Silver Creek is making the right moves at the right time. The Raptors have climbed to the No. 2 spot in the Class 4A CHSAANow.com baseball rankings.
They sit right behind Valor Christian, who holds on to the No. 1 spot.
Green Mountain also shot up the rankings, gaining three spots to take over the No. 3 position.
(Courtesy of Palisade HS)
Air Academy (No. 7) and Palisade (No. 9) are the two new teams to crack the 4A poll this week.
Three new teams made their way in the 5A rankings as Legend (No. 6), Legacy (No. 8) and Brighton (No. 10) have all impressed voters enough with the postseason right around the corner.
Cherry Creek remains the No. 1 team in 5A, but Mountain Vista jumped up to the No. 2 spot. Mountain Range is two spots better than a week ago, sitting at No. 4.
Lamar holds on to the No. 1 spot in 3A with Lutheran climbing up to No. 2.
Valley made a three-spot jump to come in at No. 4.
At No. 9 and No. 10 respectively, Delta and Resurrection Christian are the two newcomers to the 3A poll.
Paonia maintained its spot atop the 2A poll while Sedgwick County jumped a spot to get to No. 3.
At No. 8, Hotchkiss is two spots better than last week.
Front Range Christian joins the 2A poll at No. 10.
Holly remains the unanimous No. 1 team in 1A. Eads was able to jump a spot to No. 2, trading places with No. 3 Fleming.
Kiowa jumped two spots to No. 8 while Granada (No. 9) and Manzanola (No. 10) join the rankings this week.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
During the regular season, new polls are released each Monday.
Cherry Creek and Valor Christian are picking the right time to peak. After all, in hunt for a state baseball championship teams put more emphasis on how they’re playing in May, not in March.
In the last week of April, the Bruins and the Eagles have made their way into their respective top spots in the CHSAANow.com baseball rankings.
Cherry Creek takes nine of 12 first-place votes to come in as the new No. 1 in the Class 5A poll. The Bruins unseat Rock Canyon, which falls to No.2 after a 12-10 loss to Regis Jesuit last week.
The Raiders are just one of three new teams to crack the 5A top 10. Douglas County enters the poll this week at No. 7 and Broomfield, fresh off a shutout win over Mountain Range comes in at No. 9.
Valor Christian — the defending 4A champion — regains the top spot in that class, jumping up three spots from last week’s ranking.
The Eagles overtake No. 2 Cheyenne Mountain, which claimed the top spot a week ago.
(Jeff Tucker/jefferywtucker.zenfolio.com)
Still undefeated, Denver North climbs a couple of spots to take the No. 4 position this week, grabbing a couple of first-place votes in the process.
Summit and Pueblo West are the two newcomers in the 4A poll, taking the No. 9 and No. 10 spots respectively.
Lamar remains the No. 1 team in the 3A rankings, but University was able to jump a spot to land at No. 2.
Peak to Peak (No. 5) and Colorado Academy (No. 6) each climbed two spots from last week’s poll.
There were no new teams in the 3A poll.
Paonia held its spot at the top of the 2A poll. Sedgwick County jumped a spot to No. 4 and County Line fell a spot to No. 5, but no other changes occurred in the 2A rankings.
Holly did not play a game last week and it didn’t effect anything in the least as the Wildcats are still No.1 in the rankings.
Fleming (No. 2) and Cheyenne Wells (No. 4) each jumped a spot from last week. Three new teams joined the 1A poll as Denver Jewish Day comes in at No. 6, Stratton/Liberty takes the No. 9 spot and Sierra Grande rounds out the poll at No. 10.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
New polls are released each Monday during the regular season.
Legacy 20, Legend 14, Brighton 2, Greeley West 2, Ralston Valley 2, Arapahoe 1, Coronado 1, Highlands Ranch 1.
Dropped out:
Legend (4), Fruita Monument (8), Legacy (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Valor Christian (3)
12-3
87
4
3-0
2
Cheyenne Mountain (2)
13-1
83
1
2-1
3
Windsor (3)
12-1
77
3
3-0
4
Denver North (2)
15-0
68
6
3-0
5
Northridge
11-3
49
8
1-0
6
Green Mountain
12-2
47
5
2-1
7
Silver Creek
12-5
46
9
2-0
8
Mountain View
11-4
25
7
0-1
9
Summit
12-2
20
–
0-0
10
Pueblo West
11-4
14
–
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Falcon 11, Air Academy 7, Palisade 7, Ponderosa 4, Canon City 3, Fort Morgan 2.
