Cherry Creek joined this week’s field hockey ranking at No. 4. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
Cherry Creek and Golden have joined this week’s CHSAANow.com field hockey ranking.
The Bruins are No. 4, while Golden debuted at No. 5.
Colorado Academy is still proving to be the team in to beat in field hockey. The Mustangs — winners of 47 games in a row, and unbeaten over their past 58 — held firm to the top spot.
Palmer Ridge and Kent Denver also held on to their respective spots at No. 2 and No. 3.
The ranking, voted upon by coaches, is the official poll of the Association. Rankings are released each Monday during the season.
Salida’s Taylor Stack won the boys race at the Arapahoe Warrior Invite. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
LITTLETON — Not so long ago, the Salida girls cross country team finished an emotionally charged state meet as the Class 3A runner-up.
While a second place showing was extremely solid, in some ways the result was a bitter one after a uniform incident — non-identical singlets — resulted in only five girls, not seven, toeing the line. The defending champion Spartans were inched out for the state crown in 2014 by Alamosa, 91-95.
“When something like that happens, it’s just tough,” Salida coach Ken Wilcox said. “Fortunately for a lot of our girls, they were back for another year. We have an opportunity to take something that wasn’t so positive and make it a real positive. I’ve always thought great challenges present great opportunities.”
Salida’s Taylor Stack. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
On Friday afternoon at DeKoevend Park in Littleton, site of the traditionally competitive Arapahoe Warrior Invite, Salida took advantage of such an opportunity. Senior Taylor Stack won the boys race, as he and his teammates placed fourth in a 30-team field, and the Salida girls finished as runner-up to 5A favorites Cherry Creek.
In an invite comprised of almost all 4A and 5A schools, the Spartans made a statement in their season debut.
“One of the beautiful things about cross country is you get the opportunity to run against some of the bigger dogs,” Wilcox said. “We are a school of about 300 and obviously there’s a lot of schools here that are much bigger than that. It’s just fun for us. It’s low pressure.”
On a true cross country course with a water crossing and a few gently rolling hills, Stack ran away from big-school stars — Alec Hornecker of Golden, Steven Goldy of Arapahoe, and Luc Hagen of Air Academy — in winning with a time of 16 minutes, 13 seconds. Hornecker was next in 16:20, then Goldy (16:25) and Hagen (16:49).
It was an impressive start to an eye-opening afternoon for the Spartans as all six of Stack’s teammates broke 19 minutes. A year ago on the same course, only three managed sub-19 performances for the eventual sixth place team in 3A.
“In the time we’ve been coming to Arapahoe, I have to feel that’s easily the highest our guys have placed without a doubt,” Wilcox said excitedly.
Seth Minor, Russell Orris, Kaden Sites, and Morgan Fitzgerald filled out the scoring five for a Salida team that had 215 points, fourth place behind only 5A schools Cherry Creek (132), Rock Canyon (128), and Arapahoe (64), the champions at their home course. The Spartan boys are ranked No. 6 in 3A by Milesplit.
Then, Taryn Ceglowski (6th place), Phoebe Powell, Bari Beasley, Sydney Fesenmeyer, and Olivia Lowe racked up 152 points in beating 5A No. 8 Pine Creek (157) and 4A No. 6 Palmer Ridge (171).
Cherry Creek’s Devon Peterson and Poudre’s Luna Slater. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
The girls, ranked No. 1 in 3A, were only defeated by Creek (64). The Bruins rode first- and third-place finishes by Devon Peterson and Lillian Markusch to a crown.
In a meet with most big schools racing their full lineups, but some, notably Mountain Vista boys and girls and Palmer Ridge boys, holding out top runners, Salida seized an opportunity to display the strength of not only their program, but small school distance running overall.
“It’s always fun to come to a bigger meet like this and be one of the only 3A schools,” Stack said.
“It’s always our goal to kind of mix things up a little bit and make some noise for smaller schools.”
“I think as a small school sometimes it’s easy to have small dreams,” Wilcox added. “We don’t want to have small dreams. We want to shoot a little higher than that.”
Littleton’s defense pitched a shutout in its first game of 2015. More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
LITTLETON — These Lions look to be headed in the right direction, and, at least as of Zero Week, they have their offseason to thank for it.
Noah McGhee ran for three touchdowns and 117 yards as Littleton beat Golden 21-0 to open the football season under a dark blue Colorado sky that slowly faded to black.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” McGhee said after the game, “but, hey, I’m excited we got this first one, and hopefully we can keep that going.”
Dating back to last season, it is Littleton’s fifth win in six games. For the Lions, who went 5-25 from 2010-12, that is a big deal. Littleton has steadily improved since that period, going 4-6 in head coach Kurt Krantz’s first season in 2013, and then 5-5 last year.
This summer, with improvements to Littleton High School and its surrounding facilities underway, the football program was forced to the nearby middle school.
“It was a tough summer,” said Krantz, who estimated that roughly 30 percent of his players were unable to attend due to that, or other reasons.
And yet, the seniors and Krantz said the summer — tough or not — was excellent in terms of workouts and team chemistry.
“We gelled so much in the offseason,” said McGhee, who is one of Littleton’s captains. “We had great lifting sessions, we had great conditioning. It was the best we’ve had probably since I’ve been here.”
Added senior Ethen Vasquez, another captain: “Everybody was there, they were on time. Everybody was pushing themselves through pain, whatever they had. They were just going hard.”
