of waiting, Lakewood High School students found out today that they are the winners of a private Katy Perry concert which will be held Oct. 25 at the school. Students gathered at 5:30 a.m. to participate in a live, interactive interview with Katy Perry herself.
Sponsored by Good Morning America, Perry encouraged schools from across the country to make their own videos to her new hit song, “Roar.” Lakewood students created a one-shot, one-take video featuring all 2000 students in a lipdub which highlighted pure, genuine, positive energy and spirit showing that they are truly one united family.
Lakewood students are challenging all high schools in America, 39,000 of them, to each raise $1000 to send to charities of their choice, adding up to a potential $39 million. Their message is that this generation has a lot to give and roar about.