Dropped out:
Ponderosa (2), Fort Morgan (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Lamar (8)
15-1
116
1
3-0
2
University (2)
10-4
96
3
2-1
3
Lutheran (1)
16-1
92
4
3-1
4
La Junta (1)
12-3
71
2
1-2
5
Peak to Peak
10-2
56
7
2-1
6
Colorado Academy
13-3
46
8
4-0
7
Valley
11-3
36
6
2-1
8
Manitou Springs
10-3
34
5
1-2
9
Eaton
10-4
24
10
3-0
10
Gunnison
10-3
22
9
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Resurrection Christian 21, Delta 15, St. Mary’s 9, Bayfield 5, Sterling 5, Brush 4, Montezuma-Cortez 4, Cedaredge 3, Alamosa 1.
Dropped out:
.
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Paonia (8)
15-0
96
1
2-0
2
Peyton (2)
13-0
83
2
1-0
3
Holyoke
13-1
73
3
1-0
4
Sedgwick County
9-3
54
5
0-0
5
County Line
10-2
52
4
1-0
6
Yuma
10-2
38
6
1-0
7
Rocky Ford
10-3
35
7
1-0
8
Lyons
13-1
30
8
2-0
9
Haxtun
7-4
19
9
0-0
10
Hotchkiss
12-2
17
10
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Front Range Christian 9, Dawson 7, Dayspring Christian 7, Crowley County 6, Meeker 6, Sanford 5, Limon 4, Sargent 4, Ignacio 3, Burlington 1, Center 1.
BROOMFIELD — James Notary was not intimidated by Class 5A CHSAANow.com No. 2-ranked Mountain Range. And as a result, the Mustangs are no longer undefeated.
The senior threw a complete game, one-hit shutout as the Eagles (9-4 overall, 5-1 Front Range) beat the Mustangs (12-1, 5-1) 5-0 on Tuesday.
Matt Turner went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and two RBIs to help pace the Broomfield offense.
It might be too early to say that Cheyenne Mountain is back at a championship level, but a 11-0 start to the season has certainly gotten the attention of voters across the state.
Fresh off a win over Falcon on Thursday and Canon City on Saturday, the Indians are the new No. 1 in the Class 4A CHSAANow.com baseball rankings.
The Indians only broke into the poll a week ago and after leaping over Northridge, Windsor and Ponderosa, they are looking closer and closer to being in championship contention once again.
Valor Christian made a decent jump this week, gaining three spots to land No. 4.
Silver Creek is the only team to join the poll, coming in at No. 9
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Lamar regains the top spot in the 3A poll after being overtaken by league rival La Junta last week.
University gains some ground to come in at No. 3 as does Manitou Springs who jumps a spot to land at No. 5.
Eaton rejoins the top 10 this week, rounding out the 3A at No. 10.
In 5A, Rock Canyon holds on to the top spot in the poll. Mountain Range, however, made a four-spot jump to come in at No. 2.
Cherry Creek gets back into the top three, getting a few first-place votes in the process.
Fruita Monument (No. 8) and Legacy (No. 9) are the two newcomers to the 5A rankings.
Paonia held on to the top spot in the 2A poll, as did the top four overall teams from last week’s rankings.
Rocky Ford is two spots better this week at No. 7.
Lyons is the only new team in the 2A poll, coming at No. 9 this week.
Holly also held on to its No. 1 ranking, hanging on to the top spot in the 1A poll. Eads (No. 2) and Fleming (No. 3) also held on to their positions from a week ago.
At No. 8, Kiowa is new to this week’s top 10, as is Granada who rounds out the poll at No. 10.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
During the regular season, new polls are released each Monday.
Broomfield 15, Douglas County 9, Regis Jesuit 9, ThunderRidge 8, Bear Creek 5, Cherokee Trail 5, Pine Creek 4, Grand Junction Central 3, Brighton 2, Highlands Ranch 1.
Dropped out:
Grand Junction Central (8), Broomfield (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Cheyenne Mountain (7)
11-0
86
4
3-0
2
Ponderosa (1)
9-2
70
3
2-1
3
Windsor
9-1
65
1
2-1
4
Valor Christian (2)
9-3
63
7
3-0
5
Green Mountain
10-1
59
5
2-1
6
Denver North
12-0
52
6
3-0
7
Mountain View
11-3
33
8
3-0
8
Northridge
10-3
29
2
0-2
9
Silver Creek
10-5
23
–
2-0
10
Fort Morgan
9-2
18
10
2-0
Others receiving votes:
Summit 16, Wheat Ridge 9, Holy Family 8, Air Academy 7, Falcon 6, Pueblo West 6.