Littleton’s Noah McGhee reaches for the end zone to score his second of three touchdowns. More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
It’s one game, but Littleton looked surprisingly sharp for a first outing — an outing that, since it was in Zero Week, came just 11 days after the start of practice.
Yes, the first quarter was sluggish. On both sides. In three minutes, the two teams turned the ball over a combined four times deep inside Golden territory.
But, as the second quarter dawned, Littleton cut out the mistakes. And handed the ball off to McGhee, who has all the makings of a star.
McGhee rushed for 1,191 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior. In the spring, he won the 100-meter dash at the Class 4A state track meet, and was second in the 200.
Thursday, his first score of 2015 came on a 1-yard plunge with 8:16 remaining in the half.
Golden and Littleton continued to exchange jabs as the game wore on, but nothing really landed. That is, until the third quarter, when Littleton forced Golden to punt with seven minutes to go. Vasquez broke through the protection and blocked that punt. With his facemask.
“Coach was telling me, ‘Go in there and make a play,’ so I just went in there and made a play,” Vasquez said. “I tried to put my hands up and I saw it, and it just hit me right in the facemask.
“Our whole team just got energized and it was going off from there.”
Indeed, the next play, McGhee burst around the right side of the line and stretched out past the goal line for his second score, a 10-yard run with 6:44 to go in the third. He added his third score on the first play of the fourth quarter, another 1-yard run.
“I just had to be patient,” McGhee said. “We have some new guys on the line, but I just had to stay patient and go 100 percent.”
Littleton’s defense stood out, intercepting four passes, and notching five sacks. The Lions held Golden to fewer than 100 yards, including just 30 rushing.
“We’re good, we’re fast,” Krantz said. “Our motto is, ‘Play fast, hard and physical.’ They got it and they get it.”
Golden showed some flashes on Thursday, including senior wideout/defensive back Brandon Bowker, who had 53 total yards and was electric at times. The Demons, coming off their best season since 2010, look to be improved from last year.
Golden on Wednesday announced that it has hired Jackie McBroom as the school’s next baseball coach.
McBroom has been the head coach at Abraham Lincoln since 2011, but his coaching history also includes a stint as an assistant at Golden from 2006-09. In addition, McBroom was an assistant at Green Mountain from 2009-11.
McBroom was an All-American at Kansas Wesleyan. His teams were 60-37 at Lincoln, including 10-9 last spring, and the Lancers made the postseason in 2011.
At Golden, he’ll replace Bill Brady. The Demons went 6-13 last season, and haven’t had a winning season since 2011. Over that time, Golden is 28-48.
Mark Melancon, a 2003 graduate of Golden, made his second appearance in the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Cincinnati.
Melancon, a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, came on in the top of the eighth inning with the National League trailing 6-2.
He struck out the Yankees Brett Gardner, and the Blue Jays’ Russell Martin, before giving up a home run to Brian Dozier of the Twins. Melancon then got the Tigers’ Jose Iglesias to ground out to end the inning.
“It’s so neat. It gives me goosebumps just watching everybody and being a part of it. And, man, it’s — what talent. It’s just cool,” Melancon told MLB.com after the game. “(There were) just some special moments this time. It got to sink in. I really got to enjoy two days here. It still went extremely fast and busy, but good times all the way around.”
Melancon was also an All-Star in 2013, again with the Pirates, but did not appear in the game, which was hosted by the Mets in New York.
Only 12 products of Colorado high schools have ever been selected to play in the All-Star Game, according to Baseball-Reference.com. This season, Melancon became the seventh Colorado product to be selected to multiple All-Star Games.
Great American Ball Park, site of the 2015 MLB All-Star Game. (Photo: shan213/Flickr)
So far in 2015, he is 1-1 with a 1.47 ERA and also has 29 saves. Last season, Melancon had a career-high 33 saves, to go along with a 1.90 ERA.
At Golden, Melancon was a two-sport star in baseball and football. He helped the Demons win the 2003 baseball title in Class 4A. Out of high school, he was picked in the 30th round of the MLB Draft by the Dodgers.
But Melancon opted instead to play college baseball, and he went on to star at Arizona, where he set the school’s single-season record for saves.
He spent three seasons with the Wildcats, and the Yankees then drafted him in the ninth round of the 2006 MLB Draft. He debuted in New York during the 2009 season.
Melancon was traded to Houston during the 2010 season, and was an Astro through 2011, when he had 20 saves. He was traded to the Red Sox after 2011, and only saw five chances to save games in 2012.
The Red Sox traded Melancon to the Pirates prior to the 2013 season, where he has since flourished. Through two-and-a-half seasons in Pittsburgh, Melancon has 78 saves, and a 1.61 ERA in 185 innings pitched. He’s also struck out 172 batters to just 27 walks.
In seven MLB seasons, the 30-year-old Melancon has 99 saves with a 2.74 ERA. He has 311 career strikeouts to 83 walks, and is 17-15.
Bridget Sutter (0) of Colorado Academy is the girls lacrosse player of the year. (Matt Daniels/MaxPreps)
The 2015 all-state girls lacrosse teams honor the best players in the sport as judged by the leagues and coaches. They are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues and coaches, and then a vote of coaches.
Player and coach of the year was also selected by a vote of the coaches.
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Player of the year: Bridget Sutter, Colorado Academy
Coach of the year: Steph Sanders, Colorado Academy