To say that there was some shakeup in the CHSAANow.com baseball rankings would be a gross understatement of what happened since the last set of rankings were released two weeks ago.
And if there is a prime example, one should look no further than the Class 4A rankings.
Windsor jumped a staggering eight spots to take over the No. 1 spot in that poll.
The four teams sitting right behind the Wizards? Well, they were all previously unranked. Northridge, Ponderosa, Cheyenne Mountain and Green Mountain all join the rankings this week.
Wheat Ridge (No. 9) and Fort Morgan (No. 10) are also newcomers. Denver North, Valor Christian and Mountain View remain in the rankings at No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 respectively.
The 5A rankings also saw a significant shakeup, though not as extreme as 4A. Rock Canyon takes over the No. 1 spot, replacing Rocky Mountain who falls to No. 3. Legend jumps to No. 2 while Mountain Vista climbs to No. 4.
Mountain Range (No. 6), Eaglecrest (No. 7), Grand Junction Central (No. 8) and Heritage (No. 10) all broke into the top 10.
While 3A saw the most consistency in terms of who was ranked, the overall placement of the ranked teams certainly saw changes.
La Junta jumped to the No. 1 spot, taking over for Lamar.
Manitou Springs jumps a couple of spots to No. 6 while Valley leapt up to No. 7. At No. 9, Gunnison is the only new team in the 3A rankings.
Paonia hangs on to the No. 1 spot in 2A, but Peyton climbs to No. 2 and Holyoke jumps seven spots to No. 3.
County Line, Yuma and Sanford all join the 2A poll this week.
Holly remains the No. 1 team in 1A and Eads holds on to its spot at No. 2.
Caliche, Petz and Antonito are the three newcomers to the 1A poll.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
During the regular season, new polls are released each Monday.
Dawson 8, Front Range Christian 8, Lyons 8, Dayspring Christian 7, Burlington 6, Denver Christian 6, Dolores Huerta 6, Limon 6, Evangelical Christian 4, Calhan 3, Dolores 3, Meeker 1.
Dropped out:
Front Range Christian (2), Dawson (4), Calhan (9).
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Holly (7)
5-1
88
1
3-0
2
Eads (2)
5-0
71
2
4-0
3
Fleming
5-1
66
4
5-0
4
Cheyenne Wells
2-1
53
6
1-1
5
Nucla
5-5
46
3
3-2
6
Caliche
4-5
35
–
2-3
7
Cotopaxi
5-2
25
8
2-1
8
Stratton/Liberty
1-3
22
9
0-1
9
Peetz
4-2
17
–
2-0
10
Antonito
2-0
15
–
1-0
Others receiving votes:
Denver Jewish Day 12, Granada 12, Kiowa 10, Rocky Mountain Lutheran 6, Otis 5, Community Christian 4, Manzanola 3, Idalia 2, Mile High Academy 2, Elbert 1.
Aspen’s Kennidy Quist is the 3A girls swimmer of the year. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
The 2017 all-state girls swimming teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created based upon results at the state meet.
Swimmers of the year were selected based upon the number of team points they produced at the state meet. This means that they received the full amount of team points from individual events they swam in, as well as one-fourth of the total points earned by the team in relays they swam in.
Finally, in order to be considered for swimmer of the year, athletes must first have made the all-state team by winning in a championship.
Divers of the year were selected by finish at the state meet, as were coaches of the year.
[divider]
Class 5A
Swimmers of the year: Kylee Alons, Fossil Ridge; Zoe Bartel, Fossil Ridge
The 2016 all-state football teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues, and then a vote of head coaches across the state.
Players were placed onto the first-team, second-team and honorable mention based upon the number of votes they received. In 5A-1A, spots were reserved for linemen and one kicker/punter, while 8-man reserved spots for linemen.
CHSAA does not determine who makes or doesn’t make the team; they are created entirely from the results of the coaches’ vote.
[divider]
Class 5A
(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Player of the year: Dylan McCaffrey, Valor Christian
Reigning 5A softball player of the year Hunter Huser of Mountain Range. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
It should come as no surprise that the defending Class 5A state champion is one of the final 16 teams headed into this weekend’s state softball tournament.
Yet somehow Mountain Range punching its state ticket – by winning a regional title no less – was one of the bigger upsets of last Saturday’s regional round.
That’s because the Mustangs came into the Region 7 tournament in Arvada as the No. 26 overall seed. At times there was even a bit of doubt if the team would qualify for the postseason, but there is something to be said for experience and for confidence.
“I think we actually proved that a low seed can move forward,” Mountain Range coach Dane Craig said. “When teams can get hot … good things are going to happen in this tournament.”
The state softball tournament gets rolling Friday morning at Aurora Sports Park with a 10 a.m. start. The title games in all three classifications will take place Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t just the Mustangs though who proved that if age is just a number, the same could be said for seeding. Rock Canyon, the No. 20 seed in 5A, won the Region 4 tournament. No. 25 Cherry Creek won a pair of elimination games to qualify as the second team from Region 2.
In Class 4A it was 24th-seeded Falcon that disrupted the field, claiming the Region 2 title with victories over the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds.
“We kind of set this goal before we came into this weekend, saying this was kind of our tournament to forget about our first 19 games because we were up and down,” said Falcons coach Kerri Millikan, whose squad finished the regular season with a 9-10 record.
“We came out with an intense attitude and put together two great wins.”
The eight regionals in 3A pretty much played out as expected, with 22nd-seeded Platte Valley the only surprise. The Patriots eliminated No. 11 seed Burlington to advance to state.
Mountain Range – which is now the No. 8 seed in 5A and opens with Douglas County – had perhaps the most interesting path to state in regional play. After storming their way to the first-ever state title in 2015, the Mustangs endured a trying regular season that led to a seventh-place finish in the Front Range League.
What hurt the team most was an early injury to 2015 Player of the Year Hunter Huser, who sustained a deep ligament bruise on her wrist after being hit by a pitch.
Huser was never quite herself during the regular season, including a rough showing against Fossil Ridge on Oct. 4 that saw the senior allow 10 runs on 18 hits.
(Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
A little rest proved to be the right tonic though, as Huser allowed only four combined runs in victories over No. 7 Arvada West and that same Fossil Ridge team in the regional title game.
Sophomore Rachel Colwell and junior Ellery Sherman each had three hits in the 10-3 victory over the Sabercats.
Craig said his team was more than prepared after going through the gauntlet of the Front Range League. Six of the final 16 teams in 5A are from the Front Range, and league champion Broomfield is the No. 1 seed and a potential quarterfinal opponent for Mountain Range.
“I think these girls are not looking ahead,” he said. “We’re excited for the opportunity to defend our state championship, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Falcon, which is the No. 8 seed in 4A and faces No. 9 Pueblo West on Friday, also has a challenging schedule to thank for getting the squad prepared for the postseason. The Falcons have already played three of the top seven seeds at the 4A state tournament, and also faced defending 3A champion and No. 1 seed Strasburg as well.
The Falcons broke a late tie to defeat Elizabeth in the regional opener last weekend, and the bats got hot in a 16-5 triumph over Conifer. Senior Tierney Norris homered in both games, freshman Alexa Winter drove in four runs against Conifer and sophomore Taylor Striebel went the distance in both games.
Falcon made the quarterfinals last fall before falling 1-0 to Wheat Ridge, but the team graduated all-state hitter/pitcher Laci Lashley. Millikan returned only two players at the same position from a year ago, and the Falcons had to change from a power-hitting team to a squad that was more focused on the fundamentals.
It paid off, as Falcon has received key contributions from up and down the lineup.
“It takes everybody to get to that game No. 4 of the state tournament,” Millikan said. “We’re fighting for every single game, but our season right now is four games long.”
The top eight seeds in each class are regional champions from last weekend. The other qualifiers were seeded according to the final RPI of the regular season, with small adjustments made to avoid regional opponents in the first round.
The state tournaments in all three classes are Friday and Saturday at Aurora Sports Park. Games begin at 10 a.m. each day.
Broomfield heads the 5A field, just as it did in regionals. Other top seeds include No. 2 Cherokee Trail, No. 3 Eaglecrest, No. 4 Loveland, No. 5 Dakota Ridge, No. 6 Fort Collins, No. 7 Rock Canyon and No. 8 Mountain Range, the defending champion.
In 4A, Erie also carried its top seed from regionals over. Also seeded highly in the class are No. 2 Mullen, No. 3 Valor Christian (the defending champion), No. 4 Wheat Ridge, No. 5 Air Academy, No. 6 Frederick, No. 7 Discovery Canyon and No. 8 Falcon.
Likewise, the top seed from regionals in 3A, Strasburg, is also the top seed at state. Other high seeds are No. 2 Rocky Ford, No. 3 Eaton, No. 4 Brush, No. 5 Lamar, No. 6 Valley, No. 7 The Academy and No. 8 Sterling.
